Dive Summary:

• On "Face the Nation" Sunday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said preventing the "dumb," across-the-board sequester cuts scheduled to take effect in five days isn't "rocket science."
• The March 1 cuts would especially hurt education funding, with HeadStart losing $406 million and 70,000 children, special education losing $840 million, 40,000 teachers and other school employees facing potential layoffs, and military cuts leaving service members unable to afford special services.
• When reminded that the sequestration was a product of the Obama administration, Duncan responded that the initial idea was for it to be so potentially painful that it would force a dysfunctional Congress to come to the table and work things out, but that Congress is still too "tone deaf" to what would happen.

From the article:

... "We don't have any ability with dumb cuts like this to figure out what the right thing to do is," Duncan said, asked whether his budget has any room to make cuts without triggering such painful consequences. "It just means a lot more children will not get the kinds of services they need, and as many as 40,000 teachers could lose their jobs. ...