November 16, 2022

Leading the news this morning: Congress returns to legislative work, with only 18 legislative days before the expiration of the Continuing Resolution currently funding the federal government, and the aftermath of elections slowly starting to take shape as a few remaining House races and one Senate runoff are decided. Now let's dive into the latest news in higher education.

ACCT's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment & Training (E&T) Project Request for Applications (RFA)

ACCT is excited to invite its members to be part of an exciting project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) to increase the number of community colleges that serve as SNAP E&T third-party providers. This opportunity aims to improve the ability of your students to move to economic independence, with the following three objectives:

1.  Target Rural Institutions
2.  Build the capacity of state systems/associations
3.  Disseminate SNAP E&T knowledge and resources to a broad network

We will be recruiting two cohorts over the three-year project, each consisting of 5 rural institutions and 2 state systems/associations. Recruitment for our first cohort is officially and follows the timeline below:

1.  Issuance of RFA – November 8^th, 2022
2.  Question Period – November 14 – November 30, 2022
3.  RFA Closes 11:59 PM EDT – December 12^th, 2022
4.  Final Award Notification – December 19^th, 2022

We encourage leaders from ACCT member colleges to forward this call for applications to relevant department heads at your institutions for consideration prior to the December deadline. Click on the following link to learn more and apply: ACCT SNAP E&T.

One-Time Student Loans Debt Relief Update

Stemming from two back-to-back Court rulings unfavorable to their plan, the Department of Education is not currently accepting new applications for the One-Time Federal Student Loan Debt Relief. Last Thursday, a federal judge in Texas declared the debt forgiveness plan unlawful, prompting the US Department of Education to stop accepting applications for loan forgiveness for the time being.  Additionally, this past Monday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis extended the injunction barring the Department from discharging any loans through the program. For more information on the debt-relief plan and for updates, you can visit: One-time Federal Student Loan Debt Relief | Federal Student Aid 

New Perkins Data Available

The U.S. Education Department released last week Perkins program data, including state profiles aggregated from state reports submitted for the 2020-21 program year, which is the first year to include data under Perkins V.

The data shows enrollment breakdown by gender and career clusters with highest concentration of enrollment, among other things. Notably, while the total participation of males in CTE programs is higher than females, in the postsecondary field, that number is flipped. Most of the postsecondary participants were females, who comprised 54% (1.9 million) of learners, compared to 46% (1.6 million) for males. 

The top four career clusters among postsecondary CTE concentrators were: health science (28%); business management and administration (15%); law, public safety, corrections and security (8%); and information technology (8%). 

Feature Spotlight:

The Seldin Haring-Smith Foundation's (SHSF) Public Transit Maps project assessed public transit accessibility at community colleges across the country. Through their research they found that 57% of community college main campuses are transit accessible, but an additional 25% could be made accessible through extending existing bus lines. SHSF is producing interactive maps of each state, and we will be featuring these maps as they are made available.

The eighth  interactive map is Vermont. SHSF found that 95% of Vermont's community and technical colleges have a transit stop within walking distance. 5% of campuses are less than five miles from an existing transit line, which shows a window of opportunity to increase accessibility by connecting just one more college to an existing transit lines.  To delve deeper into Vermont's accessibility click here. To view the interactive map click here​​​​​​​.

• December 12 - deadline to apply for the Expanding Community Colleges as SNAP E&T Providers RFA
• January 6 - deadline to apply for Nursing Expansion Grant Program 
• January 12 - deadline to apply for Special Education Research and Development (R&D) Center Grant
• February 23 - deadline to apply Lead of a Career and Technical Education (CTE) Network

Outreach Efforts

Is your institution meeting or hosting an event with federal elected officials?

We created a Congressional Contact Form that will help us track outreach efforts of community college leaders across our membership. By filling out the form, you are better informing ACCT's advocacy efforts and our advocacy team is able to continue those conversations with congressional staff in DC. 

We also put together an outreach toolkit and an advocacy guide to share best practices for meeting with elected officials and set your team up for success.

ACCT NOW is the go-to resource for issues affecting community colleges. Our new website features original reporting and research, as well as of-the-moment legislative updates. ACCT NOW also includes articles, reports, and research from outside sources that benefit the ACCT community. Read the Latest Articles on ACCT NOW:

Have a Question?

Contact us with any questions or concerns about public policy and ACCT's advocacy on behalf of two-year colleges and two-year college trustees. ACCT's Latest Action in Washington alerts are sent to interested ACCT members to keep you up to date on important legislative activities that impact community colleges. If you no longer wish to receive ACCT's Latest Action in Washington alerts, reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. For more information about ACCT's advocacy services, visit acct.org/advocacy

Spread the Word.

Please encourage your fellow trustees, presidents and colleagues to stay up to date about legislation that affects their community colleges by joining the Latest Action in Washington (LAW) E-Alert network. To join, simply e-mail publicpolicy@acct.org with 'LAW Alert' in the subject of the e-mail.

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