How a federal shutdown has effects on education

The costa rica government shutdown hasn't caused major problems for K-12 schools and better education yet. When it continues, however, funding streams could run dry.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell talks with kindergarten students at Lowrance Elementary in Memphis, Tenn. Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, reading "Otis," a children's book by Loren Long, in Jumpstart's Read for the Record education campaign.

The us government shutdown isn’t developing a drastic impact on K-12 and education within the U.S. — yet. But certain programs are actually feeling its effects and many others will in the event the shutdown isn’t quickly resolved.

Your head Start preschool program for low-income children has brought the hardest hit. The National Head Start Association said inside a written statement that 23 programs in 11 states have grant cycles which should have begun Oct. 1. Those grants were delayed. Start programs already took a 5 percent funding reduction last March on account of sequestration, and many may possibly not have reserve funds to last over the shutdown.

A story in Education Week magazine said state education leaders are having trouble getting solutions to their questions. The government Department of Education office isn’t taking calls because about 90 percent of their employees are furloughed. Which means state applications for federal funding may very well be delayed, contributing to financial losses.

Within the higher-education world, the shutdown’s most immediate effect is felt by researchers who rely on government-run archives, libraries and museums, said an account in The Chronicle of upper Education. The nation's Center for Education Statistics as well as the U.S. Census Bureau are among agencies whose research websites are not operating.

At any given time, the shutdown won’t disrupt student aid, but a lapse of longer compared to a week could curtail the bucks flow to colleges with federal grants, in line with the Department of Education’s contingency plan.

A shutdown more than a week long would severely diminish the money flow to varsity districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies, based on Education Week.

And this’s only some of the money worry in the education world. If Congress doesn’t improve the debt limit by mid-October, there will probably be major implications for school districts, states plus the overall economy, the story said.