Reverse the Effects of Sequestration on Special Ed: Congress says No Way

By Doug Goldberg from Special Education Advisor Blog

In case you have not watched the nightly news in the last few months you might not have realized that sequestration began on March 1, 2013. You may not even know what sequestration is but if your child has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) you will most definitely see the effect. According to USA.gov, “Sequestration, sometimes called the sequester, is a process that automatically cuts the federal budget across most departments and agencies.”

One of the biggest areas effected by the sequester is Education and more specifically Special Education. According to an article in the Atlantic, The Worst Victims of the Education Sequester: Special-Needs Students and Poor Kids, “Title 1 and Head Start will lose $740 million and $406 million, respectively. Special education will lose $644 million.” This means that special education will lose more than 5% of their funding. The chart below was put together prior to the final amounts but illustrates the effect the sequester will have on each of our States.

Read more HERE.

Torlakson, Duncan Urge Congress to Act Swiftly to Prevent Looming Sequestration Cuts

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson sent a letter on Tuesday urging Congressional leaders to work together and immediately pass legislation that would repeal drastic budget cuts set to take effect Friday under sequestration.

“Without Congressional intervention, automatic budget cuts from sequestration will take effect on March 1,” said Torlakson in a letter to Congressional leaders. “After years of extensive state and federal budget cuts to education, these cuts will devastate communities across California…. These automatic cuts will cause long-lasting and irreparable harm.”

Sequestration cuts could represent a $262 million funding reduction to California’s federal education program. These include estimated cuts of:

· $91 million for Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, intended to improve education for disadvantaged students;
· $72 million in special education funding for programs that serve the needs of students with disabilities;
· $2.8 million for public charter schools;
· $6.9 million for Career and Technical Education;
· $9.6 million in funding for English learners; and
· $3.7 million in Impact Aid affecting students in federally impacted school districts in California, including children of active duty service members.

Read more of the EdBrief post HERE.

Jobs of Thousands of Special Education Teachers At Risk

A new report from Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee says that those looming automatic cuts to federal spending will take an especially big bite out of special education.

The report issued last week says 12,000 special education teachers and aides could lose their jobs if automatic cuts in federal special education grants to states go through.

These automatic cuts, the wonky term for which is sequestration, are set to take effect Jan. 2. They stem from Congress' disagreement over raising the federal debt ceiling last summer. Lawmakers decided they needed to cut $1.2 trillion out of the federal budget over the next 10 years. The plan was to work on a bipartisan agreement to figure out what those cuts should be, but since they didn't figure out a compromise, across-the-board budget cuts go into effect automatically. (For schools, the single silver lining is that the cuts wouldn't really be felt until the 2013-14 school year.)

The White House had already warned that cuts to special education and other education spending would be steep: an 8.2 percent cut to almost every U.S. Department of Education program. That would mean special education programs, funded at about $12.6 billion, would be cut by about $1 billion.

Read more of Nirvi Shah's On Special Education article HERE.