Learning Forward Advocacy
Thank you for standing up for professional learning!
On December 5, 2023, more than 3300 people stood up for professional learning on advocacy day at the Learning Forward annual conference. This is a stand we must all make every day. Remember to collect and share stories of the impact of professional learning in your school or learning environment. Learning Forward wants to hear from you.
Call to Action - Save Title II-A
Members of Congress will return after Labor Day and appropriations and continued funding to keep the government open are going to be the issues front and center for every member of Congress. Now is not the time to be complacent. We need to remain vigilant in our efforts to save Title II-A. On July 18, Fred Brown issued a call to action to all educators to help save Title II-A. If you are reading this message, please take a moment to send a message to your members of Congress. Press the blue button below to get started.
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On Monday, President Biden released his fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. Constrained by a spending agreement that allows only a 1% overall increase in spending for fiscal year 2025, this is a relatively modest budget. Moreover, with action not yet completed on fully half of all fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills, including the Labor HHS Education Appropriations bill, this budget’s baseline is fiscal year 2023. Thus, some of the funding proposals contained within it may actually look like cuts compared to final fiscal year 2024 numbers. With those caveats, the President’s fiscal 2025 budget seeks only a 3.9% increase over fiscal year 2023 spending totals, which amounts to an additional $3.1 billion. Our key program – Title II – receives flat funding under this proposal.
In addition to the now standard request for money to support free community college tuition, the budget proposes two pricey new programs:
- K-12: A five-year, $8 billion for scaling evidence-based practices for accelerating student learning. This would address chronic absenteeism and encourage tutoring and extended learning time.
- Higher education: $12 billion for a mandatory program focused on reducing the cost of college, largely through expanding dual enrollment programs.
Neither of these two requests are likely to become law.
For existing, regular education programs, this budget makes very reasonable programmatic spending requests. The largest K-12 education programs would see only limited spending increases: an additional $200 million each for Title I and IDEA, $50 million for Title III, and $40 million for Perkins Career and Technical Education. Many other key K-12 programs received level funding, including Impact Aid, Title II, and Title IV. Charter schools would see a $40 million cut.
One significant concern for the Title II community is that the budget singles out programs other than Title II for increases that aim to assist with teacher recruitment and retention. Specifically, the budget provides a $25 million increase to the Teacher Quality Partnership Program “to support the expansion of high-quality, comprehensive, and affordable educator preparation programs, including evidence-based Grow Your Own and residency programs, and supporting high-quality registered apprenticeship programs for teachers.”
The U.S. Department of Education’s Budget Book describes the crisis over teacher shortages well and aptly but refuses to label Title II as one of the obvious solutions: “While the education sector has faced shortages in critical staffing areas for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic and tight labor market have made shortages worse, further exacerbating the already disproportionate impact on students in underserved communities. Schools have made tremendous progress in recovering from the pandemic; while the number of employees in local public education dropped by 9% during the pandemic, as of January 2024, staffing levels had nearly fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, teacher shortages and shortages of highly qualified educators remain, with disproportionate impacts on students with disabilities, English learners, students of color, and students in schools serving low-income communities. To help address and eliminate the teacher shortage, the budget elevates the teaching profession by investing in and scaling up high-quality, comprehensive, and affordable pathways to teaching, teacher leadership and career advancement opportunities that support increased compensation and teacher retention, high-quality new teacher induction and job-embedded professional learning, improved working conditions, and educator diversity.”
Below is a breakdown of key K-12 program funding levels:
Also read:
When Congress returned to work in January, all members knew that fiscal year 2024 funding remained unresolved and that it faced another countdown to the federal government running out of money. Back in November, Congress passed a temporary spending bill to keep the federal government operating but that set two different deadlines for two different groups of federal agency funding bills – January 19 and February 2, with all Department of Education programs falling into the February 2 bucket. Now, one week before the first deadline, Congress has still not passed any of the 12 annual funding bills, and must either pass yet another short-term spending resolution to keep the lights on or shut down significant parts of the federal government come January 19.
The good news is that congressional leaders have made some progress. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, announced last weekend that they had reached an agreement on overall fiscal year 2024 spending levels for defense and non-defense discretionary programs, the latter of which includes all federal education programs such as Title II-A. Even better is that the deal hewed to last year’s original agreement between Schumer and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy that called for a slight increase for defense programs and essentially flat funding for non-defense discretionary programs.
The bad news is that the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) has now weighed-in against the deal. This powerful group of hard right House Republicans holds the balance of power in a House where Republicans have just a narrow 2-vote majority. Over the past few days, several HFC members came out against the new Johnson-Schumer deal arguing that it spends too much federal money. Other HFC members demanded that Congress approve a tough border security measure, which cannot pass the Senate, as a quid pro quo for their votes on the new spending deal. To underscore their anger at the deal and their power, HFC shut down the House floor on Wednesday, effectively barring further progress on moving fiscal year 2024 funding bills.
Congress’ next moves are uncertain. There will be an effort to buy time by passing another short-term spending resolution but it is unclear if Speaker Johnson has enough votes in his Caucus to pass even that. Additionally, if he relies on Democratic votes – as did his predecessor – to muscle such a measure through the House, he could face the end of his speakership.
While this debate continues, Learning Forward continues to press for at least level funding of Title II-A. We are continuing to show Congress how valuable professional learning is to student achievement and to stem attrition in educator ranks.
We can use your help. Please take a few minutes to share your story about what Title II-A means to you. We will make sure that Capitol Hill hears what you have to say.
Learning Forward’s Powered by Title II campaign website puts all of the information, tools, and advocacy tutorials in one easy to access online location to enable educator advocates reach their Members of Congress and help convince them to support more Title II funding. On this site, advocates will find:
- The latest news on Title II
- Background facts, stories, research, and data on Title II
- A storytelling tool to assist you in researching and explaining how Title II supports your school district
- Sample letters, talking points, tweets and more to support your advocacy
Evidence, evidence, evidence
Evidence of impact is not optional. From your ESSA plans to Title II to talking with your district superintendent, everyone wants to know when professional development is making an impact and how you know. Learning Forward is here to help. We invite you to join your peers from across the U.S. to share your successes here.
Tell us what Title II funds in your school or district, and most important, what outcomes you see as a result. Outcomes might include improved graduation rates or assessment scores, improvements for specific populations of students, or other indicators that students are experiencing more meaningful learning.
ESSA Toolkits
A New Vision For Professional Learning: A Toolkit to Help
States Use ESSA to Advance Learning and ImprovementSystems. This toolkit helps leaders leverage professional learning as
an essential tool in overcoming systemic inequities and guaranteeing
excellence for all.
Agents for Learning Toolkit: A Guide to Amplifying Teacher
Voice and Stakeholder Engagement. This toolkit suggests ways to cultivate teacher voice and agency in policy decisions and the implementation of professional learning.
This webinar, originally created for our Virtual Advocacy Day, includes advocacy strategies and tips that are applicable to any advocacy effort. Watch to hone your skills, build confidence, and get excited about being an advocate.