70,000 students may lose access to grants: US education secretary

WASHINGTON: As a result of sequestration - automatic spending cuts that comes into effect on March 1 - as many as 70,000 students might be deprived of their educations grants and more than 14,000 school teachers could very well lose their jobs, the US Education Secretary warned on Friday.

"Kids are going to get hurt. Kids are going to get hurt. That's just the reality," US Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters at a White House news conference, in an effort to warn the people and the lawmakers of the devastating consequences that the country's education sector might face once sequestration comes into effect on March 1.

President Barack Obama is meeting the top Congressional leaders on Friday to find a last minute solution to the looming crisis to the American economy and its budget.

Noting that sequestration would result in a cut of USD 400 million with regard to early childhood education, the Education Secretary said this means as many as 70,000 children would lose access to Head Start slots this fall and as many as 14,000 teachers who teach those children would lose those jobs.

In the schooling system, between 7,200 to 10,000 school teachers could lose their jobs. On the higher education side there would be a cut of about USD 86 million. "That cut would mean for the fall as many as 70,000 students would lose access to grants and to work-study opportunities," he said.

"While we're having this conversation about, you know, fewer teachers, fewer school days, less opportunities to go to Head Start, less ability to pay for college -- other nations, this is not how they're looking to improve their education system. This is not the conversation that's happening with our competitors in Singapore, in South Korea, in China, in India," Duncan said.

"As the (US) President talked about in the State of the Union, we actually want to invest much more in education. We want a lot more children having a chance to have a high-quality early childhood experience. We want to make sure that we continue to drive up graduation rates and make sure high school is relevant and drive down dropout rates and make sure all our young people are college- and career-ready," he said.