NCEA Public Policy Activities

NCEA’s Director of Public Policy serves NCEA and its members in policy analysis and advocacy regarding national education policy issues impacting Catholic schools. NCEA collaborates with lobbyists for Catholic and private education associations, such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Council for American Private Education (CAPE) and other private and faith-based organizations, to advance Catholic and private school interests in legislative activities on Capitol Hill and with the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies regarding education policy issues impacting private schools, such as school choice, federal resources for health, violence prevention and equitable services for Catholic and private school students and teachers.

Current Issues

COVID Aid- EANS II Ending Soon

The America Recovery Act Program (ARP) provided a second Emergence Assistance to Non-Public Schools (EANS) $2.75 billion program to state governors to provide to State Education Departments (SEAs) to administer.  The last date to obligate funds for expenditures is September 30, 2024.

Schools that were informed of their eligibility to participate in EANS II should have worked with the SEA to commit (obligate) those funds for eligible services.  If schools have done so, they should begin the services before the deadline.  If schools know they will not be able to expend all of the funds they should do one or both of the following:

1. If funds are obligated and will not be expended in time, work with the SEA to de-obligate the funds, and have them transferred to the GEER fund that the governor controls.
2. If funds have not been obligated, have the SEA transfer them to the GEER fund.

Either option should be done as soon as possible so the governor may open the GEER fund process for other schools to apply.  Many of our schools could not participate in EANS because of program restrictions under EANS, but once the funds are transferred to GEER the governor may create new conditions for application that would open participation to some of the school initially denied.

Additional information is available here.

School Choice Legislation

The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) would provide K-12 scholarships for up to two million students across America to attend schools that best meet their educational needs as determined by their parents. Under this bill, $10 billion in federal tax credits would be available for individuals and businesses that contribute to non-profit scholarship-granting organizations. The funds could be used to pay for tuition, tutoring, special needs services, homeschooling curriculum materials, and education technology, among other eligible uses. Scholarships would be funded from private donations, not public money.

The bill excludes from the gross income of taxpayer dependents any scholarship amount for the elementary or secondary education expenses of eligible students. It also prohibits governmental control over scholarship granting organizations.

NCEA and other private school organizations’ representatives have been visiting congressional offices urging passage of this act.

Tax Exempt Status

In federal circuit court cases involving private schools in California, Arizona and Maryland in 2022, federal judges ruled that the private schools’ taxexempt status under section 501 (c) (3) of the tax code constituted “federal financial assistance”, This would subject the schools to a variety of federal regulations under Title IX and, potentially, an additional array of federal regulations.

Tax exempt status has not previously been understood to be a form of federal financial assistance and as the cases were adjudicated the courts in Arizona and Maryland (California case was settled out of court) the decisions were that tax exempt status does not constitute receipt of federal financial assistance.  While this is welcome news, it does not set precedent outside those jurisdictions.

The Safeguarding Charity Act has been introduced into the Senate (Marco Rubio) and House (Greg Steube) and several co-sponsors amend Chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code to clarify assert tax-exempt status does not qualify as federal financial assistance.

NCEA and other private school organizations’ representatives have been visiting congressional offices urging passage of this act.

Internet Safety

Schools that participate in the E-Rate technology program are required, under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) to certify that software is in place blocking or filtering access to obscene content. However, there is currently no requirement requiring schools to block access to social media apps or websites. Given the dangerous content of some of those sites, there is movement toward enacting legislation to limit student access to social media and screen time in general.

In the Senate, legislation entitled Eyes on the Board Act would require E-Rate recipients to prohibit access to social media on services, devices, and networks and require schools receiving E-Rate subsidies to adopt a screen time policy as a condition of receiving E-rate services. It would also require school to provide parents and the public with their school screentime policies disaggregated by each grade level and provide transparency by requiring the FCC to create a database of schools’ internet safety policies that would be publicly available for viewing.

NCEA is working with the EdLiNC coalition to refine some of the elements of the bill. While child safety is paramount, there are concerns about how the bill would define screen time and impact the role of the teacher in determining appropriate use of instructional technology. NCEA is also concerned about the intrusion of the government into the policies of the school and the labor-intensive requirements to disaggregate screentime by grade level and report such to the FCC.

Homework Gap

The homework gap refers to the difficulty students experience completing homework when they lack home access to the internet compared with those who do have connectivity.

The FCC created the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) to help low-income household afford the broadband they need for work, school, healthcare and more. The program provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price. The Affordable Connectivity Program is limited to one monthly service discount and one device discount per household.

The ACP expired at the end of April 2023. The bipartisan would provide $7 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides affordable high-speed internet options to qualifying households across the US.

Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act has been introduced in congress but no legislative action has been taken.  NCEA is working with several coalitions to advocate for passage of the extension to keep the program available for students who rely on it to keep up the homework requiring internet access to complete.

Additional information about other federal issues and programs may be found here.