Secretary Arne Duncan and state education officials testified on the reforms implemented under “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) state flexibility waivers. Kentucky Education Commissioner Holliday also said that the automatic sequestration spending cuts would deeply affect his state’s schools, students, and teachers through loss of jobs and services. 
NCLB was an education program passed during the George W. Bush administration.
“Sequestration,” a legal procedure in which every federal agency has the same percentage of its budget taken back in order to cut deficit spending, was agreed to in the Budget Control Act of 2011 and scheduled to happen on March 1, 2013.