Congress Defies Bush Budget, Approves Extension of Perkins Act
Renewal a major victory for community colleges.
By Charles Dervarics
Despite steady criticism from the Bush administration, the nation’s career and technical education programs — many of them based at community colleges — have won a major endorsement from the U.S. Congress that will keep government-funded services largely intact.
House and Senate renewal of the Carl D. Perkins Act received kudos from community colleges, as well as other institutions that receive funds for short- and long-term educational programs. But with policy-makers seeking more educational accountability, postsecondary institutions also will face new requirements to evaluate the success of their programs.
Funded at $1.4 billion, the Perkins Act provides federal dollars to improve both K-12 and higher education. The bulk of funds, $1.2 billion, are grants to states, which then flow to school districts and postsecondary institutions. Community colleges are the primary recipients at the postsecondary level, where the grants support associate degree and occupational credential programs.
Yet Perkins’ future was in doubt after repeated White House calls to terminate the program — a plan that ultimately fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.
“I am certain that people were actually starting to think this day would never come,” says Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., referring to the fits and starts that accompanied the legislation. “But here we are.”
After hashing out final details of a bill that had languished for more than a year, the House voted 399-1 for approval. The Senate vote was unanimous. “There is broad bipartisan support for Perkins in this Congress,” says Alisha Hyslop, assistant director of public policy at the Association for Career and Technical Education.
