Bid to Avert Teacher Layoffs
Come next academic year, as many as 300,000 K-12 and public university teachers and staff could be sacked as money from last year’s federal stimulus package runs out, the Department of Education has estimated. To help avoid, or at least mitigate, an autumn avalanche of layoffs, the chairman of the Senate’s education committee Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says it looks as if he’ll be given one shot to win passage of his measure to dole out $23 billion to school districts and colleges, Congressional Quarterly (CQ) reports. The Senate Democratic leadership has promised Harkin it will make an effort to find floor time for a vote on the proposal, despite an already crowded legislative calendar.
While an economic recovery is underway, state budgets remain strapped for revenues as unemployment remains high and tax collections low. The bill is crucial to not only saving thousands of teaching jobs, Harkin told CQ, but to ensure that ongoing efforts to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as No Child Left Behind, are not undermined. The White House backs the measure and 25 Democratic senators have signed on as supporters, but so far no Republicans have. Harkin says he’s reaching out to GOP governors to help lobby Republican lawmakers. “We will push hard for this in the Senate,” he told CQ.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Teachers
