Support Kids not Cuts

Across the board cuts are a bad idea and would be devastating to the programs and services that ordinary Americans depend on including education, transportation, public safety, medical research, and environmental protection. These cuts could also lead to the loss of tens of thousands of education jobs, but more importantly, the loss of services to millions of children.

• Funding for services like education, benefits for veterans, and transportation have already taken a $1.5 trillion hit. These built-in cuts bring non-defense discretionary spending to the lowest level as a share of the economy (GDP) on record.
• We need to make investments that strengthen our economy and protect core American values.  We’ve already asked our children to make big sacrifices. We can’t keep sticking everyday American families with the tab.
• Across the board cuts of over $3 billion would be particularly devastating for education, where cuts would result in:
  

• Services cut or eliminated for millions of students.
• Funding for children living in poverty, special education, and Head Start slashed by billions.
• Ballooning class sizes.
• Elimination of after-school programs.
• Decimation of programs for the most vulnerable – homeless students, English language learners, and high-poverty, struggling schools.
• Slashing of financial aid for college students.
• Loss of tens of thousands of education jobs – at early childhood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels.

• In real terms, across-the-board cuts could mean students crammed into overcrowded classrooms, 4-year-olds cheated out of early childhood education, and dreams not realized due to soaring college costs.
• Despite the fact that 5.8 million more students are in our schools today and that K-12 costs have increased by 36 percent since 2004, these cuts could actually cause education programs to drop to pre-2004 levels.

Click here to find out how pending across the board cuts would impact individual education programs, such as Head Start, Title I, School Improvement Grants, IDEA and more.

Click here for our Kids not Cuts Fact Sheet you can use when talking with elected officials.

State-by-State Charts on Possible Cuts

Use the links below to check out state-by-state charts and find out what sequestration cuts would mean for students in your area.