Congress, Sequestration and Education

From http://aacte.org/federal-grassroots-action-network.html

Automatic “Sequestration” Cuts to Begin March 1

Unless Congress acts, on March 1, 2013 all federally-funded education programs (other than Pell grants) will be subject to a 5.1% automatic across-the-board cut as part of sequestration.

This will reduce funding for education programs by $2.6 billion. Important programs for educator preparation such as Teacher Quality Partnership grants, School Leadership grants, Transition to Teaching, and Math and Science partnerships will all be cut.

Other consequences of sequestration:

• Head Start will be cut by $409 million.

• Title I will be cut by $745 million.

• IDEA will be cut by $636 million.

• Funding for Title II, ESEA Teacher Quality Grants will be cut by $127 million.

• Student financial aid programs such as Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Work-Study will be cut by $88 million.

• Higher education competitive grant programs will cut by a combined $132 million.

• Career, Technical and Adult Education will be cut by $89 million.


Education has already been cut by over $1 billion in the last two fiscal years. Congress needs to show leadership and find other ways to lower spending – education has done its part.

Contact Congress today and tell them to compromise so these cuts do not happen.

Take these 4 easy action steps to save funding for education programs:

• Click on this link. It will bring you to a prepared alert on AACTE’s Grassroots Action Network.

• Fill in your information so that the message goes to your elected representatives.

• Fill in any information you wish to add in the editable text box (e.g. if you have a federal grant tell them how important the program is for recruiting students, reforming educator preparation, etc. and what would be lost if spending is cut.).

• Click Submit.

If you have any questions please contact Jon Gentile at jgentile@aacte.org