How Does the Sequester Affect Berryessa?

If you are paying attention to the political events happening in Washington, you are aware that automatic cuts in the federal budget (known as "sequester") happened today.  While it would have been better for Congress to take a more targeted approach to cuts, balanced with additional revenue, our district fortunately does not rely too heavily on federal money.

There have been a few stories published about the impact of the sequester cuts on education.  In the aggregate, California faces about $250 million in cuts.  This is mostly in Title I and Special Education funding.  The overall result of this level of funding reduction is outlined by John Festerwald here. 

Festerwald's column explains how these cuts do not hit schools right away.  Since all funding for the current school year has already been committed, sequester cuts won't be felt by districts until the 2013-14 school year.  That means there is still time for Congress to join with the President to undo these cuts and find other ways to adjust federal spending levels.  I spoke with Congressman Mike Honda, who represents Berryessa in Washington, and while he is uncertain how this will play out, he is hopeful that the sides will come together to make a deal now that the actual sequester cuts are being implemented.

The Berryessa School District currently receives about $3.7 million of federal funding for Title I and Special Education.  This about 7% of our total budget.  The sequester will cut education funding by about 5%.  That means the total effect on our district's budget would be less than one-half of one percent.  While a reduction of $250,000 in federal funding would certainly impact our budget, it is far less than the cuts our district has dealt with in each of the past 6 years due to state budget shortfalls.

We should all advocate for Congress to *increase* school funding, not decrease it.  Making these cuts is exactly the wrong thing to do at a time when economic growth is of paramount importance.  At the same time, these cuts are no reason to panic about our district's ability to continue it's progress in improving the education of Berryessa's children.