It’s 11 PM on Wednesday night, April 6, 2011, as I type this, and I’ve just watched President Obama give a speech on live TV from the White House about the ongoing discussions regarding attempts on the part of the Congress and the White House to reach a resolution on the issue of funding resolutions.  At issue: the risk of a government shutdown Friday night.  While the President sounded optimistic about the chance of a resolution in the next 48 hours, and emphasized the sense of urgency about it, he offered nothing new to indicate that it will be avoided.

So what will happen to education in the event of a shutdown?

EdWeek.org addressed this issue back in February, in an article published online titled What Would a Government Shutdown Do To Education?

The good news is that much of the funding at risk that affects education is “forward funding”, meaning that its budget dollars for future year funding, and not current ongoing operations.

However, there’s no doubt that the issues being deliberated are vastly more important than the question of whether the federal government will be in operation next week.  At issue are fundamental funding problems that risk long term damage to the overal stabilty of the country that run much deeper than that. 

OK, now I’m watching the House Majority Leader (Boehner) and Minority Leader (Reid) holding a press conference, and Boehner appears emphatic that no resolution has been reached on, well, anything really.  They’ve emphasized that their staffs are working through the night, but I’m not sure on what, if they haven’t agreed on anything …. ?

Should be interesting.