How government shutdown would affect public schools
If the Republicans force the government to shut down this week over President Obama’s health insurance program, public education will be affected. While public schools will remain open, the U.S. Education Department will stop most of its operations, and there will be repercussions.The Education Department has published a contingency plan for its own operations in the event of a shutdown (see text below), which shows that 94 percent of its employees would be furloughed in a shutdown.
Federal funds that public schools expect to get for this academic year have already been approved by Congress and are already in the pipeline. But sending nearly all of the department’s employees on a forced vacation for longer than a week will mean trouble for schools. The contingency plan says:
A protracted delay in Department obligations and payments beyond one week would severely curtail the cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies that depend on the Department’s funds to support their services. For example, many school districts receive more than 20 percent of their funds from Department-funded programs.
Over 14 million students receive student aid, in the form of grants and loans, at over 6,600 schools through Pell Grants and Direct Student Loans, and if a shutdown is
Veteran teacher: The key failing of school reform over decades
Patrick Welsh was an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., for 43 years before retiring in June. He wrote a piece for The Washington Post’s Outlook section about his experiences with failed school reform efforts over … Continue reading →