How will the sequestration affect education in the United States?  Teachers, professors, and administrators are scrambling to assess the fall-out of the major cuts that will be implemented in educational institutions across the United States.

Federal spending cuts will directly affect many high-school students, college students, professors, and research scientists whose financial and research funding is provided by federal programs.

College and university students will begin to notice cuts when the new fiscal year begins in July 2013. “Although the Pell Grant program is exempt from cuts for the first year of sequestration,” reports the Chronicle of Higher Education, “programs like the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work-Study would be cut by millions of dollars, eliminating more than 100,000 students from participation.” These cuts are predicted to affect would-be college students over the next decade, perhaps preventing many from attending college.

Educational institutions at all levels of American society will feel the impact of the sequestration, since federal funding indirectly assists city, county, and state education.

Federal research funding through the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts will also be cut, seriously hampering new research studies and initiatives in all disciplines.

The sequestration will result in deep cuts that will limit students’ access to education and restrict professors’ ability to conduct new research. The cuts will only further erode the already weakened position of the United States in the competition for global leadership in education.

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education attempts to gauge the key areas of educational budgets that may be affected.