The Leading Edge

In follow up to AASA’s well-receive sequestration survey, Cut Deep: How the Sequester Will Impact Our Nation’s Schools, AASA is today issuing a call to action, urging AASA members to take ten minutes to send a note to Congress detailing the impact of the cuts of sequestration.

The timing couldn’t be better: AASA’s advocacy conference is this week, meaning school administrators just like you will be in Washington, D.C. to share these stories in person. Further, Congress is rapidly approaching its August recess, meaning now is the time to get the information to the hill as Congress wraps its final weeks of activity before the recess and fall election.

The approach is two-fold: an excel-driven invoice and a customizable letter. The invoice quantifies the cuts; the letter allows you to qualify the cuts, detailing what it would mean to your district in terms of job cuts, program reductions, and service elimination. All you need to get started is your district’s 2011-12 school year funding level for federal programs, including Title I, IDEA, Title II and Perkins.

Once you enter your district’s funding level into the spreadsheet, a formula will automatically calculate the dollar cut that would mean to your district. From there, personalize the template letter with details about your district and what the cuts of sequestration would do to your district’s budget and ability to support education programming and personnel.

We've assembled everything you need to complete this call to action:

• ‘How To’ guide to completing the spreadsheet and template letter (PDF)
• AASA’s Sequestration Invoice (excel)
• AASA’s Customizable Sequestration Letter (word)
• AASA Sequestration Toolkit

If you have any questions about sequestration, the AASA survey or the resources in this call to action, don’t hesitate to reach out to Noelle (nellerson@aasa.org).