With the clock ticking on the nation’s “fiscal cliff” crisis, education advocates are expressing mounting concern about how an automatic, across-the-board budget cut would decimate student financial aid and other higher education programs beginning January 1.
“It would have very far-reaching negative impacts not just on minority-serving institutions but on the rest of the higher education community,” Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, told Diverse this week.
With automatic cuts of 8.2 percent set to affect most federal programs, the sequester amounts to “shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said. “It would just devastate our already weak economy and put us on a wrong track.”
The “fiscal cliff” includes a series of expiring tax breaks and required spending cuts that would begin in 2013 because of the continued inability of Congress and the White House to reach agreement on plans to reduce the federal budget deficit. Also known as a “sequester,” the cuts would amount to $1.2 trillion over 10 years, equally divided between defense and domestic discretionary spending, which includes education.
All federal education programs—with the exception of Pell Grants—would face cuts in 2013, though Pell only has a one-year exemption and would face reductions should across-the-board reductions continue past next year.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate’s education appropriations subcommittee detailed other potentially devastating cuts. Among other reductions, subcommittee members identified these damaging reductions:
n Federal work/study: Funding would drop by $76 million, potentially reducing slots for 52,000 students.
