“I'm going to bed now. I'm tired of feeling angry.”
Indeed.
Americans and Brits sometimes refer to one another as “cousins”, and cousins we are – members of the same dysfunctional family. On both sides of the pond, government is cutting funding for education on every level from pre-school to college. And the bottom line is that kids and society pay the price.
From the results of a national survey conducted by the
American Association of School Administrators:
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The cuts of sequestration are estimated to between eight and nine percent, which would reduce funding for the US Education department by an additional $4 billion and affect millions of students, classrooms and teachers by increasing class size, reducing programs and services and eliminating educator jobs.
State/ local governments and school districts have very limited capacity to soften the cuts of sequestration: When asked if their state or local school district have the ability to soften the impact of sequestration, nearly all respondents replied ‘no’. Nine in ten (90 percent) replied that their state would be unable to absorb or offset the cuts of sequestration, equal to the 89.5 percent indicating that their district would be unable to absorb the cuts.
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Hmmm… Just as in the UK, local authorities across the US are unable to offset the loss of funding from the federal government. The individual states are barely able to balance their budgets now, never mind come up with the extra funds to offset the effects of the sequester. Again from the AASA:
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The cuts of sequestration will translate into reductions in and eliminations to personnel, curriculum, facilities and operations. Respondents reported that the cuts of sequestration would mean reducing professional development (69.4 percent), reducing academic programs (58.1 percent), eliminating personnel (56.6 percent) and increasing class size (54.9 percent).
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And just as in the UK, the central government is keeping the bad news under wraps. Wouldn’t want to let parents and communities know what’s coming down the road, in case the ensuing outcry might throw a wrench in their plans:
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School administrators, by a large margin, describe the sequestration‐related information provided by the federal government as ‘non‐existent’. For those reporting some type of information from the federal government (the administration or Congress), respondents describe the quality of information as poor/very poor. Information from the state—whether the legislature, chief school officer, governor, or state board of education‐‐didn’t fare much better
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Let the bastards freeze in the dark of ignorance. Our so-called representative government has decided that children and teachers should be sacrificed in order for federal and state government to fawn over special interests and the upper 1%. Who loves you, baby? Not the kindergartner who can send you two quarters taped inside an envelope. No, our representatives are saving themselves for a torrid affair with Goldman Sachs and the resulting millions of dollars deposited into an off shore account.
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Survey respondents identified dozens of federal education programs whose funding is critical to their district. Four programs were voiced across almost all responses: ESEA Title I, IDEA, ESEA Title II and the Rural Education Achievement Program. Sequestration would slash these critical federal funds and the local academic programs they support:
• Title I funds would be cut by $1.2 billion, dropping to 2007 levels, impacting 1.8 million students and eliminating 16,100 jobs.
• IDEA funds would be cut by $973 million, dropping to 2006 levels, impacting 495,000 students and eliminating 12,600 jobs.
• Title II Grants for Teacher Quality funds would be cut by $207 million, dropping to its lowest level since its creation in 2002, eliminating 2,800 jobs and reducing funding for class size reduction by $77 million.
• Rural Education Achievement Program funds would be cut by $15 million, dropping to 2002 levels, and impacting 400,000 students, even though rural schools have absorbed 70 percent of the growth in the nation’s school enrollment.
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I’m tired of feeling angry myself.