The Ed-DOL merger, the worst block grant outcome, and $1.2 billion in grants listings.

Plus, community colleges in danger and a key workforce confirmation hearing.

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Hello

Greetings from D.C., where you’re getting this a little late because of travel delays and illness. But I’m happy to report I journeyed back from New Orleans more Andouille sausage than man—just as the legally pliable and culinarily resplendent Cajun God intended.

I had an amazingly lovely first Jobs for the Future’s Horizons conference—or Workforce Comic-Con, for the uninitiated—which came at a fascinating (and ragged) moment in workforce. JFF definitely puts on a good conference.

I really, really appreciated getting to meet so many of you in person for the first time. I am thrilled by how much you’re enjoying this newsletter and just overall flattered by your affection for The Nick Beadle Experience. I have many big feelings when I hear that the newsletter has made workforce easier to explain, helped folks deal with this chaotic moment, and made this work feel less lonely.

So it was a good trip. Today is a packed newsletter, but I’ll have plenty more here soon about where my head is at afterwards.

Toplines

News you should know affecting money that gets people to work.

The Ed-Labor merger that wasn’t—for now.

POLITICO reported on Wednesday something I have been writing for quite a while: the Trump Administration intends to merge the Department of Education’s slice of the workforce and technical training world into the Department of Labor. From the story:

The shift would then put several funding streams under ETA’s purview, including formula grants allocated to states through Title I of the Perkins Act and Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, adult literacy programs and other career and technical education programs currently overseen by the Education Department.

A couple weeks ago, I noted that there had been a brake tap on this move, which until that point had been The Least Subtle Thing in the World, despite it far preceding a midsummer report among the secretaries of Education, Labor, and Commerce that presumedly would have put down the policy justification for it.

I largely assumed the slowdown was because certain corners of the Senate’s chillier reception to the Administration’s unilateral workforce merger plans. In doing so, I forgot to consult an authoritative source: the spinwheel of reasons a Trump II thing doesn’t happen.

If I had, I would have noticed that a lawsuit was the real reason for the brake tap, as also reported by POLITICO and others.

My apologies for this lapse in my research. In the meantime, I would zoom in on two questions here:

1. Will this still happen?

2. If it does happen, does this mean we’re getting more money in DOL’s proposed elimination of all its workforce programs and their replacement with block grants?

On No. 1, I think the intent is still there, but Congress may not be ready to bless it—yet. There was some heartburn among Republican leaders on the adult education cuts proposed at the start of May. If the Administration felt it had the runway to tell Congress to move career and tech money from Ed to Labor permanently, it would do so.

But it wants to make that change eventually, something backed up by quotes from DOL and Ed officials at Horizons and the White House’s full budget proposal:

The request includes funds for Perkins Innovation and Modernization grants to enhance connections between the education system and Registered Apprenticeships to support unifying the public workforce system, States' career and technical education systems, and the Registered Apprenticeship system to meet the need for competency- and skill-based education and training.

Emphasis mine. That line is repeated in Ed’s budget request.

Lawsuit notwithstanding, I feel fairly certain that whatever is left of Ed’s workforce programs will eventually shift over to DOL. Administrative law—or as much of it is left —provides options to make this happen, in my opinion. That leaves it for Congress to intervene. If I were a senator, and I prefer keeping these programs at separate agencies, I wouldn’t assume any handshake deal or admonishment would head that off. DOL and Ed already signed an agreement, after all.

Which comes to the second question: is the Ed money going into the block grant? Since my block grant breakdown last week, I have been asked a few times if I thought the block grant total of $2.9 billion for all of workforce seemed too small for even this administration—as if there was more money that might eventually go into the pot.

For now, I think the answer is “No” with the spin wheel arrow tilting toward “Congress?” You need Congress to turn all the money for two (or three) Cabinet-level agencies into a block grant program. I suspect the Administration will take steps that simulate that effect with the Ed money when it moves to DOL, but I think the workforce dollars proposed are what Trump II intends for the immediate future.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t have The Great Unification and Blockgrantification of Workforce. It just may not be this year.

My worst community college fear come true?

A concern I had early in spring was that the Trump II war on college would sweep up community and technical colleges. The reason why will sound… disconcerting: the war is on college and “college” is in the name of “community college.” Take it from my time in term one: when you have an administration that makes policy with the surgical precision and care of Godzilla rushing through Cairo to vertical suplex Kong...

…a few things a lot of people like—community colleges, The Great Pyramid—might get smashed along the way. (In this clip, Mothra represents Joe Rogan.)

I had seen and heard enough over the past few months that convinced me community colleges were safe. For example, White House materials around the April workforce executive orders very specifically singled out four-year colleges.

There also were… “encouraging” signs like the President literally saying he was taking money from Harvard and shifting it to tech schools. Yes, he can’t do that under basic functional principles of appropriations, but the sentiment told me that two-year schools and similar institutions that might happen to have “college” in the title were in a safer place.

Not so fast, as Paul at Work Shift/The Job writes:

However, the administration has called for the elimination of all money for community colleges under Perkins—at least $400M annually. The budget would “reprioritize” those CTE grants, requiring that states use that funding exclusively to support middle and high school students.

“After years of shuffling Americans through an economically unproductive postsecondary system, the request supports refocusing young Americans on career preparation,” the Education Department said in its budget document.

Emphasis mine again. Based on every piece of evidence I have seen in my career in workforce policy, trying to improve career and technical education without more dedicated support for community colleges is like trying to do career and technical education without a head. It’s not going to work—and also you don’t have a head.

There also are some high-tech firms that hire big chunks of their essential workers from community colleges and tech schools. I struggle to see their accepting this idea. That’s the type of thing that saves programs, but we’ll see.

The Administration is big on the idea of the real fix for workforce (other than rerouting fired office workers) is teaching The Children so they can do The AI and the factory jobs. If you really dig in with some training providers, though, the population they say thrives in trades programs are 25 to 35 year olds who have work experience and see more value in a skilled career than someone who still measures paychecks in PlayStations.

Community college is a training vehicle of choice for that older group, as it may soon be for laid-off feds and workers reskilling due to AI job loss. So will Congress(?) step in and say no?

This week’s grants listings number: $1.2 billion.

We’ll be over $1 billion for a little longer with a Transportation deadline extension.

Behind the paywall.

• An opportunity for Congress to look a lawyer in the eye and ask, “WTF?”

• The darkest timeline for block grants.

• A brief workforce Pell update.