Yesterday, ASBO International joined nearly 3,000 other organizations from the nondefense discretionary (NDD) community in calling upon Congress to avert sequestration by adopting a “balanced approach to deficit reduction that does not include further cuts to NDD programs.”
(Quick review of sequestration: The Budget Control Act of 2011
(P.L. 112-25) established caps on discretionary spending over 10 years,
resulting in $1 trillion in cuts spread across defense and nondefense
discretionary programs. The law also directed a congressional Joint
Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to identify an additional $1.2
trillion in budgetary savings over ten years. The failure of the
bi-partisan "super committee" to come to an agreement on a deficit
reduction plan triggered a "sequester" to take effect on January 2,
2013. To sequester means to set apart or to take something away until a
debt has been repaid. In the context of funding federal programs,
sequester means imminent, across-the-board cuts to most programs, both
defense and nondefense--in addition to the $1 trillion in cuts already
sustained through the Budget Control Act's discretionary caps.)
Sequestration would impose the largest education funding cuts ever, chopping funding for programs in the Department of Education by roughly $4 billion, or 8.4%, which would have a devastating impact on state and district budgets.
Access the letter here.
Find the Press Release here.
Read EdWeek's coverage here.
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) also released a report this week examining how districts are preparing for the potentially devastating cuts of sequestration and how those cuts will impact the nation’s schools. More than half (54.1%) of the superintendents that participated in the survey reported that their budget for SY2012-13 built-in cuts to offset sequestration. Respondents reported that the cuts of sequestration would mean reducing professional development (69.4%), reducing academic programs (58.1%), personnel layoffs (56.6%), and increased class size (54.9%).
Read the full report here.