Health and Human Services announces early learning grants. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that six states, including Vermont, would be awarded Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grants. Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania will also receive a portion of the $280 million in grant awards. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said his state’s $37 million will be used to implement the Vermont Promise Communities, which provides high-intensity services for children with high needs in rural areas, among other initiatives.
GAO to study IDEA reporting requirements. Reps. John Kline (R-MN), the chair of the House Education and the Workforce committee, and Todd Rokita (R-IN), the chair of the House education subcommittee on K-12 policy, wrote a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking it to find out which parts of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) create the most paperwork for schools and districts, and to figure out why no state has taken advantage of paperwork-reduction pilot programs that were written into the law when it was reauthorized nearly 10 years ago.
We publish the DC Shuttle each week featuring higher ed news from Washington collected by the New England Council, of which NEBHE is a member. This edition is drawn from the Higher Education Update in the Council’s Weekly Washington Report of Dec. 23, 2013.
Founded in 1925, the New England Council is a nonpartisan alliance of businesses, academic and health institutions, and public and private organizations throughout New England formed to promote economic growth and a high quality of life in the New England region. The Council’s mission is to identify and support federal public policies and articulate the voice of its membership regionally and nationally on important issues facing New England. For more information, please visit: www.newenglandcouncil.com.
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