WASHINGTON UPDATES
Capitol Advocacy Partners provides weekly newsletter updates featuring curated news from the executive and legislative branches, along with timely information on federal funding opportunities—tailored to keep you informed and ahead.
Weekly Update 11/8/21
California
Last week, the Education Department announced the approval of California’s American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) plan and distributed the $5 billion remaining ARP ESSER funds to the state…
CA Attorney General Rob Bonta unveiled on Wednesday, 10/27, a new California Department of Justice housing “strike force” that will work with other government agencies to enforce state housing laws, including by prodding local governments to meet their legal housing obligations…
Proponents are circulating various ballot initiatives that seek to overhaul public education in California - three of which have entered the signature-gathering phase…
If everything had gone according to plan, California would have approved new guidelines this month for math education in public schools…
The California Community Colleges system suffered a 14.8 percent enrollment decrease - a loss of 318,800 students - during the 2020-21 academic year compared to the previous year…
A study released last week said that global warming was essentially two-thirds to 88 percent responsible for the atmospheric conditions fueling increasingly destructive wildfires…
The entire Bay Area has returned to the CDC’s orange ‘substantial’ and red ‘high’ categories of COVID-19 transmission - a step backward for some counties, like Marin and San Francisco, where transmission was previously classified as yellow, or ‘moderate’…
Members of Congress want to close the gap on the Central Valley’s doctor shortage with student loan forgiveness incentives…
After years of restricting the growth of fossil fuel infrastructure, California has increasingly looked to natural gas for power generation this year after drought and wildfires left it with few other options to keep the lights on…
California’s independent redistricting commission is in its third week of looking at possible scenarios for redrawing lines based on how the state’s population has shifted, responding to public input it has received, while trying to keep an equal number of people in each district - 52 for Congress, 80 for state Assembly and 40 for state Senate…
Coronavirus
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday, 11/2, formally endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five through 11, a move that will buttress defenses against a possible surge as winter arrives and ease the worries of tens of millions of pandemic-weary parents…
The pace at which vaccines lose their effectiveness remains a subject of intense debate…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a federal rule mandating COVID-19 vaccinations or at least weekly testing for workers at U.S. companies with 100 or more employees on Thursday, 11/4…
Last week, the Education Department, in collaboration with the CDC, launched a new COVID-19 data dashboard to help the public track COVID-19 on K-12 schools…
The U.S. lifted restrictions yesterday, 11/9, on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, setting the stage for emotional reunions nearly two years in the making and providing a boost for the airline and tourism industries decimated by the pandemic…
A high percentage of federal workers are reporting they have been vaccinated against COVID-19…
Pfizer’s oral antiviral candidate Paxlovid cut COVID-19 hospitalizations or death by 89 percent in trial, Pfizer said in statement…
A new study has found that with layered mitigation measures, in-school transmission even before student or staff vaccination is rare…
Pfizer's CEO says a vaccine-resistant COVID-19 variant is 'likely' to emerge...
President and Administration
Federal food aid programs are failing to provide low-income homes with nutritious meals, exacerbating the public health “crisis” of diet-related diseases and obesity within the U.S., lawmakers and poverty analysts said last week…
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Chuck Rettig anticipates another difficult income tax return filing season next year due to errors involving advanced child credit payments and economic impact payments…
The Federal Reserve's decision Wednesday, 11/3, to begin slowing its massive bond purchases later this month was a long-awaited step, and shows both optimism about the pace of job growth and wariness about price surges that have pushed inflation to its highest level in three decades…
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday, 11/3, that she thinks inflation nationwide will continue rising for “months,” but argued that passage of President Biden’s legislative agenda and a recently announced trade deal with the European Union (EU) would ease pressure on rising prices…
The Justice Department is increasing actions to combat ransomware and cybercrime through arrests and other actions, as the Biden administration escalates its response to urgent economic and national security threats…
Last week, Biden joined world leaders in pledging to tackle climate change…
President Biden’s commission to examine potential Supreme Court reforms plans to have their final report submitted by 12/15…
Last week, the Senate voted 58-35 to confirm Robert Santos to be director of the Census Bureau…
Congress
On Friday, 11/5, the House cleared a $550 billion infrastructure bill for President Biden's signature just before midnight and moved ahead on Democrats' $1.75 trillion Build Back Better reconciliation bill…
Last week, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) said another continuing resolution will likely be needed in December to fund the government, following an initial meeting on Tuesday, 11/2, between top lawmakers on the House and Senate appropriations committees over fiscal year 2022 funding bills…
One big takeaway from the Build Back Better bill is clear: the $1.75 trillion package marks a dramatic shift toward boosting support for families with children after decades of government benefits being skewed toward the elderly…
House Democrats on Thursday, 11/4, decided to tweak their proposal to change the $10,000 deduction cap on state and local tax (SALT) payments, floating a more generous deduction than they were previously considering…
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is taking flak from both sides of Capitol Hill - and both parties - over delays to defense policy legislation as the window narrows for lawmakers to negotiate and pass a compromise bill…
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) assured three potential holdout House Democrats late Thursday, 11/4, that immigrant protections will be a top priority after the party finishes the Build Back Better bill, potentially strengthening a deal that doesn’t include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants…
Last week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said that the House has no plans to use the reconciliation process to raise the debt limit…
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), who has declined to say where he stands on eliminating the filibuster, is now willing to support an exception to the 60-vote hurdle in order to pass voting rights legislation…
Education
On Friday, 11/5, the Education Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved a compliance review of the Saco Public Schools in Maine…
Providing community college students with comprehensive supports increases their chances of earning an associate degree within three years, according to a study released last week by the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab, a research lab focused on economic opportunity for marginalized communities…
A coalition of 105 advocacy organizations sent a letter to Biden Thursday, 11/4, urging him to cancel student loan debt via executive action and to continue the repayment pause until the debt is canceled…
Of the 200 largest U.S. school systems, 135 now have mask mandates - down from 150 on 10/1 and lower than at any point this school year since mid-August, according to numbers from Burbio, a data service that has tracked school policy through the pandemic…
Despite promises to focus on the growing racial and income divide among the nation’s students, new fall testing data show academic gaps have worsened, falling heaviest on some of the most vulnerable children…
The stress and anxiety that have plagued college students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic are starting to ease, according to a new report on mental health published by the Hi, How Are You Project and American Campus Communities…
Lawmakers don’t need to decide between increasing Pell Grants for lower-income students or expanding eligibility to more middle-income students, because boosting the maximum award would accomplish both, according to a new report by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators…
Long Beach City College leaders are allowing up to 15 houseless students to sleep overnight in their cars in a campus parking structure…
Weekly Update 11/1/21
Reconciliation Bill: Build Back Better
On Thursday, 10/28, President Joe Biden unveiled a framework for a $1.75 trillion reconciliation package his administration believes can pass Congress and urged House Democrats to quickly clear a separate public works bill for his signature, despite misgivings by progressives…
Child Tax Credit
The framework would extend the popular child tax credit for another year for households earning up to $150,000 annually…
Education
Biden’s economic plan would spend $400 billion on early childhood programs, including limiting child care costs to no more than seven percent of income for middle-class families…
Higher Education
The plan would put $40 billion into higher education and workforce training programs…
Health Care
The framework would extend the expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits through 2025…
Housing
The framework calls for spending $150 billion on affordable housing with the goal of building more than one million new affordable rental and single-family homes, rental and down payment assistance, and public housing…
State and Local Taxes (SALT)
“SALT will be in the endgame, yes,” House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) told reporters…
Climate - $555 billion
By far the largest component of the climate spending - some $320 billion of it - would go to expanding a slew of tax credits for renewable power…
Lawmakers also would give a boost to existing tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles, making them more widely available, even to used cars…
$110 billion would be dedicated to boosting U.S. manufacturing of clean energy technologies, so more solar panels, electric vehicle parts, and other green tech is made domestically…
The package proposes to expand rebates and credits with the goal of encouraging investments in home efficiency and renewable power…
The plan would dole out as much as $105 billion to helping communities build resilience to the impacts of climate change, such as from droughts, more frequent wildfires and intense hurricanes…
The Civilian Climate Corps could put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work preventing wildfires, restoring wetlands, capping abandoned oil wells and making homes more energy efficient…
California
Four weeks after an oil spill washed blobs of crude onto Southern California’s coast, surfers have returned to the waves and people play in the surf…
Contra Costa, Marin and Alameda counties are set to ease indoor mask mandates today, 11/1…
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’ll propose using next year’s surplus to pay down $11.3 billion in pension obligations, but didn’t give further details…
Public health nurses, microbiologists, epidemiologists, health officers and other staff members who fend off infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, inspect restaurants, and work to keep communities healthy are abandoning the field…
California lost about 27,800 child care workers between February and April of 2020 - or roughly a third of its workforce…
California has given away at least $20 billion to criminals in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said last week, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11 percent of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic…
Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) independent vaccine advisers voted Tuesday, 10/26, to recommend authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot for children ages 5-11, after deliberating whether everyone in that age group should be eligible for immunization…
Hospital admissions are declining sharply among U.S. children with COVID-19, even more than adults, quieting concerns for now that the return to school could trigger a major uptick in viral transmission…
Please find a brief summarizing CDC guidance to support COVID-19 contact tracing in K-12 schools from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) here…
A growing number of colleges and universities are mandating vaccination against COVID-19 for employees - including undergraduate and graduate student employees - in response to President Biden’s 9/9 order mandating vaccination for employees of federal contractors…
March Madness celebrations caused a noticeable spike in COVID-19 infections last spring, a new study found…
President and Administration
State and local governments picked up the pace of distributing emergency rental assistance funds in September amid a push from the Biden administration to accelerate payments to households…
Last week, President Biden nominated Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to the permanent job, putting her on track to become the first woman to lead the agency…
The Biden Administration issued the first-ever National Gender Strategy to advance the full participation of all people - including women and girls - in the U.S. and around the world…
The Washington Post published a deep dive into the attack on the Capitol…
Congress
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pressuring House Democrats to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill as soon as possible but is running into stiff opposition from progressives, who want to see the legislative text of a larger tax and spending package first…
Key Republican senators obtained hundreds of millions of dollars each in earmarks in their chamber’s spending bill, an offering that could help grease the wheels for a bipartisan government funding bill later this year…
Urban and farm-state lawmakers want the White House to convene a conference on U.S. hunger, which hasn’t happened since 1969, and intend to pass legislation calling for one before the end of the year…
Childhood hunger and obesity that comes from malnutrition are a national security problem that’s thwarting military recruitment, retired admirals and generals say…
Senate Republicans will press their Democratic counterparts this week on passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)…
Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder says he’s adamant that his state shouldn’t work with Wall Street banks that have curtailed gun-industry ties, and that could cost JPMorgan Chase a $700 million bond deal…
The Bipartisan Policy Center is forecasting that the recent $480 billion statutory debt limit increase could last as long as mid-February…
Last week the Senate confirmed voting rights expert Myrna Perez to be a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals - where she’ll be the only Latino on the court…
Education
College and university enrollments are still on the decline for most institutions, early data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show…
Excelencia in Education, an advocacy group focused on Latinx students, announced the 2021 cohort of colleges and universities receiving the Seal of Excelencia certification, an honor given to institutions for supporting Latinx student success…
A new report by Gradient Learning, based on a survey of 1,031 students aged 13 and older, found that strong relationships with educators correspond with student belonging…
In the coming months, lawsuits over bans on teaching critical race theory and COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students and teachers will test how much leeway officials have to shape school policy on some of today’s most explosive political issues…
Almost a third - 32 percent - of Jewish college students said they personally experienced anti-Semitism directed at them on campus or by a member of their college community within the last year, according to a new survey from Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League…
Voter turnout among college students jumped to a record high of 66 percent in the 2020 presidential election, according to a new report from the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education…
The Education Department Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) released a two new Q&As…
Mental Health
The Department has released a new resource to enhance the promotion of mental health and social and emotional well-being among children and students…
LGBTQ+ college students face “sizable” mental health challenges compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers, according to a new report by the Proud & Thriving Project…
The Biden administration is rolling out a new coordinated strategy it hopes will slow the menacing rise in drug overdose deaths…
More people are turning to cannabis to alleviate mental health problems like anxiety and depression, as well as insomnia, psychologists and researchers say…
Public Safety Update 10/29/21
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on two cases regarding qualified immunity, a legal doctrine shielding officers from lawsuits that has been at the center of national protests and debates in Congress and state legislatures since the murder of George Floyd…
Late last month, the FBI released crime statistics for 2020…
Recent FBI data shows that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, trends in California’s crime rates mirrored national trends—with some key differences...
The return to in-person learning has come with increased violence in schools, causing some to revert to virtual classes…
The Alexandria City Council voted last week, 10/13, to return police to the city’s public schools through June 2022…
This election season, Democrats are distancing themselves from the “defund the police” movement despite continued national cries to reallocate funding from law enforcement…
After George Floyd’s murder last year, many cities protested, calling to “defund” the police, with Portland residents protesting for over 130 days…
The Yes 4 Minneapolis coalition petitioned to put an initiative on the ballot to amend the city's charter to replace the police department with an agency that provides a "comprehensive public health approach" to public safety…
After last month’s negotiations to achieve bipartisan police reform collapsed, police and criminal justice reform remain a local issue for the foreseeable future…
Police unions are among those pushing back on vaccine mandates citing laws and contract provisions that require employers to negotiate with unions when they want to change workplace rules…
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 73—legislation to end mandatory jail sentences for certain drug sale offenses—into law, amending incarceration mandates established in the 1980’s during the escalation of the “war on drugs”…
The Public Policy Institute of California released a report showing racial disparities within the criminal justice system continue to be a pressing issue for the US and California in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and a national call for police reform…
Last year, Congress passed bipartisan legislation creating a three-digit hotline, 988, for mental health emergencies…
Weekly Update 10/25/21
California
About one in five local school districts that received COVID-19 relief money through two federal funds had spent 20 percent or less of their initial money by the end of June, a state auditor found…
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, 10/20, signed an executive order to address supply chain congestion at shipping ports in California…
Gov. Newsom on Thursday, 10/21, announced a crackdown on oil and gas wells, a long-awaited move to protect public health that sets up a fight between environmentalists and labor unions allied with industry…
California is now tied with Nevada for the highest unemployment rate in the country at 7.5% after adding just 47,400 new jobs last month…
Last week, Gov. Newsom issued a proclamation extending the drought emergency statewide and asked residents to redouble their water conservation efforts amid an exceptionally dry year when wildfires have ravaged large swaths of the state…
California, which has some of the strictest mask and vaccination mandates in the country, has improved to a ‘moderate’ rate of transmission for COVID-19, the only one of the 50 states to drop to that level, according to the latest CDC data…
Coronavirus
Pfizer said its COVID-19 shot was 90.7 percent effective against symptomatic cases in children ages 5 to 11, according to a briefing document posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website…
The CDC said it is considering a COVID-19 ‘test-to-stay’ program in schools instead of quarantine…
On Wednesday, 10/20, the FDA authorized booster shots of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines, a move that makes boosters available for all three vaccines in the U.S…
In July, news of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all eligible public and private school students broke quietly in Puerto Rico…
The new U.S. travel policy will block entry to foreign nationals who have recovered from COVID-19 and then gotten one dose of two-dose vaccines - a standard that France and the European Commission consider full vaccination…
A new CDC study found that the Pfizer vaccine was 93 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations among those aged 12 to 18…
President and Administration
The Biden administration is developing plans for how it will restart federal student loan payments early next year when the pandemic pause on monthly payments for tens of millions of Americans ends…
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she still expects the U.S. economy to return to full employment “next year,” even after a slowdown in the pace of hiring…
As the United States and nations around the world struggle to blunt the effects of rising temperatures and extreme weather, sweeping assessments released Thursday, 10/21, by the White House, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon conclude that climate change will exacerbate long-standing threats to global security…
Congress
Congressional Democrats are down to a handful of key disputes in their frenetic effort to draft President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion social spending package by the end of the week…
Last week the Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released the nine remaining fiscal 2022 spending bills…
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee plans to vote tomorrow, 10/26, on whether to advance nominees to head the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and Office of Inspector General…
Senior Democrats are discussing another short-term Highway Trust Fund extension until 12/3, another patch that would avert program authorizations on track to expire Sunday, 10/31…
Education
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee released a draft of its funding bill for federal higher education programs that mirrors the priorities of the House’s version, though with slightly lower investments. The legislation for fiscal year 2022 provides:..
Biden’s Build Back Better plan is setting up a conflict between Hispanic-serving colleges and historically Black institutions - with both vying for the same resources to address inequities for underserved populations…
New research suggests that adolescents who take remedial classes are better prepared for academic success in high school and college…
Catherine Lhamon was confirmed by the Senate to serve as assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education in a 51-to-50 vote held Wednesday, 10/20…
A long-COVID task force has published a workbook to help schools dealing with students who have long-COVID…
U.S. school enrollment dropped by 2.9 million from 2019 to 2020, with enrollment among the under-35 population dipping to its lowest level (52.4 percent of the total population) in over 20 years, according to data tables released last week by the Census Bureau…
The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Roberto Rodríguez, in the role of Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development (OPEPD) at the Department…
Mental Health
Across the country, 4,612 teens and children have been victims of shootings, with 1,215 killed this year - surpassing past years’ numbers and comparable to 2020’s record-high stats…
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health…
Weekly Update 10/19/21
California
California is joining a historic lawsuit against the makers of “ghost gun” assembly kits that can be used to make an untraceable firearm at home…
Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a major reform bill that would have expanded the Cal Grant financial aid program to hundreds of thousands more students…
Long- simmering disputes with unions over staffing are reaching crisis points…
The California Department of Public Health will test the use of dogs trained to detect the scent of COVID-19 at schools as part of a pilot project funded by the CDC Foundation, state health officials announced last week…
California has experienced its driest summer since 1895, highlighting the difficult summer the state faced with fighting wildfires…
Coronavirus
The number of U.S. children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic may be larger than previously estimated, and the toll has been far greater among Black and Hispanic Americans, a new study suggests…
The advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 19 to 0 in favor of emergency authorization of a half-dose booster of the Moderna vaccine, at least six months after the second dose…
Americans who received Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine should be able to receive a second shot of the vaccine two months after their first dose under an emergency authorization, FDA vaccine advisory committee members said in a 19 to 0 vote…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its quarantine guidance for K-12 schools in early October…
Today, 10/19, the Education Department released a new resource: “Supporting Child and Student Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Health” to provide information and resources to enhance the promotion of mental health and the social and emotional well-being among children and students…
In recognition of World Mental Health Day on 10/13, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Justice jointly issued a fact sheet to support students with mental health disabilities, their families, and their schools in the era of COVID-19…
A new EdChoice/Morning Consult Poll has found that roughly two out of five school parents have had to quarantine a child because of COVID-19. Parents who are Hispanic, of lower income, or living in a small town/rural area are most likely to have had to quarantine multiple times…
The White House announced Thursday, 10/14, that the U.S. will commit 17 million additional doses of the J&J vaccine to the African Union in the coming weeks…
President and Administration
Last week, the FDA for the first time authorized an electronic cigarette to be sold in the United States, a significant turn in one of the most contentious public health debates in decades…
President Joe Biden on Friday, 10/8, signed into law legislation aimed at helping the federal government better identify K-12 cybersecurity risks and suggest appropriate solutions for school districts to adopt…
President Biden said Wednesday, 10/13, that a new plan to keep a key U.S. port open “24 hours a day, seven days a week” would relieve pressure on an overworked supply chain that has frustrated Americans and blossomed into a major economic shortcoming…
Last week, the White House announced that it will ease pandemic-related restrictions on overland border crossings from Canada and Mexico for foreign nationals…
Proposals to expand the size of the Supreme Court are facing skepticism from some members of the commission that President Biden appointed to consider overhauling the federal judiciary…
Last week, the State Department tapped veteran diplomat Elizabeth Jones as the new coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts, days after a U.S. delegation met face-to-face with representatives from the Taliban in Doha for the first time since the militants seized power in August…
The FDA on Wednesday, 10/13, released long-delayed short-term sodium reduction targets, urging food makers to voluntarily cut back their use of salt to help Americans eat healthier…
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday, 10/13, a plan to develop large-scale wind farms along nearly the entire coastline of the United States, the first long-term strategy from the government to produce electricity from offshore turbines…
Congress
Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) believes that the House may pass the bipartisan infrastructure plan “as early as next week”…
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) - who represents a state that is a leading producer of coal - has told the White House and congressional leaders that he will not support including a key clean-power provision in the Democrats’ reconciliation package, putting at risk a central element of the legislation designed to fight climate change…
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) filed cloture yesterday, 10/18, on a pared-back voting rights bill, setting up a vote on the measure later this week, probably Wednesday, 10/20…
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) signaled in a Dear Colleague letter on Saturday, 10/16, a growing momentum to eliminate the debt limit following a cycle of brinkmanship over national credit that is set to repeat ahead of the next deadline…
Education
On Friday, 10/15, President Biden said that he will probably not get the funds from Congress to make community colleges tuition-free, as he’s proposed…
Thirteen-year-olds saw unprecedented declines in both reading and math between 2012 and 2020, according to scores released on Thursday, 10/14, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)…
The Education Department is planning to increase its oversight of six loan servicing companies - Great Lakes Educational Loan Services Inc., HESC/EdFinancial, MOHELA, Nelnet, OSLA Servicing and Navient - beginning next year, by including stronger standards for performance, transparency and accountability in the servicers’ contract extensions…
For the first time, U.S. News published rankings of public elementary and middle schools…
As a reminder, in late September the Department of Agriculture announced up to $1.5 billion to help schools respond to supply chain disruptions in school meal programs…
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has appointed an elementary school principal, a business executive, a local school board member, a testing and measurement expert, and a former governor to the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees and set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)…