Abe Saffer, Director of Governmental Relations for CASE, hosted the first Abraham Thinking on September 8. The purpose of these sessions is to keep you up to date on policy and politics in Washington, D.C., and around the country, provide an opportunity to ask policy and legislative questions you may have, and to share what is happening with CASE. This is scheduled on the second Tuesday of each month from 4-5pm CST. Register on the CASE website.
This month, Abe shared three themes in Washington, D.C.: uncertainty, systematic constraints, and polarization. Some details include the physical movement of Education Department staff to other agency buildings. This is occurring even though no details are being released about the plans to implement IAAs. There has been some congressional action on IAAs, one in the House to codify IAAs, but not the moves of OSERS and OCR, and another in both the House and Senate to stop the IAAs affecting the Education Department. While it is not believed these will pass, the authors are appropriators—so we could see action with budget bills.
In news on federal education funding, I'm including a few screen grabs that summarize what’s happening. While 17% is the closest to full (40%) funding we've ever reached, with the exception of one year during the recession, currently we sit at about 10.9%.
Presidential Budgets for Education Funding, 2012-2026The President's FY 2026 Budget shows dramatic cuts in funding— compared even with cuts from 2017 to 2021The U.S. Congress maintains Education Funding for FY 2026, but it remains below the 2011 level when adjusted for inflationFederal "full funding" of Special Education would cover about 40% of the excess cost of educating children with disabilities
Look for potential new rules from OMB and changes to EDGAR regarding federal grants. If you are interested in federal grants available, the place to look will be grants.gov.
What can you do?
Check out the new CASE Legislative Action Center at casecec.org/action-center. You must be logged in.
Share your stories! The CASE office is collecting membership testimonials. Please fill out the form and forward it to three of your CASE friends, asking them to do the same.
Renew Your Membership
With MASE membership renewals in progress through the end of this month, we strongly encourage you to keep or add a CEC/CASE Professional Basic Membership as part of your renewal! If the CEC/CASE membership is not included in your invoice, please contact Laurie Pumper at the MASE office to get your record updated; it’s a quick process. Less than half of our Active Members currently have opted in (or out) for CEC/CASE membership—let’s get our numbers up!
CASE Conference
Registration for the CASE Conference is open. The conference takes place November 11-13 in Providence, Rhode Island. It would be awesome to have a Minnesota contingent attend. Consider adding this to your calendar. Check out details on the CASE website. If you are attending, there will be a state unit night—so don't forget to bring your MASE gear. If you are interested in CASE gear, check out their sale.
If you are already a member, please set up and log in to your member account by clicking "Create an Account" below. This option is also for current individual members and staff of company members who need to login, but do not have a user account set up.
We invite and encourage you to join! By working together, we can achieve our mission to maintain and enhance our industry as a whole.
Becoming a member offers access to a network of professionals, fostering valuable connections and collaboration opportunities. Additionally, it often provides resources, such as training programs or industry insights, enhancing members' professional development.
