The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is asking each local school board to sign a resolution asking Congress to rescind the across-the-board budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act of 2011, an issue most commonly known as sequestration. The attached resolution already has been adopted by several Kentucky boards, as readers of the KSBA eNews Service may have noted.
Oct. 17 update from NSBA. Click here http://www.nsba.org/stopsequestration.
Here are parts of the communication from the NSBA advocacy office:
Federal funding for education faces significant across-the-board cuts of an estimated $4.1 billion on January 2, 2013 unless Congress takes action.
The Budget Control Act of 2011 will impose across-the-board cuts of 7.8 percent or more to education and other domestic programs through a process called sequestration (the cancellation of budgetary resources), unless Congress intervenes.
The Facts
- The impact of a 7.8 percent cut to programs such as Title I grants for disadvantaged students would mean a cut of more than $1 billion, affecting nearly two million students.
- Special education grants would be reduced by more than $900 million, impacting nearly 500,000 children with disabilities.
- English Language Acquisition grants would be cut by approximately $60 million, affecting an estimated 377,000 students.
- Sequestration’s budget cuts to these and other education programs would mean increased class sizes and less access to programs for children with special needs, as well as summer school, college counselors, early childhood education and after-school programming.
Most school districts have experienced significant budget cuts already in recent years, resulting in fewer course offerings, thousands of teacher and staff layoffs, four-day school weeks, loss of extracurricular activities, and reduced transportation services, for example. If further budget cuts from sequestration occur, several school districts would be forced to cut even more essential services over the long term. As Dr. Billy Walker, superintendent of the Randolph Field Independent School District in Texas, stated, “If sequestration is truly a 10-year project, the devastating budget cuts may force us to close our doors.”
Let Congress hear from you as well. Utilize these talking points and background information. Please take a moment to customize this sample letter and send it to your senators and representative. Also consider customizing and adopting the sample board resolution, take the survey, and edit and send a letter to your local newspaper editor.
Also, please don’t forget to send NSBA a copy of your adopted resolutions on sequestration along with any published letters-to-the-editor that will help illustrate why Congress should reject sequestration and preserve funding for our schools.
Information can be emailed to Kathleen Branch at NSBA at [email protected].