Today's Romney University video from former Congressman Tom Perriello is What Mitt Romney's budget cuts mean for Virginia. It is based our joint report with the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Drastic cuts to federal spending would shrink Virginia's middle class. The state stands to lose more than $46 billion in federal funding from 2013 through 2022, an average of more than $4.6 billion a year, from cuts to schools, law enforcement, highway repairs, job-training programs and more. These cuts would fall predominantly on middle-class and low-income families, especially cuts to education programs that would result in nearly $156 million in reduced federal support for education and job training in the state in 2013 and $361 million in 2014 alone.
The Head Start program for pre-Kindergarten children would be crippled. Under their plan, in 2013 alone Head Start in Virginia would lose $16 million, resulting in 2220 slots for children eliminated and 888 job losses. In 2014 those numbers jump to $38 million in cuts, resulting in 4,791 slots for children eliminated and 2,154 jobs lost.
Special education funding would be slashed. Under their plan $45 million in cuts for special-education grants would result in the costs for 24,785 students' special instruction being shifted to the states, jeopardizing their education and costing 644 jobs to be lost. But in 2014, these cuts become even more drastic with the cuts increasing to $103 million, resulting in 57,306 children at risk of no longer having their classes and 1,472 jobs being cut.
Big cuts for colleges and aspiring students. The Romney-Ryan budget would so severely restrict Pell Grant eligibility that more than 1 million low- and middle-income students would no longer be able to count on them to help pay for college. Cuts to these grants would be devastating to the 192,144 Virginia students who depend upon them to further their education. The average Pell Grant to Virginia students under the Romney-Ryan plan would be cut by about $850 a year.
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