The Leading Edge

In a survey released today, AASA provides the first nation-wide look at how schools are responding to and will be impacted by sequestration.

Cut Deep: How the Sequester Will Impact Our Nation's Schools looks at how schools are preparing for the potentially devastating cuts of sequestration and how the cuts would impact the nation's schools. The survey was released in a press conference on the hill, and featured Superintendents and AASA member Patrick Murphy (Arlington County Public Schools, Arlington, Va.) and Pam Heaston (Assistant Superintendent, Talbot County Schools, Easton, Md.), along with comments from Rep. Walz and Rep. Chris Van Hollen.

“Sequestration represents a very real threat to the nation’s schools, the students they serve and the fragile economic recovery starting to take hold at the state and local level,” said Daniel Domenech, AASA executive director, in releasing the report. “Complicating the threat of sequestration even further is the virtual lack of information about what the sequester would mean, when the cuts would start, which programs would be impacted, and how deep the cuts would be. This report clearly documents a lack of communication between the entity implementing sequestration—Congress—and those who will feel the impact—individuals at the local level.”

AASA President Benny Gooden (Superintendent, Fort Smith Schools, Fort Smith, Ar.) weighed in as well :“AASA recognizes the challenges Congress faces in addressing spending, revenues and mandatory programs,” said AASA President Benny Gooden. “AASA firmly believes that the blunt cuts of sequestration run counter to the widely stated and broadly supported goal of putting our nation on the path to economic health and well-being. The blind cuts of sequestration are not consistent with expectations for the careful use of resources to address critical needs. Instead of a targeted and strategic process, the economic equivalent of carpet bombing is being applied to federal spending. Cuts made regardless of program demand or effectiveness represent poor, short-sighted policy. Many affected programs have been mandated by Congress. Cut Deep illustrates that sequestration is a problem, not a solution; a mistake that dismantles any hope of long-term, sustained economic well-being and growth for our nation’s students and economy.”

A few select excerpts:

• State/ local governments and school districts have very limited capacity to soften the cuts of sequestration. Nine of ten (90 percent) respondents reported 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.
• School administrators report a variety of approaches in planning for sequestration. More than half (54.1 percent) of respondents reported that their budget for the 2012-13 school year built-in cuts to off-set sequestration. Less than half (45.2 percent) of respondents reported that they are waiting to see when/how sequestration unfolds. Their budgets did not build in cuts to offset sequestration, and they plan to ‘…make any necessary changes as needed, when the cuts happen’. 
• The cuts of sequestration will translate to reductions in, and eliminations of, 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), personnel layoffs (56.6 percent) and increased class size (54.9 percent). As one respondent from Alabama replied, ““The bottom line is that kids…pay the price.”
• 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.