Legislative Watch List: November 26, 2008

Please see the attached Legislative Watch List, a biweekly publication from Washington Partners that gives an overview of of legislation relating to education currently being considered by Congress.

When navigating these biweekly reports, be sure to use the bookmarks on the first page which allow you to select either Legislation or Federal Register Notices, and to further focus your attention under each heading based on your interest in P-12, Teacher Development, Higher Education or Disability.

This week's list is understandably short and it will likely be the last watch list for the 110th Congress. Highlights include:

1. (under Legislation: P - 12) HR 7289 : To provide grants to promote financial literacy.
2. (under Federal Register Notices) The Department of Ed. released notice of final discretionary grant priorities for fiscal year 2009 (the full release Federal Register release is accessible at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-27744.htm [1]). You will notice that these are the same as the 2007 and 2008 priorities: They include math, science, and critical foreign language content areas, teacher development, and student achievement assessments. Student literacy development was again excluded from this list. The notice highlights the continuing challenge of elevating the social studies as a priority in education policy.