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ISTE Washington Notes
News of U.S. educational technology policy and legislation, posted as a service of ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education.
Copyright © 2007 ISTE
Guide to Acronyms used in Washington Notes
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January 2007 Contents
FY07 Appropriations Cycle Ends, FY08 Begins
The 110th Congress, featuring Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate,
roared out of the starting gate in January. The House passed eight major pieces
of legislation in its first 100 hours, including bills to overhaul House lobbying
and ethics rules, raise the federal minimum wage, and lower college student
loan interest rates. The Senate, normally the slower and more deliberative body,
passed its own version of lobbying and ethics reform and commenced debate on
increasing the federal minimum wage. However, neither body began debating one
of the most important pieces of legislation left unfinished by the previous
Congress - FY07 Appropriations.
The 109th Congress adjourned before the end of the year without completing
final action on nine FY07 appropriations bills, including the Labor, HHS and
Education bill. In their final hours, the House and the Senate passed a Continuing
Resolution (CR) that provides funding until February 15th for all programs with
unapproved FY07 budgets, including all education programs. Under the terms of
the CR, the Enhancing Education Through Technology program will be funded until
February 15th at last year's level of $272 million.
With February 15th rapidly approaching and the President expected to release
his FY08 Budget Proposal on February 5th, the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees are working to reach final agreement on spending levels for all programs
covered under the nine unfinished spending bills for FY07. But, the same limited
funding that made final approval of FY07 appropriations difficult last year
remain in place this year. "There is absolutely no way to meet all the
needs of the country. But we're going to do our absolute best to meet the priority
needs," said a spokesman for Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd.
The Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees indicated in
December that they planned to pass a final Continuing Resolution for all unfinished
FY07 appropriations bills but that they would attempt to use savings from unfunded
earmarks to add some funding to particular programs. For Labor, HHS and Education,
funding additions in the final CR will likely occur in larger programs such
as Title I and special education, not EETT. However, EETT will be funded at
$272 million for all of FY07 instead of eliminated as the House Appropriations
Committee and the Administration sought last year. "We are pleased with
the outcome of EETT for FY 07 considering both the Administration and the House
targeted it for elimination, and look forward to working with the 110th Congress
to restore EETT's reach and impact by returning its funding to $700 million",
said Don Knezek, ISTE's CEO.
Sources indicate that House Democrats will bring their year-long "joint
funding resolution" to the floor as quickly as the week of Jan. 29. Senate
Democratic leaders, however, might wait until just before the deadline to act,
hoping to limit the amount of debate and potential amendments that could threaten
to send the measure back to the House. Both Houses are striving to complete
work on FY07 before February 5th so that they can turn their full attention
to the President's FY08 Budget Proposal. The President is expected, once again,
to seek to terminate EETT in that proposal.
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget07/summary/edlite-section3.html#edtech
ISTE's issued a statement on the budget February 7. "We are deeply disappointed that the Administration has chosen, once again, to eliminate federal funding for education technology," said ISTE CEO Don Knezek. "Understanding and using technology are critical components of all students' academic careers and, most certainly, barometers of their future employment prospects. Given the President's emphasis in the State of the Union on the importance of developing math and science skills in America's students in order to keep America competitive globally, we do not see how eliminating federal education technology funding advances his global competitiveness agenda or helps our students."
E-Rate Update
The offices of Senate Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) have
been just as active as the House floor this January. In the first week of January,
Senator Stevens introduced two major pieces of legislation that bear on the
E-Rate program. The first bill, the Universal Service for Americans Act or S.101,
contains all of the universal service provisions that the Senate Commerce Committee
approved last year but that the full Senate failed to consider. Among these
provisions are several pieces related to the E-Rate, including: 1) a permanent
exemption for the E-Rate and universal service from the Anti Deficiency Act,
federal accounting rules that, when applied to the E-Rate in 2004, caused a
three month shut down of the program; 2) new authority for the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to establish a sanctions system to punish those who knowingly
and repeatedly violate E-Rate program rules; and 3) new authority for the FCC
to establish new performance measures for program applicants that are focused
on meeting individual connectivity goals. One other provision included in the
bill, championed in Committee by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), would permanently
ban from participation in the E-Rate any vendor convicted of fraud in relation
to the program.
ISTE supports the first three E-Rate provisions and have advocated before Congress
and the FCC for their enactment. The permanent exemption from the Anti Deficiency
Act is particularly important as the last temporary exemption expired on December
31, 2006. Some remain concerned about the permanent vendor ban provision because
it could lead to significantly reduced vendor choices for schools and libraries
located in rural areas. Current Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye
(D-HI) has not signed onto this legislation and it remains unclear if he will
allow his committee to move it.
The second piece of legislation introduced by Senator Stevens, entitled Protecting
Children in the 21st Century Act, incorporates the Deleting Online Predators
Act (DOPA) language which failed to become law last year. Specifically, the
Stevens/DOPA language would require that all schools and libraries receiving
E-Rate support block access to social networking and chat room sites, except
for educational purposes. Additionally, the Protecting Children in the 21st
Century bill includes provisions on video transmission of child pornography
and the sale and purchase of children's personal information. Another piece
of legislation expected shortly from Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and John
McCain (R-AZ), entitled Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act
of 2007 or KIDS Act, addresses online safety by focusing on predators. In this
forthcoming legislation, all convicted sex offenders would be required to register
all online aliases with the federal government or face imprisonment. As with
Senator Stevens' universal service legislation, Chairman Inouye has not yet
either signaled support for or agreed to move either of these two pieces of
legislation.
"ISTE opposed DOPA in the last Congress and we will continue to do so
in the 110th Congress," said ISTE CEO Don Knezek.
While January has witnessed much on the legislative front for E-Rate, February
is expected to be a more celebratory month. The National Coalition for Technology
in Education and Training (ISTE's Director of Government Affairs, Hilary Goldmann
is a Board member) and the Education and Library Networks Coalition, are cosponsoring
a 10th Anniversary of the E-Rate gala on February 27, in Washington, DC. This
event will celebrate ten years of the program and honor the four original founders
of the program - Senators Snowe, Rockefeller, Exon and Nelson. The following
day, the organizations will host a Future of the E-Rate Summit and release a
new report that profiles ten schools and libraries who have benefited from the
E-Rate over the past ten years. For more information on the gala, go to http://www.nctet.org.
NCLB Reauthorization Begins
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which authorizes the Enhancing Education
Through Technology program, is up for reauthorization this year. It is uncertain
whether the House and Senate will complete reauthorization this year because
the 110th Congress still has to finish several reauthorizations, including the
Higher Education Act and Head Start, which the 109th Congress was unable to
conclude. However, key Congressional staffers have made it clear that they want
to move forward on NCLB reauthorization and are hopeful that it will indeed
happen this year.
"The next iteration of our nation's K-12 law must help transform our elementary
and secondary schools into modern digital learning environments. Revamping the
Enhancing Education Through Technology program (EETT) and strengthening and
adding technology components to other provisions of the legislation will ensure
our students succeed in the 21st century both academically and in the workplace,"
said Knezek.
All indications are that Congress will not make radical changes in NCLB. There
remains a bipartisan commitment to the NCLB's core principles-namely that all
children, across racial, ethnic and disability group classifications, can be
proficient in reading and math by 2014. However, many agree that there is a
great deal of room for improving the existing law. Staff who work for House
Education & Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) and Senate Health
Education Labor & Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA), both
of whom are original sponsors of NCLB, indicate that they are looking to improve
NCLB's implementation by refining testing and accountability systems, creating
better models for school improvement plans, and developing mechanisms for providing
more resources and capacity for recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers.
It is very likely that the current strict adequate yearly progress system will
be revamped to include growth models, which measure individual student progress
towards attaining proficiency goals rather than whether cohorts of students
actually meet proficiency goals, as the current law does.
This month, Chairmen Kennedy and Miller met with President Bush and Secretary
of Education Margaret Spellings to discuss the future of the law. After the
meeting, all said they remain committed to its essence. Miller and Kennedy,
however, strongly urged President Bush to propose funding increases for the
law in his FY08 budget proposal. Lack of funding for NCLB's mandates has been
a major refrain for House and Senate Democrats almost since the law's inception.
Other areas of concern that arose at the meeting included: identifying ways
to appropriately test English Language Learner (ELL) students; differentiating
between schools that just fall short of meeting their annual yearly progress
targets and schools that miss these targets by wide margins; and establishing
national standards to ensure consistency among states. On the last issue, Secretary
Spellings indicated she might be willing to consider providing incentives to
states to align their standards with more rigorous national standards. Senators
Kennedy and Dodd (D-CT) have proposed separate pieces of legislation that would
encourage states to raise their standards to a consistent level, which has won
support from the National Education Association and other major education groups.
Up to this point, the administration has consistently resisted any measure that
resembles national standards.
Within the next month, the House and Senate Committees in charge of NCLB reauthorization
will announce a schedule of hearings inside and outside of Washington to analyze
various NCLB issues. No word yet on when comprehensive legislation will be introduced.
Join the Ed Tech Action Network
If educational technology issues are important to you, then please join the ISTE and CoSN Ed Tech Action Network at http://www.EdTechActionNetwork.org. This online advocacy tool will allow you to easily send important messages to your Representative and Senators, learn more about timely education technology issues, and receive tips for communicating with elected officials. Your voice is critical for impacting the decisions of policy-makers.
From the Washington, D.C.
Office of Bernstein Strategy Group
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The following message is posted as a service of ISTE,
the International Society for Technology in Education.
This message may not be reposted without this header.
Copyright © 2007 ISTE
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