Harkin Amendment Would Blunt Sequester Cuts to Special Ed

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Senator Tom Harkin has introduced an amendment to HR 933 that would mitigate the effects of the sequester in special education.  Here is a summary of the amendment.

If you are concerned about the sequester and its effect upon the education of children with disabilities, you should contact your Senators and representatives and ask them to vote for the amendment.  Our friends at the Council for Exceptional Children have established this tool to make it very easy to effectively contact your senators about this issue. You should personalize your message to reflect your feelings.

So what do you think about this Amendment?

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Sequestration Will Hurt Kids With Disabilities

English: View of Capitol Hill from the U.S. Supreme Court Česky: Pohled na Kapitol z budovy Nejvyššího soudu Spojených států (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sequestration starts today unless the Congress acts.  It will hurt the education of children with disabilities!

How will IDEA be affected? Under sequestration, federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will be reduced by $1,053,600,000 in 2013, or 28 percent of the total reduction to education programs. 

You can view an analysis and explanation by our friends at IDEA money watch here.

You can see the amount of money that your state  and the projected number of special ed staff will lose on this chart.

Now would be a good time to call your congressmen and senators and tell them to fix this.

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Sequestration Kills!

Sequestration - How Would it Impact the Everyday Lives of Americans? (Photo credit: Third Way)

How's that for a post title!

Sequestration is Washingtospeak for the automatic across the board spending cuts that are so extremely draconian that Congress thought they would force the combatants (formerly known as representatives of the public) to compromise on deficit reduction.  They have a deceptive name for everything, don't they?

Unfortunately, these folks don't know the meaning of compromise.  So in ten days we face the Great Sequester.  Remember the fiscal cliff...it's back!

Here is what the White House says will happen if sequestration occurs.  Here is the warning from our friends at the Council for Exceptional Children.  

Contact your congressman and senators.  Tell them not to let sequestration happen!

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Sequestration Will Hurt Kids With Disabilities

U.S. Congress. Joint Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters, ca. 1933 (Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives)









This post is about the dark side of politics.  These days politics rarely seems to have a bright side!

Pursuant to previously passed legislation, if the U S Congress cannot compromise on deficit reductions, sequestration will apply and on January 1, 2013, 8.2% across the board cuts will be applied to all federal departments.  A report by the White House shows that $4.1 Billion will be cut from the Department of Education, resulting in an additional $1 Billion in cuts to special education and related programs.  These programs are already stretched thin because of cutbacks and layoffs prompted by the bad economy.  The report notes at page 4 that sequestration will hurt children with disabilities.

You can read the 394 page report by the White House here.  A summary by the Council for Exceptional Children is available here.

Sequestration is bad policy.  Some programs cannot be cut; many probably should.  Special education should not suffer because our elected leaders forgot how to compromise.  Are they really going to balance the budget on the backs of kids with disabilities?  Stay Tuned.

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