COMPETES Act Provides Conflict of Interest Safeguards

Congress recently passed the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (America COMPETES) Act. Passed as Public Law 110-69, the America COMPETES Act is a large omnibus piece of legislation, the law’s purpose is to invest in innovation through research and development in math and science as covered in previous Updates. The law provides a significant amount of funding to a number of federal agencies, including $33 billion over the next three years to the U.S. Department of Education (ED), to support 25,000 new math and science teachers through professional development and graduate education assistance. ED is authorized to award grants, on a competitive basis for 3 years to state educational agencies (SEAs) for the purpose of awarding subgrants to eligible local educational agencies (LEAs) to carry out teacher assistance and professional development for teachers in elementary, middle and secondary schools. SEAs must submit separate applications for grants for: 1) elementary and middle school programs (K-9) and 2) secondary school programs.

A significant portion of grants to SEAs will be for the purpose of hiring private contractors who possess expertise in math to provide technical assistance and professional development for math teachers in high-risk, high achievement schools. Each SEA applying for a grant must submit an application to ED that includes a process to safeguard against conflicts of interest and a State peer review process for contractors applying to provide services.
Private contractors providing services under both elementary and middle school programs and secondary school programs must be required, by contract, to screen for conflicts of interest when hiring its employees. The law also requires that any contractor subcontracting must require its subcontractor to similarly screen for conflicts of interest. The minimum requirements of the screening process include a review of the following:
• Each individual performing duties under the contract or subcontract for connections to any State’s professional development and technical assistance program under this law;
• Each individual’s potential financial interests in, or other connection to, products, activities, or services that might be purchased by an SEA or LEA in the course of the agency’s implementation of the program;
• Each individual’s connections to teaching methodologies that might require the use of specific products, activities, or services; and
• Ensuring that individuals performing duties under the contract do not maintain significant financial interests in the products, activities, or services supported under the program.
The Secretary of ED, in consultation with ED’s Office of the General Counsel, has discretion to waive the screening requirements for individual contractors and subcontractors.
Any recipient approved for an America COMPETES Act grant or contract must submit a statement to the Secretary of ED, certifying that no funds derived from the grant or contract will be made available through a subcontract or in any other manner to another person who has a financial interest or other conflict of interest in the person awarded the grant or contract, unless the conflict is previously disclosed and approved in the process of entering into a contract or awarding a grant. Within 60 days of receipt of this certification, the Secretary must make all documents received that relate to the certification available to the public. This requirement applies to all recipients of funds under the America COMPETES Act, not only those funded by ED.
The Secretary of ED is required to establish peer review panels to review SEA applications (for both elementary and middle school programs and secondary school programs) and must consider the recommendation of these peer review panels in deciding whether to approve the applications. The Secretary is also required to establish a process through which individuals on the peer review panels to review SEA applications are themselves screened for potential conflicts of interest. The screening process must:
• Be reviewed and approved by ED’s Office of the General Counsel of the Department;
• Include, at a minimum, a review of each reviewer’s—
o Professional connection to any SEA’s program, including a disclosure of any connection to publishers, entities, private individuals, or organizations related to such SEA’s program;
o Potential financial interest in products, activities, or services that might be purchased by an SEA or LEA in the course of the agency’s implementation of the programs; and
o Professional connections to teaching methodologies that might require the use of specific products, activities, or services; and
• Ensure that reviewers do not maintain significant financial interests in products, activities, or services supported under the program.
The Secretary of ED, in consultation with ED’s Office of the General Counsel, has discretion to waive these screening requirements of review panel members. However, the Secretary must establish criteria for waivers and report any waivers allowed to the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
Author: CWP