Sequestration Should Not Impact Greenville County Schools

The big, bad budget-slashing bogeyman that is "sequestration" went into effect Friday, but while other government agencies and entities could experience real pain from the deep and automatic budget cuts, the Greenville County Schools district said it doesn't foresee any impact.

"Our employees are not impacted, because we anticipated the possible cut and planned for it," district spokesman Oby Lyles told Patch.  

"Based on new information from federal relations personnel at the American Association of School Administrators, the reduction in federal funds due to sequestration is projected to be 5.3 percent, which for us is about $2.1 million," Lyles said. 

"We can cover this reduction by utilizing carryover federal funds and some small budget reductions in supplies," he said via email. "We anticipated this last spring, and therefore did not allocate certain funds. As a result of our actions, GCS personnel will NOT be impacted."

Other districts in the state might not be so fortunate. In the video above, S.C. Department of Education spokesman Jay Ragley discusses the likely impact on education in the state from sequestration.

Meantime, many are warning that sequestration could have severe impacts on school districts nationwide.

“Many school districts are going to be issuing layoff notices to teachers and aides in coming weeks as they build their budgets for the next school year, meaning that these federal cuts will have a substantial impact on our country’s economy as well as public schools,” said Thomas J. Gentzel, executive director of the National School Boards Association (NSBA).

More than 700 school boards have passed resolutions urging Congress to avoid the sequestration process, which would impose across-the-board cuts of about 5 percent to education and other domestic programs in fiscal 2013 unless Congress intervenes, which it has failed to do. Nationwide, K-12 programs and Head Start would face almost a $3 billion reduction for fiscal 2013.

Head Start, the federal program for preschool children from low-income families, would be cut by an estimated $398 million, immediately affecting services to 70,000 low-income children, the NSBA said. Title I federal grants for disadvantaged students would be cut by $726 million, reducing instructional support to almost 1.2 million educationally disadvantaged children and eliminating more than 10,000 teachers and aides, and special education funding would be reduced by $579 million, shifting those costs to states and school districts.

NSBA conducted a poll asking school board members nationwide how many layoffs they have issued or plan to issue in their district for this coming school year. The majority of the 219 school districts responded “up to 10” staff reductions, with some of the larger school districts indicating 60 to 91 or more staff reductions. Of the school district leaders who responded to the poll, 66 receive Impact Aid funding, which will see cuts immediately, NSBA said.

What are your thoughts on sequestration? Give us your opinions in the comment section below.