CTE Postsecondary Funding - Update

We now have more recent and accurate information from Pam Weber, the ICTA Legislative Liaison. The situation is not as bad as it appeared earlier yesterday. Here is Pam's latest message.

“Neither the House or the Senate has passed a budget. There have been bits and pieces passed by the House to capture stimulus money, but a full budget HAS NOT been passed.” This will not happen until they act on the Income Tax Increase. Our legislators need to know that if they pass the income tax increase we will still support them in the polls.

The reason there was misinformation that the CTE line item was zeroed out was that “there have been bits and pieces passed by the House to capture stimulus money, but a full budget HAS NOT been passed. Yesterday the Senate Appropriation Committees passed out "vehicle and shell" bills that will be available for budget amendments.......no budget amendments were in place, and no line items were zeroed out. At this time, there are over 200 bills of this type that are ready and available for the 2010 budget......lots to keep track of!”

Pam says, “The next 48 hours are imperative. Don’t hesitate to make a phone call in support of the CTE line item in the State Board budget.” And, I would add the CTE line item in the ICCB budget and the Ag Ed line item in the ISBE budget.

Remind them again of the $40 Million in Federal Match that our state stands to lose, if CTE is not fully funded.


******************** Post from 5/27/09 Below ***************************

Recently, the House passed an Appropriations Bill that eliminates state funding for Postsecondary Career and Technical Education. The elimination totals the entire allocation for Postsecondary education in the amount of 12 million dollars. Due to Federal Maintenance of Effort requirements, the elimination of these funds would cost the state 48.8 million dollars in Federal CTE funding. The impact of this reduction would be devastating to both community colleges and secondary education. This will have a significant impact on all of us, but especially the 329,000 CTE secondary students and the 260,000 CTE postsecondary students.

Linked is a two page write up on the issue. Please feel free to share this information with anyone you might think is interested, particularly your local legislators. It is imperative that you move quickly as the General Assembly’s session and its budgetary considerations are drawing to a close.

Summary Document