APA effort leads to boost in congressional funding

To protect wins, APA urges member action.

By Rebecca A. Clay

Thanks to the advocacy efforts of APA and hundreds of members and students across the country, psychology students and psychologists will soon have more federal funding opportunities for education and training. And that means more psychologists in general, more ethnic-minority psychologists in particular and more psychologists working in underserved areas, say APA staffers.

APA and its constituents successfully advocated for improvements to two education bills:

 The Health Professions Education Partnerships Act (HPEPA) of 1998, which aims to increase minority students' access to education and encourage graduates to work in underserved areas, and

 The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (HEA), which opens higher-education opportunities to low- and middle-income students by providing grants, loans and work-study assistance.

To protect psychology's wins, APA's education advocates are now urging psychologists to participate in the next phase of the legislative process: developing the regulations that govern how the laws will actually be implemented and appropriating enough money to actually fund the programs.

Legislative wins

Part of a larger piece of legislation called the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), the reauthorized version of HPEPA expands psychology's eligibility for several U.S. Department of Health and Human Service programs:

 The Minority and Disadvantaged Health Professions Grant Program, which provides grants to institutions to support undergraduate minorities in the health professions, offers scholarships to disadvantaged students, repays loans for minority faculty and awards grants that institutions can use to attract minority students to health professions.

 The Interdisciplinary Community-based Linkages Program, which funds interdisciplinary in-service training at geriatric education centers and in rural areas. If funding becomes available, the program will also provide support to graduate students in behavioral and mental health.

 The Public Health Work-force Traineeships in Severe Shortage Disciplines Program, which would fund psychology education and training should the discipline face a shortage of workers.

Opening these programs to psychology students and psychologists will help lift barriers when it comes to career choices, says Nina Gail Levitt, EdD, director for education policy in APA's Public Policy Office.

'The number of years involved and amount of debt incurred in becoming a psychologist deter people from working in underserved areas,' she explains. 'The more financial aid is provided, the more likely psychologists are to move into those areas.'

The HEA reauthorization also gives psychology students greater access to federal programs. APA and its allies were able to secure the following changes in the U.S. Department of Education programs HEA funds:

 Psychology graduate students in practice and science subfields gained access to Federal Work-Study funding for internships, practica and research assistantships. That's a boon for psychology students, who are more likely to choose these opportunities than traditional Work-Study positions such as teaching assistantships. Although the reauthorization included a $40 million increase, psychology students must compete with all other undergraduates and graduate students for the resulting $870 million.

 Psychologists working in schools that provide special education and related services such as counseling, speech therapy or occupational therapy are now eligible for cancellation of their Perkins Loans. This program, which offers 5-percent interest rates and 10-year terms, saw its budget reduced to $100 million this year; psychology students must compete with all other undergraduate and graduate students. The cancellation program is designed to encourage students to choose careers in this underserved area.

 Psychologists eligible for the Perkins Loan Cancellation Benefit described above are also eligible for cancellation of Guaranteed and Direct Federal Loans, an entitlement program that provides the specific funds students need. Psychology students will compete against all other students.

 The Federal Graduate Education Program, which funds needy and underrepresented minority students, is now open to psychology students as well as students in all other fields. Psychology students can now compete for the $31 million Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program. Psychology graduate students in the social sciences will be able to compete against arts, humanities and other social science students for the Javits Program if the program is funded.

 The Minority Science/Engineering Improvement Program has expanded psychology's potential participation by adding graduate study and behavioral science to this $7.5 million program. (The social sciences were already eligible.)

APA's wins weren't just legislative, however. APA also succeeded in establishing itself as a player in the tight-knit community of higher-education associations, says Ellin J. Nolan, a consultant who worked with APA on both pieces of legislation. Allying itself with groups such as the American Council on Education gave APA added strength, says Nolan, director of government relations at the Washington, D.C., law firm Dean Blakey & Moskowitz.

Continuing advocacy

It has taken Congress six years to reauthorize the HEA and two years to reauthorize the PHSA. With each Congress, APA would win small gains only to see legislators postpone the bills. The Health Professions bill, for example, was up for reauthorization in 1993, but legislators simply funded the program without reauthorization for five full years.

'When I first started working on these bills, psychology was not even on Congress's radar screen,' says APA's Levitt. 'Legislators felt that psychologists dealt with the `worried well.' We had to make the connection between psychology and behaviorally based problems such as violence and AIDS.'

But APA's work isn't over, says Jill N. Reich, PhD, APA director of education. 'Now APA is working at the agency levels to ensure that the legislation is implemented in ways that reflect the statutes' intent to help psychologists,' she says.

Over the next year, the Department of Education will work to produce regulations for HEA; and the Department of Health and Human Services will do the same for the Health Professions Education Partnerships Act. The process is similar in both cases: a series of public meetings, negotiated rule-making within the agencies and public comment periods on draft regulations.

Reich urges psychology faculty, undergraduates and graduate students to participate in the regulation-promulgation process and to work to increase funding for their programs during the congressional appropriations process. Some examples include thanking members of Congress for supporting these bills and letting their representatives know how their service-learning projects, volunteer work, clinical practica and research efforts contribute to the public good. APA's Public Policy Office has talking points and other materials to assist faculty and students in these efforts.

For more information, visit the APA Education Advocacy Web Site at www.apa.org/ppo/edppo.html. Or subscribe to the Public Policy Action Network by using the link on the Education Advocacy Web Site or by e-mailing a request to ppan@apa.org.

Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C.



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