Almost forgotten in the current election debate is the two-year-old debt-limit crisis, which resulted in a compromise that is only now having far-reaching effects on federal government funding.

As a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, a budget “Super Committee” was supposed to come up with a plan to cut $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The committee failed, and therefore an automatic across-the-board cut — the so-called fiscal cliff — will take place come January 2013, which will include $600 million in military spending and $600 million in discretionary spending. Some of those cuts will come from education.

President Obama has vowed to veto any attempt by Congress to override these cuts.

The biggest concern for educators is a cut in funding for Federal Special Education funding. The law is known as IDEA and funnels a large amount of special education funding to states. Like most federal funding it includes stringent requirements about how and for whom special education funding must be spent. These funds, if cut, won’t release Utah or schools from the requirements of IDEA and therefore will put even more pressure on regular education funding. Schools will have to provide the same services required by law, but will have to come up with the funds from the general education budget.

In a state like Utah, which already ranks 48th in per-pupil funding, the pressure is already at a breaking point in fast growing areas for class size reduction and increases in benefits and salaries. Obamacare has also increased overall benefits costs as health-care insurance costs increased as a result of changes in requirements on health insurance companies for pre-existing conditions, life-time maximums and other required insurance coverage.

The pressure is finally on, as our days of borrowing and spending have come to an end. We are now at the tip of the spear of the end of the federal spending boondoggle, and it is going to hurt.

Jeanne Whitmore is the founder and CEO of American Fork charter school Aristotle Academy, and an education columnist for the American Fork Citizen. You can learn more about Aristotle Academy at aristotleacademyk8.org or on Facebook.