	Introduction

The federal government currently provides support for career and technical education through the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III; P.L. 105-332 ). The act authorized funding for vocational and technical education through FY2003, although the Congress continued to provide funding under the act through FY2006. The 109 th Congress has passed and the President has signed the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (Perkins IV; P.L. 109-270 ), which reauthorizes and amends the Perkins Act. The President signed the bill on August 12, 2006, P.L. Changes to state and local plans and uses of funds are then considered. The act refers to career and technical education (CTE) rather than vocational and technical education. Title II of the act authorizes the tech-prep program. Highlights of these changes include the following:
specifies separate core indicators of performance for the secondary and postsecondary levels; links established between secondary core indicators of performance and ESEA; requires eligible recipients to accept state-adjusted levels of performance or negotiate their own adjusted levels of performance with the eligible agency for each of the core indicators of performance at the secondary and postsecondary levels; requires annual data reported on eligible agencies' and recipients' progress in meeting their core indicators of performance to be disaggregated as required for data reporting under ESEA; requires eligible agencies and recipients to meet at least 90% of an adjusted level of performance for each core indicator of performance, or be required to write an improvement plan; allows the Secretary to withhold only state leadership and administrative funds from eligible agencies that fail to make progress or show improvement, but no longer allows funds withheld to be redistributed to other eligible agencies; and permits eligible agencies to withhold funds from an eligible recipient, but requires the funds be used by the eligible agency to provide services to students who would otherwise have received services from the eligible recipient. During congressional consideration of Perkins IV, there was debate about whether tech-prep should be retained as a separate program or integrated into the basic state grants program.
The federal government currently provides support for career and technical education through the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III; P.L. 105-332). The act authorized funding for vocational and technical education through FY2003, although the Congress continued to provide funding under the act through FY2006. The 109th Congress has reauthorized the Perkins Act. On August 12, 2006, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 was signed into law (Perkins IV; P.L. 109-270).
While many aspects of the Perkins Act remain intact, Perkins IV made several key changes to the act:
refers to career and technical education rather than vocational and technical education; retains the basic state grant formula for allocating funds to states if appropriations are level funded or decreasing, but implements a modified formula if appropriations increase; establishes separate core indicators of performance for the secondary and postsecondary levels; modifies the required contents of state and local plans, including adding linkages between the Perkins Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as modified by the No Child Left Behind Act; requires eligible agencies and eligible recipients to meet at least 90% of their adjusted levels of performance on each of their core indicators of performance or be required to develop and implement an improvement plan; allows the Secretary of Education to withhold only state leadership and administrative funds from eligible agencies that fail to make progress or show improvement, but no longer allows funds withheld to be redistributed to other eligible agencies; permits eligible agencies to withhold funds from eligible recipients failing to make progress or show improvement; modifies the required and allowable uses of state leadership funds; modifies the required and allowable uses of local funds; and maintains the tech-prep program as a separate program, but permits eligible agencies to consolidate their funding under the basic state grants program and the tech-prep program.
This report will not be updated.