Updated February 10, 2012

STOP THE LARGEST EDUCATION FUNDING CUTS EVER!!

• Unless Congress acts, on January 2, 2013 all federally-funded education programs (other than Pell grants) will be subject to a 9.1% automatic across-the-board cut.D[i]D
• These cuts (called “sequestration” in federal jargon) would chop funding for programs in the Department of Education by over $4.1 billion. In addition, Head Start would be cut by $725 million. This would be the largest cut EVER to education programs.
• Additional cuts to education programs (including Pell grants) will likely occur in Fiscal Years 2014 through 2021 due to stringent “caps” on so-called discretionary-funded programs, which include all education programs (other than student loans) and Head Start.
• Critical programs including Title I aid to high-poverty schools; IDEA funds for students with disabilities; Impact Aid; teacher quality grants; after-school grants; charter and magnet school aid; English Language Acquisition grants; career, technical and adult education; campus-based student aid; aid to minority-serving institutions; TRIO and GEAR UP will all be slashed. Some examples:
• These across-the board cuts result from Congress’ failure last year to enact at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, as required by the Budget Control Act. Because Congress was unable to adopt a balanced deficit reduction plan that included both revenues and spending cuts, the entire $1.2 trillion will now be taken out of discretionary-funded programs.
• These cuts will be on top of education cuts adopted by Congress last year. Funding for education programs (exclusive of changes to Pell grants) was cut in the aggregate by $1.25 billion (-2.7%) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, which generally provides funds to schools and colleges for the 2011-2012 school year.The FY 2012 omnibus appropriations bill cut aggregate funding for the Department of Education by an additional $233 million. Between FY 10 and FY 12 more than 50 education programs totaling $1.2 billion have had their funding completely eliminated.
• These cuts will be particularly disruptive to schools because some of the cuts will take effect in January 2013 – the middle of the 2012-13 school year.
• Cuts of this magnitude will be harmful to jobs and the economy. A person with a Bachelor’s degree has lifetime earnings more than twice as much as a high school dropout, benefitting not only those individuals and their families, but our society and government by paying higher taxes and relying less on social services. 
•  What you can do to stop these cuts:
• Prepare an analysis of the impact to your state/school district/school/college of a 9.1% cut in your federal education funds.
• Share that result with your members of Congress and urge them to stop the largest education cuts in history and to stop reducing the deficit on the backs of students, schools and colleges. See: http://house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm  for a list of Representatives and Senators.
• Share what you send and any responses with the Committee for Education Funding: Rmendoza@cef.org

• Title I would be cut by $1.3 billion, adversely affecting services to more than 1.7 million educationally disadvantaged children.
• IDEA special education would be cut by over $1 billion affecting 536,000 students with disabilities.
• Funding for teacher quality grants would be cut by $225 million.
• While Pell grants is exempt from sequestration in FY 13, other student financial aid programs such as Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Work-Study would be cut by $156 million, reducing aid to            more than 2 million students.
• TRIO and GEAR UP will cut by a combined $104 million, curtailing services to over 145,000 students.
• Career, Technical and Adult Education would be cut by $158 million, harming more than 1.6 million students.
• Overall, these education cuts would jeopardize almost 90,000 education jobs.