Indiana college students could feel the brunt of budget cuts if Congress fails to come to a budget agreement and the sequester goes into effect.
The sequester was an arrangement Congress came to in order to motivate themselves to agree on budget cuts, hoping mandatory cuts would spur compromise. It has also been referred to as the fiscal cliff.
Congress, however, has yet to come to an agreement and time is dwindling down as they only have until 11:59 p.m. Friday.
While Pell Grants are exempt from the planned cuts, college students could be affected in other ways. Fewer Supplemental Educational Opportunity grants will be issued, and fewer students will receive work study support.
Dan Reagan, an associate political science professor, compared the potential sequester effects to a tornado.
“Where you stand on a policy depends on where you sit,” Reagan said. “A tornado might be an event that will strike some individuals and communities and bypass others. The expectation is nationally that big cities and military communities will be more directly and immediately impact than middle class suburbs and rural areas.”
Reagan also said even if students are not directly affected by the cuts to educational funding, their families could be impacted in other ways.
For example, students with parents who are federal employees who also help pay for their education will experience financial strain. Some government employees will be have their hours cut back, which will result in a 20 percent pay decrease. This will affect their family’s ability to help with school.
“If a student has someone helping support them who works for the government, they are more likely to be impacted in a way that another student who has two working parents in private sector with job security will not be,” Reagan said.
Cuts will take place across the board in areas like law enforcement, mental health and social security. Students may feel the effects from any of the other areas of cuts.
Freshman political science major Michael Mahoney said even as a college student, he doubts it will directly affect him but it is an indicator of the state of the country.
“It does have the tendency to remind me of the problem with this country, and makes me wish that we could have sensible people in office,” Mahoney said. “Something is very wrong with this country, and while this sequester in itself isn’t particularly crucial, it does showcase the instability and unchanging nature of this oppressing two-party system.”
BY THE NUMBERS
(Information cited by Reagan, put out by the White House)
2,170 fewer Indiana college students will receive aide to help pay for college will come from other federally funded education aide programs like Supplemental Educational Opportunity grants
1,020 fewer Indiana college students will receive work-study support
In anticipation of the sequester federal employees were surveyed:
30 percent of those said if the sequester goes through; they will have a harder time paying for children’s education
57 percent will have to take on additional debt.
24,000 fewer Hoosiers will get federally funded job assistance, job search referral and placement
This link:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/sequester-factsheets/indiana.pdf
Has the numbers for cuts specific to Indiana across the board if you want to give numbers on different areas like mental health, food inspection, etc.
