Debt Ceiling impact on K-12

89.2% of spending on education comes from state or local revenues ; however, the 10% of federal funding is crucial.

Last year, I went to Washington D.C. as part of the National Writing Project to talk to Washington State politicians about the drastic cuts to literacy programs under the 2011 budget. Striving Readers took a $250 million cut, Even Start family literacy lost $67 million, the National Writing Project and Reading is Fundamental lost $25 million each. Literacy lost big under the budget.

Now under the new fiscal deal for the debt ceiling, there are 10 year caps on federal spending, which include a $7 billion reduction in 2012. The Committee for Education Funding estimates that most agencies would take a 6.7 percent cut, which includes the U. S. Department of Education. That would mean about $3 billion in cuts to education, which means that the likelihood of returning funding for those literacy programs is slipping away.

With the continued desire to cut the nation’s debt, worthwhile programs are being completely eliminated while corporations like GE pay no taxes. Clear cutting the budget is as dangerous as clear cutting a forest. All spending is not created equal. Literacy programs are the roots for good education, even for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). These funding cuts have decimated the potential for thousands of students and teachers.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/08/_we_dont_know_how.html