Budget cuts shouldn't mess with education

For those confused by all the talk about the White House’s new implementation of “sequestration,” it’s a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts to government agencies, totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years, according to CNN. However, this

$1.2 trillion will be taken from some of the nation’s most important agencies, including some here in South Carolina.

Funding for poor and disabled students’ education will be reduced. Special education will also be hit by the sequestration, which is discouraging for the 93,000 families in South Carolina with children who receive special education in public schools. These cuts could include $10.6 million for Title 1 programs that serve 250,000 students in 550 schools and $7.6 million for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which pays for services for students with disabilities. Cuts like these, which are aimed at controlling the enormous national debt, aren’t inspiring Americans to back the federal government, but catalyzing discouragement. Though it is no secret our nation’s economy is in desperate need of revitalization, cutting programs that affect so many is not the way

to solve the issue.
Head Start, which serves 13,000

low-income pre-kindergarteners, could lose $4.8 million in South Carolina, a significant number for a state with the 13th highest rate of functional illiteracy in the U.S.

With numbers like these, it makes no sense for the programs that tackle the root of South Carolina’s educational shortcomings to be cut back. It’s disheartening to see productive programs in our state being cast aside.