I would imagine that “sequestration” is not a term that you use in your building on a regular basis or maybe even at all. This term, which defines an action that can cause one entity to have funds sequestered for a time frame and then perhaps given to another party, usually the original source based on a legal decision, may be an action taken by our United States Congress early next year.
The reason for this unusual blog topic is found in another blog developed by Amanda Karhuse, the Director of Government Relations for the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Amanda writes:
“NASSP and more than 20 of our state associations joined nearly 3,000 other organizations from the non-defense discretionary (NDD) community today in calling upon Congress to avert sequestration by adopting a “balanced approach to deficit reduction that does not include further cuts to NDD programs.”
As a reminder, sequestration is the drastic, across-the-board cuts to education that are scheduled to occur on January 2, 2013. These across-the-board cuts will occur-unless Congress acts to stop it-as stipulated in the August 2011 Budget Control Act. Congress put this measure of sequestration in place when a 12-member Congressional committee was unable to approve a plan to reduce another $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit last fall.
NDD programs are provided by the government for the benefit of all Americans. They support economic growth, strengthen safety and security, and enrich the lives of every American in every state and community across the nation. In 2011, NDD spending represented less than one-fifth of the federal budget and 4.3 percent of our country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Under strict discretionary caps in the bipartisan Budget Control Act (BCA), by 2021 NDD spending will decline to just 2.8 percent of GDP, the lowest level in at least 50 years. If sequestration is allowed to take effect, cuts to NDD programs will be even deeper.
Sequestration would impose the largest education funding cuts ever, chopping funding for programs in the Department of Education by roughly $4 billion, or 8.4%, which would have a devastating impact on state and district budgets.
Because NASSP wants you to help advocate against it, and wants you to feel as informed and supported as possible, we worked with other organizations to develop this grassroots toolkit: http://cef.org/cef-grassroots-campaign-2/
The resources and the ways we suggest you use them can be found here: http://cef.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Grassroots-Cover-Page1.pdf
Breaking it down, the toolkit contains several resources, including:
- a Prezi presentation on what the sequestration is and what it would do
- a fact sheet on sequestration (consider these as helpful talking points when making phone calls to your Congressional offices)
- a sample letter to the editor on the issue
- a sample organizational action alert (this can be tailored for you to use as a sample email to Congressional staff)
- charts with state by state data on the estimated impact in job losses and students affected by sequestration
- a sample op-ed letter
- a recorded webinar on the issue; and
- access to more resources provided by a coalition advocating on behalf of non-defense discretionary programs (including education)
This issue is TOO important for on-the-ground practitioners such as yourselves to not let your legislators know how you feel!
NASSP suggests that you begin speaking out against sequestration as soon as you feel comfortable, and your advocacy will be needed through the end of 2012, since sequestration is scheduled to occur on January 2, 2013. I also strongly encourage you to attend any town hall meetings or other local events sponsored by your Members of Congress over the next several weeks to speak out against sequestration. You can find contact information for all Representatives and Senators at www.contactingthecongress.org
