PrintOctober 20, 2009
Obama's payoff to the teacher's unions
Just what did the National Education Association get for its massive help to Obama during last year's election?
From Politico's Playbook:
'Recovery Act expected to save at least 250,000 education jobs nationwide ... New Education Report Shows Recovery Act Critical to Restoring State Budget Shortfalls, Averting Layoffs and Driving Reform -- The Obama Administration today announced that preliminary indications are that state governments will credit the Recovery Act with creating and saving at least 250,000 education jobs across the country when reports filed on Recovery Act education spending to-date are posted online later this month.'
It appears that the Stim bill will save a quarter of a million education jobs nationwide. Now ordinarily, that might be a cause for celebration. But when you're talking about an organization that supports the bloated education infrastructure that is a drag on budgets and learning, then you realize there isn't much to celebrate at all; that instead of making the hard budget choices that might trim some of the gargantuan fat off of local school district payrolls, the Stim bill will simply help perpetrate a system that impedes educational progress.
And I would look with a jaundiced eye at those claims of "saved" jobs anyway. Anything having to do with judging the effectiveness of the Stim bill should be taken with a huge dose of salts. I eagerly anticipate looking inside the numbers of whatever propaganda is released later this month
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Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
