DeVos moves to break up budget office over OMB objections Presented by Comcast

With help from Michael Stratford and Ben Wermund.

DEVOS MOVES TO BREAK UP BUDGET OFFICE OVER OMB OBJECTIONS: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is moving to dismantle her agency’s central budget office despite concerns from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. As part of a sweeping agencywide reorganization effort, DeVos wants to break up and scatter many of the budget office’s functions to other areas of the department. The department’s plan, according to an internal presentation obtained by POLITICO last month, called for a “restructuring of how we approach policy and budget development.”


— OMB officials have objected to breaking apart the department’s Budget Service, according to four officials with knowledge of the situation. The disagreement comes as OMB has greenlighted most other parts of DeVos’ proposed overhaul of the agency, two officials said.

— DeVos last week reassigned the department’s top budget official and at least one other budget division director from their current posts, moving the employees to jobs elsewhere in the agency. Top political appointees are also taking steps to make further reassignments of staff and functions in the budget office.

— A slew of changes for the budget office were announced during a staff meeting on Tuesday: The budget division responsible for cost estimation and analysis will be moved to the Office of Federal Student Aid, according to an official familiar with the meeting. Budget personnel overseeing specific programs will move to various program offices, according to the official. And other remaining functions and staffers in the budget office will be moved to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

— Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill defended the changes: “This internal management improvement will ensure policy drives budget decisions, not the other way around. Every policy area within the department will gain a budget expert to better serve students and taxpayers.” She added: “There’s still going to be an office of budget services. It will reside in the office of the CFO.”

— Read more from Michael Stratford here.

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WHAT’S NEXT ON SCHOOL SAFETY?: The passage of the STOP School Violence Act with support from both sides of the aisle was widely applauded Wednesday. The House voted 407-10 in favor of the bill, which would repurpose a program focused on school violence prevention for grants administered by the Department of Justice. The grants would fund training and other initiatives intended to enhance school safety, including physical improvements such as metal detectors, stronger locks, and emergency notification and response technologies for schools to notify law enforcement of emergencies.

— President Donald Trump in a statement said he would sign the bill, which faces good odds in the Senate. The bill would authorize $75 million a year for the effort.

— Despite praise for the legislation, some lawmakers and advocates have said it is not a sufficient response to the shooting in Parkland, Fla., and far from the kind of gun law reforms the president and lawmakers discussed on live TV last month. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, said in a statement, “this bill, on its own, is not the kind of meaningful Congressional action needed to address this crisis of gun violence plaguing our nation. This must be a first step.” He echoed comments from Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat who represents the district that includes Parkland.

— While efforts to enact gun legislation have stumbled in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Wednesday he would introduce a bill that would fund research into school violence prevention. The bill, named the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Memorial Act of 2018, would fund the “cutting edge” research through the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the bill would also "enable the National Threat Assessment Center to train more of our nation's schools in how to conduct threat assessments and early interventions." More from Pro’s Caitlin Emma.

— There’s also the Federal Commission on School Safety chaired by DeVos, whose membership is forthcoming. The Department is collecting public input on the topic at [email protected]

SCHOOL CHOICE PROPOSAL MOVES AHEAD IN PUERTO RICO: One of the island’s legislative chambers approved this week an education reform plan that would usher in charter schools to the territory and roll out a program of school vouchers in 2019. The plan was pitched by Gov. Ricardo Rossello as the island’s education system grappled with a tough recovery and mass migration to the states following Hurricane Maria. It has been criticized by teachers unions, which fear that turning over education to private entities will disrupt public schools there.

— The legislation allows for the creation of charter schools, or for the conversion of existing public schools into charters. Schools must be run by non-profit operators, and must be non-sectarian. Students from across the island would be able to participate in enrollment lotteries, though schools have to give preference to students in neighboring communities. Teachers who chose to work for charter schools in Puerto Rico would be given a leave of absence from the Education Department, which would hold their jobs for up to two years.

— Responding to concerns that Puerto Rico’s system would emulate post-Katrina New Orleans, where nearly all students attend charter schools, lawmakers instituted a cap on the number of charter schools equal to 10 percent of all public schools there.

— As for school vouchers, lawmakers are proposing a rollout in the 2019-2020 school year that would allow 3 percent of students to attend schools of their choosing — including private schools. That number would rise to 5 percent the following year. It’s unclear how much money would be granted to each student, but the legislation calls for no more than 70 percent of what is already allocated per public school student.

GRADUATE STUDENTS SEEKING TO UNIONIZE DITCH NLRB: Graduate teaching and research assistants seeking to unionize at private universities are planning to stay clear of the National Labor Relations Board — a Republican-controlled agency that until now has ruled over the process. Union leaders, including American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, said that students the group is working with will drop bids for union elections to the NLRB to avoid seeing Trump-appointed conservative members overturn a 2016 decision allowing graduate workers at private institutions to unionize.

— Labor leaders described the plan as a change of strategy and a “new phase” in graduate student organizing. Instead of going to the NLRB, students and the unions they choose to affiliate with will seek private agreements with universities. During a call with reporters, Weingarten said that the teacher walkouts in West Virginia are evidence of “a real push and presence of working people and of students to stand up and say we won’t be denied, you have to listen to us.” AFT and other unions representing graduate students said they’ll throw their full support behind graduate workers, including offering up their research abilities, political connections and members on the ground to help organize.

— Already, graduate workers at the University of Chicago and Boston College have withdrawn their cases from the NLRB process. “This action became necessary because of developments at the national level. We cannot allow the Trump administration and [the university] to set an anti-democratic and anti-worker legal precedent for the entire country,” University of Chicago Graduate Students United said in February, when it withdrew its case. More from Ben Wermund.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

— The Alliance for Excellent Education named Roberto J. Rodríguez and Leslie Cornfeld to its governing board. Rodríguez is the president and CEO of Teach Plus and previously served as deputy assistant for education to President Barack Obama. Cornfeld formerly served as special adviser to Education secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King.

— The American Association of University Women announced a new senior leadership team, which will include Sheila Amo, formerly the vice president of human resources for the organization. The team also includes : Gloria L. Blackwell, Kendra Davis, Laura Segal, Deborah J. Vagins and Shannon Wolfe. More on them here.

REPORT ROLL CALL

— The Consortium for School Networking, or CoSN, is out with a new report on how artificial intelligence might be used in the classroom. The report describes ways in which the technology is already in use, including cognitive tutors, augmented reality and mixed reality.

SYLLABUS

— Senate education committee approves nominations of Frank Brogan and Mark Schneider to Education Department: POLITICO Pro.

— Florida superintendents call for special legislative session on school funding: The Miami Herald.

— Some districts issue punishment for student walkouts: The Wall Street Journal.

— California sticks with accountability dashboard despite criticism from DeVos: The Los Angeles Times.

— Education Department to forgive $300 million in loans made to HBCUs after Hurricane Katrina: POLITICO Pro.

— Chicago area teachers sign up for concealed carry classes: The Chicago Tribune.

— Flint schools superintendent placed on administrative leave: Michigan Public Radio.

— Student-on-student sexual assault falls through the cracks at Department of Defense schools: The AP.

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