The Advocate November 2021

Last week, House Democrats released a new version of the Build Back Better Act following weeks of negotiations. The new package totals $1.75 trillion, down from the original $3.5 trillion proposal. This new version is expected to get approval from the two key Senators who did not support the original price tag: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Most notably for superintendents, the bill includes investments in the educator workforce, school nutrition, childcare and universal pre-K that AASA supports. 

Investments in the Educator Workforce

The package allocates $450 million for educator preparation programs through standalone grant programs, including $112.6 million for “Grow Your Own” programs, $112.2 million for teacher residencies programs, $112.2 million for Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program and $112.2 million for school leadership programs. This is a significant increase for the educator workforce. In FY21, Congress appropriated just $52 million for teacher preparation through teacher quality partnership grants.

Expanded Access to Nutrition Programs

The Build Back Better Act includes a few provisions that will support and expand access to healthy meals. For years 2022 through 2026, the bill makes changes to the Community Eligibility Program (CEP) that will make 8.7 million more children eligible to receive free school meals. Specifically, the bill lowers the CEP threshold from 40% to 25%, increases the ISP multiplier from 1.6 to 2.5, and allows states to opt-in to a statewide CEP in order to provide free meals to all students. These changes are included in AASA’s priorities for the forthcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization and we are excited to see them included in the bill.

In addition to the CEP expansion, the bill creates a national Summer-EBT program for two years which will provide a $65 per child per month benefit to the families of 29 million children in need to purchase food during the summer. It also provides $30 million for school kitchen equipment grants and $250 million for grants to schools to improve the nutritional quality of school meal programs.

Universal Pre-K and Child Care Subsidies

Providing universal pre-K and making childcare more affordable has been a top priority for the Biden Administration. The Build Back Better Act invests $400 billion over 6 years to provide free, high-quality pre-K to all 3- and 4-year-olds and childcare subsidies for families. Under the plan, families making up to 250 percent of a state’s median income would not have to pay more than 7 percent of their annual income on childcare.

There is no mandate that LEAs provide childcare or universal pre-K options although they can compete with other home-based and private providers if they want to try and expand their program offerings. States will choose to opt-into the programs and commit to spending significant resources. We do not anticipate all states to do this but there are work arounds for localities to receive funds in states that do not participate. Similarly, the requirements for participating and qualifications for educators could pose obstacles for districts. A more comprehensive breakdown of these programs is forthcoming.

The Build Back Better Act is an historic investment in education but notably missing is a critical investment in K-12 school infrastructure. In light of this omission, AASA has called for providing more time to school districts to leverage their American Rescue Plan investment to re-build and construct safer, healthier school environments. If a new federal school construction program is off the table, then districts must have more time to utilize current federal investments to improve school facilities which are essential.

While this deal is quite close to completion, there could still be amendments offered and accepted that would change the funding levels. We will provide updates if anything in the K-12 funding arena is altered.

This information is currently accurate but subject to change as negotiations are still underway and a vote has not yet been scheduled. We will update you on any changes. Support from the key senators is still pending.