This week, Advance CTE sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon seeking answers to critical questions regarding the U.S. Department of Education’s recent notice of interpretation impacting postsecondary Career Technical Education and adult education programs. Elsewhere, the administration published a long-awaited report on workforce development as Secretary McMahon began a national back-to-school tour.

Advance CTE Seeks Clarification from Administration Regarding PRWORA 

Earlier this summer, the Trump administration issued interpretive guidance concerning the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The Notice of Interpretation issued by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) – similar in intent and scope to those issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS) – aims to eliminate preexisting exemptions from PRWORA’s definition of a “public benefit” to further restrict these resources from supporting undocumented immigrants. ED’s recent notice of interpretation now includes postsecondary Career Technical Education (CTE) programs that receive funding from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V) or adult basic education activities supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – both of which were previously exempted. In addition, the new interpretation appears to impact K-12 dual and concurrent enrollment programs. 

These changes have raised significant questions regarding how and in what ways states and local grantees are expected to operationalize these new requirements. To support the field, Advance CTE, the Association for Career Technical Education (ACTE), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), and the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) sent a letter to ED Secretary Linda McMahon seeking clarification on a host of questions raised by states, CTE practitioners, and postsecondary institutions. 

Advance CTE looks forward to a response from ED regarding these questions, which have remained unanswered since the publication of this new legal interpretation. 

Trump Administration Publishes Workforce Report

This week, the Trump administration released a report titled “America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age,” following a 90-day review of all federal workforce programs by the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Education. Dubbed a “comprehensive workforce strategy,” the report comes in response to the executive order (EO) titled “Preparing Americans for High-paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,” issued earlier this year. The EO directed ED, DOL, and Commerce to provide recommendations for improving workforce development to better support the vision laid out within this EO. The report is organized around five “pillars” focused on industry-led partnerships and strategies; worker mobility; integrating systems; accountability; and flexibility and innovation. 

The report emphasizes that ED and DOL will expand pathways into apprenticeships by aligning business needs with CTE programs and work-based learning models – models that will include job shadowing, industry tours, and internships – that are tied to the National Career Clusters® Framework. The report recommends developing partnerships with employers and states to ensure that the curriculum matches the local workforce demand. It highlights the importance of Workforce Pell Grants as part of these broader efforts. The strategy also puts another Trump administration priority – artificial intelligence (AI) literacy and related skills development – front and center, calling for AI to be explicitly embedded into CTE, apprenticeships, and workforce training funding streams. 

The report also refers to the Interagency Agreement (IAA) between ED and DOL, and indicates the administration’s plans to pursue additional similar agreements in the future. The report states, “The agencies will provide technical assistance and monitor grantees to ensure compliance with these policies that are critical to ensure federal workforce programs are not misspending any taxpayer funding on individuals that cannot ultimately accomplish the goal of high-paying employment,” an apparent reference to the PRWORA interpretive rule. Read the full report here.

Return Education to the States Tour

This month, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is hitting the road for a “Returning Education to the States” 50-state tour. The tour began in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and has included stops at community colleges in North Carolina and Colorado. The goal of the tour is to spotlight local innovation, listen to educators and families, and promote state and community decision-making aligned with the administration’s wider priorities on these topics. 

This map will continue to provide updates on the Secretary’s stops.

Odds & Ends

• Last week, the Trump administration issued an EO titled “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking.” The EO requires new approval processes for federal discretionary grants to be overseen by a designated senior-level political appointee at each federal department and agency. This requirement could considerably slow down the federal grantmaking process. 
• DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced $30 million in grants under the Industry-Driven Skills Training Fund. These grants are available for state workforce agencies to reimburse employers for training workers in sectors such as AI, advanced manufacturing, and shipbuilding. Click here to read the press release.
• As previously reported, the Trump administration has directed all federally funded postsecondary institutions to submit detailed admissions data disaggregated by race through a fact sheet titled “President Donald J. Trump Ensures Transparency in Higher Education Admissions.” This week, ED issued an information collection request (ICR) on the public register aligned with the fact sheet. Click here to read the public notice.