By Alyson Klein
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. Only days are left before the country falls off the Fiscal Cliff. While theres been a lot of political posturing Congress doesnt seem close to figuring out how to cope with a series of planned tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in early next year. So what does that mean for education?
Well it means the automatic spending cuts that are set to hit just about every federal program including most in the U.S. Department of Education could go through at least temporarily. For K-12 programs and Head Start that would mean an across-the-board cut of 8.2 percent. The trigger cuts are known in Beltway-speak as sequestration.
Education isnt alone here. The cuts would also hit a wide range of whats called discretionary spending including health labor criminal justice and even military programs.
Way more about the cuts and Fiscal Cliff Cheat Sheet: 10 Frequently Asked Questions here.
Congressional leaders are slated to head to the White House today Friday Dec. 28th to meet with President Barack Obama to see if a last minute deal can be worked out. It seems no one on Capitol Hill would be particularly happy to see sequestration and planned tax hikes come to fruition. In fact earlier this year lots of policymakers predicted sequestration wouldnt happen including
President Barack Obama during a debate with Mitt Romney his Republican rival. Way back in March Rep. John Kline R-Minn. the chairman of the House education committee assured members of the Council of Chief State School Officers that sequestration was set up to be so bad that it would never happen.
And Sen. Tom Harkin D-Iowa who oversees the Senate panels that deal with both K-12 spending and policy held a hearing earlier this year on the impact of sequestration on education. Hes still hoping that Congress can figure something out in the 11th hour.
If fully implemented across-the-board cuts to Head Start Title I special education and other programs could have a devastating impact on students their families and the entire nation said Sen. Harkin in a Dec. 27 statement emailed to Education Week. I continue to hope that we can avoid that outcome by reaching agreement on a balanced approach to deficit reduction.
But that may be difficult. Leaders in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-held Senate each point to legislation that theyve already passed that would avert parts of the fiscal cliff and say its the other sides turn to act.
Sen. Harry Reid D-Nev. the Senate majority leader said in a speech on the floor Thursday that he thinks the country is headed over the cliff. Later however Sen. Mitch McConnell R-Ky. the Republican Senate leader left 
open the possibility that a deal could still be reached.
The good news for education: The biggest and most important K-12 programsTitle I grants for districts and special education state grantsare forward funded. That means schools wont start to feel the squeeze until next school year giving lawmakers time to work out a deal if they arent able to come to one before the end of the year.
But theres also bad news: For one thing at least one K-12 program will face cuts much sooner the $1.1 billion impact-aid program. That money goes to districts that lose out on tax revenue or have to spend extra money because of a federal presence such as a military base or a nearby Native American reservation.
Impact-aid districts are expecting their next payments in April said John Forkenbrock the executive director of the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools. If Congress hasnt figured out a way to stop sequestration by that point theyre going to get less money he said. Most districts have planned for the possibility already he said or can draw on reserve funding but the cuts would still be painful.
Another key education program Head Start the federal preschool program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also faces cuts early in 2013.
More bad news: Even though the cuts wouldnt hit right away states and school districts start planning their budgets in the spring meaning that if lawmakers continue to drag their feet states districts and schools may be in the dark about their federal funding even as they try to figure out their spending plans for next school year.
And it isnt going to be easy for states to absorb new cuts. Most of them are still struggling to rebound from the recent recession even as theyre working to implement critical reforms such as the new common academic standards and revamped assessments said Adam Ezring a senior advocate at the CCSSO.
These cuts would be devastating to reform efforts already under way in states and districts he said. And its difficult to drive that home to policymakers given the scope of the fiscal-cliff discussions he added. The issue of the fiscal cliff goes well beyond education he said. Negotiations are occurring at the absolute highest levels. Most lawmakers are not intimately involved in discussions at this point.
On top of that the Obama administration hasnt spelled out yet just how sequestration would work when it comes to maintenance of effort which requires states and districts to keep up their own spending at a certain level in order to tap key federal sources of funding.
And the administration hasnt been specific about what happens when it comes to another technical but important requirement of the Title I program which allows states to set aside 4 percent of Title I funding for school improvement activities as long as they hold districts harmless (meaning make sure they get the same amount of Title I funding as the previous year).
States would be unable to set aside those funds under the proposed 8 percent cut making it difficult to provide state level technical assistance and support to school i
mprovement activities Ezring said.
For a rundown of what cuts districts are facing check out this analysis of reports by the American Association of School Administrators.
The worst news: This isnt the last spending battle that Congress is facing by a long shot said Joel Packer the executive director of the Committee for Education Funding a lobbying group and an all-around edu-budget smarty pants. Congress still has to pass a final budget for fiscal year 2013 which began Oct. 1; right now the federal government is operating on an extension measure that expires at the end of March.
So where did these sequestration cuts come from to begin with? In a nutshell they were the result of a deal that allowed Congress to raise the debt ceiling back in the summer of 2011. And now yet again the nation will likely need new legislation or some kind of other deal to raise the debt ceiling early next year according U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
That could be another big fight Packer said. Theres almost an endless series of fiscal cliffs were facing; ... its just endless uncertainty for everybody.
