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John,
If right-wing extremists in Congress get their way, we will see an across the board 22% cut to human needs programs, including to education.
This would include cuts to K-12 schools in low-income communities affecting 25 million students, the dollar cut equal to layoffs of 60,000 teachers and education support staff. 7.5 million school children with disabilities would be impacted, with cuts deep enough to remove an additional 48,000 teachers and staff from classrooms.
Read Deborah’s email below for more details, then send a message directly to your members of Congress today demanding they support, not cut, funding for education.
Throughout the pandemic, children -- particularly low-income children and Black and brown children – were impacted by disruptions in their education. In the midst of our recovery, we cannot allow devastating cuts to further impact young people who are the future of our society.
Thank you for taking action today,
Nicolai Haddal
Field and Events Manager, Coalition on Human Needs
-- DEBORAH'S EMAIL --
John,
Public education is the bedrock of our society and -- if right wing extremists in Congress have their way -- it risks crumbling to pieces while cementing racial inequity.
We know that House leadership intends to propose drastic cuts to social programs as a part of the negotiation to raise the debt ceiling. They want to cut annual appropriations back down to the total in FY 2022. But they don’t want to cut defense spending. If the Pentagon doesn’t fall below this year’s spending and all domestic spending except veterans’ medical care shoulders the full reduction, then human needs programs including education face up to a 22% cut to critical programs and services. .
No cuts for our kids! Send a direct message to Congress demanding they defend the education budget against right-wing attacks.
Federal dollars for education help states and local communities fill in the funding gaps for primary and secondary education for low-income communities. And the learning gaps are stark now, with worsening test scores during the pandemic and a wide gap between Black and brown students and white students. In tests of California students, the percentage of white students performing at or better than grade level in English/language arts dropped from 65.6% in 2019 to 61.4% in 2022. Among Black students, the percentages at grade level or better dropped from 33.2% to 30.3%; for Latinos, the drop was from 40.8% to 36.4%. Among students with low incomes, the drop was from 39.2% to 35.2%.1 We need to invest to reverse the downward trends and to narrow the learning gap.
In the face of this, the 22% percent cut right-wingers would inflict on K-12 schools in low-income communities would slash $4 billion, affecting 25 million students, a cut equivalent to 60,000 teacher and other education staff layoffs.
$3.1 billion in funding would be cut if Congress institutes a 22% budget cut in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants to the states. A cut that drastic would impact 7.5 million school children with disabilities and would have the effect of removing 48,000 teachers and support staff from classrooms.
Our students deserve better. These young people are the future of our society and economy, and if we don’t make up for lost ground, societal racial and income gaps are only going to increase.
President Biden’s budget calls for increasing funding for IDEA grants to a total amount of $16.8 billion for special needs programs and a $2.2 billion increase in K-12 education for low-income communities; this is in addition to universal pre-kindergarten.2
The United States is the richest country on Earth. All of our children deserve to have access to quality education in safe environments. Click here to tell Congress to support, not cut, funding for education.
So many children have struggled academically due to the coronavirus pandemic. We cannot let right-wing extremists in Congress allow our children to fall further behind due to draconian cuts.
Thank you for all you do to support public education,
Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
1 California Test Scores Show the Devastating Impact of the Pandemic on Student Learning
2 How Schools Fare in Biden’s Proposed Budget
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