Category Archives: Sequestration

Education Week: IDEA Sequester Cuts, By The Numbers

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by Christina Samuels

The blog IDEA Money Watch compiled information released by the U.S. Department of Education and created a nice chart that spells out how much each state stands to lose in federal funding for special education, should the sequester cuts stay in place.

States received about $11.5 billion in Part B funds for fiscal year 2012—Part B refers to the special education dollars that are used to educate students ages 5 to 21. The numbers in this chart assume a 5 percent reduction in funding for fiscal 2013. As explained in my colleague Alyson Klein’s excellent piece on frequently asked sequester questions, the sequester doesn’t mean that states will immediately start to feel the pinch, because the money has been “forward-funded.” Any budget impact would start to be felt more in the 2013-14 school year.

via IDEA Sequester Cuts, By The Numbers.

Education Week: Arne Duncan Stands Firm: Sequester Would Squeeze Schools

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by Alyson Klein

Today is the day that those automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that have been coming since August 2011 are finally set to kick in. And U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been a chief spokesman for the administration on the impact of the cuts on domestic programs—and landed in some pretty hot water with fact checkers.

Earlier this week, the White House put out job loss estimates, including for K-12 schools, and Duncan backed them up on Sunday’s political talk shows. However, it’s really too early to know exactly how many layoffs, furloughs, or programmatic cuts will result from sequestration (which would represent the largest cut to federal K-12 aid in recent history). School districts—not to mention states, and the federal government—are still hammering out their spending plans for this year. Schools don’t typically send out Reduction in Force (RIF) notices until March or April.

via Arne Duncan Stands Firm: Sequester Would Squeeze Schools.

Daily Republic: School districts prepare for less money

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by Danny Bernardini

FAIRFIELD — Automatic federal budget cuts could mean fewer jobs, fewer bus routes and cuts to student activities for Travis School District.

With more than a third of the students in the district coming from military families, the district relies heavily on federal funding for those 5,400 students. That equated to $2.8 million in what’s known as impact aid last year, according to a district report.

A 5.3 percent cut would equal a loss of $148,000 to the budget. That money would come from cutting jobs, activities and bus routes, according to the district.

via School districts prepare for less money.

Benicia Herald: BUSD, others could feel sequester cut

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By Donna Beth Weilenman, Staff Reporter

If the series of federal budget cuts called sequestration begins Friday, as expected, Benicia Unified School District could face a loss of $70,000 in federal funds, said Timothy Rahill, the district’s chief business official.

 

The district could lose as much as $15,000 in Title I funds alone, Rahill said. Title I funding is given to schools to improve the education of disadvantaged, low-income students.

“The Title I programs would cut back on supplementary items like books and instructional supplies, and possibly some instructional assistant time,” Rahill said.

via BUSD, others could feel sequester cut.

The Reporter: Sequestered cuts would hit Travis Unified School District hard

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If Congress doesn’t act before Friday, officials from one local school district say its operations will face severe cuts on day one of the so-called federal sequestration and not just over time, as some analysts are predicting.

Sequestered cuts to the federal budget are set to take effect Friday and the White House said this past weekend that would include cuts to federal school “Impact Aid,” a program that helps school districts impacted by a federal presence by providing them an “in-lieu of tax” payment. In Solano County, Travis Unified School District relies heavily on federal impact aid to educate more than 5,400 students.

via Sequestered cuts would hit Travis Unified School District hard.

Education Week: Sequestration and Education: 12 Frequently Asked Questions

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by Alyson Klein

Now that sequestration, that looming, scary, Inside-the-Beltway possibility, is finally upon us, what does that mean for states and school districts? Here’s a rundown:

1) What exactly is sequestration? Sequestration is a series of across-the-board cuts to a broad range of federal programs, including those in the U.S. Department of Education, set to hit the government on Friday, March 1, unless Congress and the Obama administration make a last-ditch effort to stop them. Programs in the U.S. Department of Education would be cut by about 5.3 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. The cuts aren’t just for this year, either. They’re aimed at chopping $1.2 trillion out of the federal deficit over the next decade. So, if nothing happens, they’re the new normal.

via Sequestration and Education: 12 Frequently Asked Questions.

Education Week: Back Home, Kline Talks Sequestration, Funding Flexibility, NCLB

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by Alyson Klein

Education funding—including looming K-12 cuts, and especially, the need for flexibility with existing funds—took center stage at a round table for local superintendents, school board members, and others that U.S. Rep. John Kline, the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, held back in his suburban Minnesota district yesterday.

Kline kicked off the Feb. 25 discussion by talking about what he called “the giant gorilla in the room”: sequestration, a set of 5.3 percent across-the-board federal funding cuts set to hit just about every federal program on Friday unless Congress acts to prevent them.

via Back Home, Kline Talks Sequestration, Funding Flexibility, NCLB.

EdSource Today: For now, K-12 districts can wait and watch sequestration unroll

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K-12 districts have one advantage over meat inspectors, military contractors, national parks staff, air traffic controllers, Head Start operators (see story) and others facing immediate cuts in federal funding as of Friday’s sequester deadline: time. Because of how districts budget their money, the 5.1 percent reductions in federal revenue that would go into effect March 1 under sequestration won’t be felt by districts until the start of their new fiscal year, July 1. That gives districts four months to plan for the impact ­and Congress and President Obama plenty of time to change their minds – or not.

In figures released Tuesday, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said that California faces $262 million in reductions in federal education funding from sequestration. With the federal government contributing only about 10 percent of total K-12 spending in California, and some programs, like school lunch and nutrition services, exempt from the round of cuts, that represents a tiny slice overall.

via For now, K-12 districts can wait and watch sequestration unroll – by John Fensterwald.

EdSource Today: Head Start administrators get little guidance on impact of sequester

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Just weeks after President Barack Obama proposed a massive expansion of preschool in his State of the Union address, Head Start administrators are bracing for sequester cuts that could reduce enrollments by thousands of children.

Despite the looming cuts, Head Start operators have been given almost no guidance from the federal government as to how to plan for the possible cuts, or how or when they would be affected.

via Head Start administrators get little guidance on impact of sequester – by Lillian Mongeau.

The Reporter: Vacaville schools keep ‘fingers crossed’ in U.S. government’s threat of budget cuts

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By Melissa Murphy/ MMurphy@TheReporter.com

The threat of government cuts continues to loom and unless Congress acts by Friday, $85 billion in forced cuts are set to take effect from March-September, impacting every state in the union.The White House compiled numbers from federal agencies and its own budget office on how the cuts might impact each state and released those figures this past weekend. The numbers reflect the impact of the cuts this year.

As to whether states could move money around to cover shortfalls, the White House said that depends on state budget structures and the specific programs, though administration officials did not have a list of which states or programs might have flexibility.

via Vacaville schools keep ‘fingers crossed’ in US government’s threat ….

Education Week: White House Estimates Impact of Across-the-Board Cuts by State

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by Alyson Klein

School districts all around the country are bracing for an across-the-board cut in federal funds, set to go into effect on Friday, unless lawmakers and the Obama administration are able to come to some kind of agreement to head them off. The cuts would impact just about every federal program under the sun, from the U.S. Department of Education to the Pentagon and the Justice Department.

Ever since the threat of cuts were put in place to prod a long-term deficit reducation deal, education advocates and some lawmakers—such as U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the panel that oversees K-12 spending— have been trying to draw attention to how they would effect education, which hasn’t grabbed as many headlines as say, the military.

via White House Estimates Impact of Across-the-Board Cuts by State.

Education Week : Arne Duncan On NCLB Waivers, Sequestration, Common Core

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by Michele McNeil

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan continues to send strong signals that he may grant tailored, district-level waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act in states that have not already won this flexibility.

In a wide-ranging, hourlong interview today with a small group of national reporters, Duncan said he met with some of the “CORE” California superintendents yesterday to discuss their waiver request—as my colleague Lesli Maxwell reported yesterday. The CORE is a group of 10 districts, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, that are moving ahead with reforms their state is slow to embrace (such as the common core and new teacher evaluations). Duncan reiterated in today’s interview that his preference is to work with states, especially as the Feb. 28 deadline for the fourth-round of state applications looms.

via Arne Duncan On NCLB Waivers, Sequestration, Common Core.

Education Week: Education Advocates to Congress: Stop the Sequestration Cuts

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by Alyson Klein

Education advocates are pushing Congress to head off a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts set to hit just about every federal agency, including the U.S. Department of Education, on March 1, unless lawmakers come up with some sort of plan to stop them. The Non-Defense Discretionary Coalition today sent a letter to every member of Congress asking them to, please, come up with another solution for deficit-reduction.

The group represents 3,200 organizations, including a number of K-12 education groups, some of which don’t usually see eye-to-eye on policy, including Fair Test and the Education Trust. There also are hundreds of environmental, justice, health, and science organizations on the list.

via Education Advocates to Congress: Stop the Sequestration Cuts.

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