For California's K-12 districts and federally funded preschools, the "fiscal cliff" that is now consuming politics in Washington is more than like a distant canyon.

(Photo by Juan Pablo Garnham)

(Photograph by Juan Pablo Garnham)

The completeness refers to an beyond-the-board 8.two per centum cut in federal discretionary spending, including defense, that will go into effect Jan. iii if President Obama and congressional leaders don't reach a bargain on taxes and spending to reduce the federal debt by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Federal student loans, almost child nutrition programs and the Children'south Health Insurance Program would exist exempt from cuts.

The full cuts to almost teaching programs would be painful indeed if they were enacted: $334 million solitary in Section of Education funding for California, plus $75 million less for Head Showtime and $19 1000000 less in child-care subsidies, according to estimates by the staff of Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who chairs a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. But the cuts would not accept effect until the next fiscal year begins, on July 1, according to Erika Hughes, the federal policy liaison for the California Department of Didactics. Thus, districts would not merely gain time to plan for the impact of less funding in their budgets for next year, but Congress and President Obama would also accept some animate room to accomplish a compromise if the Jan. 3 deadline passes. That compromise might nonetheless include cuts, though not as big.

Although the federal regime contributes less than 10 percent of K-12 spending in California, funding is full-bodied on special education and low-income children. Title I grants to districts with low-income students would be cut $139.six million – the equivalent of serving 296,000 students; for Los Angeles Unified alone, the cutting would be $30 million. Special education, including services for preschool-aged children, would be cut $107 million statewide, according to the Harkin report.

Other cuts would include:

  • $23 million in funding for professional person development for teachers, cutting services for an equivalent of 24,000 teachers;
  • $15 one thousand thousand for career and technical pedagogy;
  • $12 meg for programs for students learning English.

The one teaching cut that would have event Jan. one affects Affect Assistance, which involves payments in lieu of property taxes to districts where federal facilities are located. The biggest recipient is San Diego Unified, the home of Naval Base San Diego. The district gets about $10 1000000 in Impact Assistance, and then an 8 percentage cut would be a piddling less than $1 one thousand thousand, according to Bernie Rhinerson, master of staff and commune relations for the district. Notwithstanding, payments from the federal government are always a twelvemonth or two behind, then there would be no firsthand impact, he said.

Personal income tax cuts affecting ninety pct of Americans that went into effect nether President George W. Bush-league, plus a temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes and other tax credits, also expire at the finish of next month, and economists have warned that the combination of higher taxes on most Americans and federal spending cuts would plunge the nation into some other recession. Obama and congressional leaders take expressed optimism that they will avert this.

The consequences for California's economy and the country budget would be severe if no deal is reached. Assuming an impasse over budget and taxes on Jan. 2, the nation's economic growth would decline 0.vi per centum instead of growing 1.eight per centum, co-ordinate to a upkeep forecast released this calendar month past the nonpartisan Legislative Annotator's Office. State revenues would decline about $11 billion, the LAO said, lowering the Proposition 98 guarantee for K-12 schools and more than than negating any revenue increases that districts were anticipating from the passage of higher state taxes under Suggestion 30.

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