If Congress does not agree on a long-term plan to reduce the deficit by the end of the year, most higher education programs will face deep cuts in the mandatory spending reductions that go into effect Jan. 1, according to a report released Friday by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
For months, advocates for education funding (as well as those concerned about other budget areas) have braced for the cuts, known as sequestration. When Congress made a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling last year, the cuts were set to take place as a threat to drive a long-term agreement to sort out the nation’s finances: either a bipartisan committee would agree on budget cuts, or $1.4 trillion in mandatory cuts would kick in. In November, the committee announced it could not reach an agreement.
Friday’s report is the first look at how, exactly, those cuts would be distributed among domestic programs. And for many higher education programs, the outlook isn’t good: an 8.2 percent across-the-board program cut for domestic discretionary programs, which make up most of the higher education budget, and a 7.6 percent cut for mandatory spending programs. While the Pell Grant is protected from the cuts during fiscal year 2013, as is the College Access Challenge Grant, other federal financial aid programs would be cut by 7.6 percent across the board, including the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and federal work-study. Student loan origination fees would also increase.
The federal programs whose grants sustain university research — the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities — would see the same across-the-board 7.6 percent cut to mandatory spending and 8.2 percent to discretionary spending.
Federal college access programs, such as TRIO and GEAR UP, would also see a 8.2 percent cut. <Read more.>
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The Budget Cuts to Come
September 18, 2012 — Veronica Van RyState Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Issues Statement on Cuts to Education Budget
July 3, 2012 — Veronica Van RyState Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson issued the following statement today on the final state budget:
“Preparing California’s young people for the future—all the way from early childhood through high school—will be more difficult under our state’s continuing budget problems. As Superintendent, I can sympathize with the difficult decisions faced by the Governor and the Legislature—but, as an educator, I am saddened today. The simple truth is that schools need more revenue if they are going to begin restoring some of what billions of dollars of cuts have already taken from them and from their students.
“In the budget passed by the Legislature, early child care funding was cut significantly—and then cut even more with the Governor’s line item veto. Two other vetoes that disturbed me were the elimination of both AVID funding and the Early Mental Health Initiative. These are programs that aid our students, prepare them to succeed in school, and then help them graduate ready for careers and college. The final budget also allows districts to cut as many as 30 days of instructional time over the next two years—which amounts to a combined potential loss of the equivalent of one million years of schooling for California’s 6.3 million public school kids.
“And still, our schools—even in the face of this continuing do-more-with-less approach—have found a way to raise graduation rates this year. To me, that shows they not only need and deserve our support—they have earned it.”
For more information see: CDE News Release.
What Should High School Students Know About the Federal Budget?
May 9, 2012 — Veronica Van RyHigh school students rarely, if ever, learn anything about the federal budget and how taxes are collected and spent, an oversight that doesn’t serve their development as informed, engaged citizens. That’s the argument that Teachers College is advancing as it announces that it has developed a curriculum to fill that gap.
The “Understanding Fiscal Responsibility” curriculum consists of 24 lesson plans that cover, among other things, information about taxation, debt, and deficit, and aims to help students explore the questions raised by their country’s fiscal policies. It will be available for free to all high schools.
Tonight’s announcement at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York, is to include a panel discussion featuring former Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag and Teachers College President Susan H. Fuhrman, among others. Teachers from a Bronx high school that piloted the curriculum are slated to share videos from their classroom work. The curriculum also has been piloted in Texas.
“Despite fiercely partisan debates in Washington about the federal budget over the past four years, most Americans do not have a thorough understanding of how the federal government raises and spends money,” says a release from Teachers College. “The new curriculum was created after research by Teachers College found that, although the federal budget is mentioned in the core curriculum adopted by most states, it gets little or no attention in most high schools across the country.”
Teachers College has arranged for the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching to conduct an evaluation of the curriculum.
The first 10 lessons are available in hard copy and will be mailed to every high school in the country, according to the college. Digital versions of those, and an online glossary of terms used in the curriculum, are available at the project’s website,www.understandingfiscalresponsibility.org. The rest of the lessons will follow in the coming weeks.
The lessons fall into five topic areas. Some examples: “What costs and trade-offs are we willing to accept to ensure the benefits of income security to Social Security recipients?”(economics); “What responsibility does the federal government have to ensure the elderly a secure and stable standard of living?” (civics); “Social Security Act of 1935: Did the creation of federally administered old-age pension program support or threaten American values and traditions?” (U.S. History); “Should developing nations accept loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?” (world history); and “Should we raise income taxes to reduce the budget deficit and pay down the national debt?” (mathematics).
The website also has a list of those who advised the shaping of the curriculum and the research findings that led to its creation.
California Colleges Face $149M Funding Shortfall
March 23, 2012 — Veronica Van RyCalifornia community college leaders have warned of an unexpected budget shortfall that could lead to more cuts in courses, staff and services.
The 112-campus system faces an additional $149 million deficit because of lower-than-expected property tax revenues and greater demand for student fee waivers, said California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott.
The shortfall comes on top of a $400 million reduction in state funding for the current fiscal year and a $102 million midyear cut triggered when state revenues fell below projections.
About $107 million of the latest shortfall comes from a dramatic increase in cash-strapped students receiving fee waivers because of the weak economy, officials said. The percentage of fees covered by waivers has risen to 62 percent, up from 57 percent in last fiscal year.
“It’s just one more blow to the investments we need in higher education to have a sound economic recovery,” said Dan Troy, vice chancellor of finance.
The budget deficit could force community colleges to cut course sections, most likely in the summer, reduce teaching staff and increase borrowing, Troy said. That means more students won’t be able to get the classes they need to complete degree and certificate programs.
School administrators are working to convince the governor and Legislature to step in to cover the budget shortfall.
State finance officials said it was premature to discuss additional funding for the community colleges, noting that tax revenue projections are often wrong.
“We want to make sure that we have more data in hand before we make any policy decisions,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance.
Over the past three years, the state has cut funding for the community college system by $809 million, or 12 percent, reducing the number of students served from 2.9 million to 2.6 million despite strong demand, officials said.
Via Terence Chea, Associated Press on Community College News.
Free Fall: Educational Opportunities in 2011
March 28, 2011 — Veronica Van RyFor several years, UCLA IDEA, in partnership with UC/ACCORD, has produced an annual report on the learning conditions and educational outcomes across California public schools. In last year’s report, we highlighted how the “great recession” created new challenges for California’s already weakened educational infrastructure. Now, the challenges California faces are worse.
High unemployment and decreased public education spending have moved California into unchartered territory. How are public schools coping with falling public investment in education? Have cuts affected the quality and distribution of educational opportunities? How do new school conditions affect student engagement, learning, and progress to graduation and college enrollment?
The 2011 Educational Opportunity Report draws on information gathered from California high school principals to address these questions. We surveyed 277 high school principals—almost a quarter of California’s high schools—about learning conditions in their schools. We also conducted follow-up interviews with a representative sample of 78 of these principals, to explore the effects of changing conditions on California’s students.
Core findings from our surveys and interviews include:
- California high schools are providing less time, attention, and quality programs. As a consequence, student engagement, achievement and progress to graduation and college are suffering.
- School reform has all but sputtered to a halt due to staff cutbacks and the elimination of time for professional development.
- Even as high schools across the state are impacted by declining budgets, inequality is growing across and within schools.
- California’s high schools face growing demands from families experiencing economic crisis that point to the inter-relationship of California’s education and social welfare budgets.
