Friday, October 4, 2013

Breaking: Congress Holds Breath, Turns Blue

English: The western front of the United State...
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)











Perhaps the U S Congress needs a good second grade teacher to whip them into shape.

Seriously though the shutdown of the federal government, if it lasts more than a week or so, could adversely affect children with disabilities.  The Department of Education has ensured that federal IDEA money will be available at least for now, but any delay of a week or more will seriously cut into the flow of other federal money going to school districts and colleges.  The timing couldn't be worse coming on the heels of the 600 million dollar cut to special ed funds under the sequester (an odd name for Congress' meat cleaver approach to deficit reduction.)  Here is a great analysis  of the situation by our friends at the policy division of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Here is the U S Department of Education's official contingency plan.

Here's hoping that the "grownups" come to their senses soon!
Enhanced by Zemanta

2 comments:

  1. The president and congress need to do their jobs; they need to sit down together and compromise. The president's job is to lead the congress, compromise, establish a budget; all within the time constraints so there is not a government shutdown. They all knew that the deadline was coming up. It is not alright to be stubborn and blame it on the other side. Both parts of congress and the president need to become more responsible, sit down, and compromise until their work is done. A sign of a good leader is to negotiate and come to a conclusion (not be an irresponsible, stubborn person who wants everything his way or nothing at all). There is no excuse for a shutdown of the government, that affects the lives of so many.

    ReplyDelete