June 21st – The Senate is moving their version of the Workforce Investment Act. Contained in this job training package is the Adult and Family Education Act, which provides resources to support adult basic education. This measure is expected to be revised and voted on in committee on June 29th. What this also means is that, in the Senate, the rewriting of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is being pushed back again, at least by a few weeks.
The Senate education's committee's work on ESEA is said now to be on two tracks. One is a long-standing discussion between the chair and the ranking republican on the committee. They are said to be working on a core set of principals. The majority democrats are also said to be working on a draft that will be used either in place of an agreement or in addition to the agreement.
On June 22nd the House committee on Education and the Workforce is scheduled to take up what they are calling the second of five reauthorization bills. This one is on charter schools. It was introduced by Representative Hunter. This is from the committee's press release:
The Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act (H.R. 2218) will modernize an outdated federal law to help facilitate the development and expansion of high-quality charter schools. This is the second in the committee’s planned series of education reform bills; The Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act (H.R. 1891) was introduced on May 13 and approved in committee on May 25.
We are expecting the House version of the LEARN Act to be introduced shortly. It will be very similar to the Senate version.