NAPCS Federal Issues Update
From the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:
Fiscal Year 2013 Appropriations:
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner announced that they reached a deal to keep the federal government funded for the first six months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, meaning there will be no threat of a government shutdown when FY 2013 starts on October 1. The funding deal will generally keep government spending at current levels through March 2013. Both chambers of Congress will likely vote on a Continuing Resolution (CR) to this effect in September. After the vote on the CR, Congress will return to the work of finalizing the appropriations for the FY 2013 budget, including for the Charter Schools Program (CSP). As more information becomes available about the CR and the FY 2013 budget appropriations language for the CSP, we’ll be in touch.
Budget Sequestration: As you may have picked up, there has been increasing talk in Washington, D.C. about significant cuts to the federal government’s budget via a possible budget sequestration in January 2013. For example, see the following links:
* A recent blog post from Education Week - http://blogs.edweek.org/
* A new report from Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies - http://harkin.senate.gov/
Given the importance of this issue, we asked our lobbying firm – the Penn Hill Group – to draft the attached memorandum that explains what budget sequestration is as well as the potential implications of it. We have also posted a blog about this issue - http://publiccharters.org/
In addition, we are working with the Committee for Education Funding, the nation’s oldest and largest coalition of education organizations, to oppose any cuts to federal education funding in general. We will continue to monitor the discussions on this matter and will keep you informed about it throughout the rest of this year.
If you have any questions about these two matters (or others), please contact me at 414-288-0756 or todd@publiccharters.org.
