Here’s a quick look at the news from last week ( February 25 – March 1) in Washington.

HOUSE and SENATE
The House Education & the Workforce Committee held three hearings last week.

• A February 26 subcommittee hearing titled “Putting America Back to Work: Reforming the Nation’s Workforce Investment System.”
• A February 27 full committee hearing titled “Protecting Students and Teachers: A Discussion on School Safety”
• A February 28 subcommittee hearing titled “Raising the Bar: How Are Schools Measuring Teacher Performance”

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce will mark up their WIA reauthorization bill, the SKILLS Act, in full committee on Wednesday, March 6, at 10:00 a.m.

ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. Department of Education announced that three additional states have applied for a waiver from NCLB provisions: Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.

A group of nine districts in California have put together an application for a wavier from NCLB provisions, and submitted it to the U.S. Department of Education last week. California’s waiver application was rejected last year, and the state has not announced plans to reapply.

The U.S. Department of Education announced a new AmeriCorps initiative that will place volunteers in low-performing schools. Over three years, the $15 million initiative will place 650 volunteers.

BUDGET
Sequestration cuts went into effect on Friday, as scheduled. The Senate voted on two sequester plans last week, one from Democrats and one from Republicans, but neither passed.

The Administration released estimated impacts of the sequestration cuts on a state-by-state basis last week, including cuts to education that details cuts to teachers and teacher aide positions, and the number of children that would be shut out of Head Start programs. The Department of Education released some additional estimates —  State-by-State Title I Impact, State-by-State IDEA Impact, and Title I impact for the largest 100 school districts.