Teachers Seem to Gain Most from Stimulus
Federal economic recovery aid has created or saved 250,000 education jobs, according to a new report from the White House and U.S. Education department. While states and school systems continue to face enormous fiscal pressures, public school teachers are expected to be the big winners when states reveal how many jobs were created or saved during the first months of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan, the Associated Press reports.
Preliminary information from a handful of states indicates the stimulus sent billions of dollars to help stabilize state budgets, sparing what officials said were tens of thousands of teacher layoffs.
In California, the stimulus was credited with saving or creating 62,000 jobs in public schools and state universities. Utah reported saving about 2,600 teaching jobs. In both states, education jobs represented about two-thirds of the total job number. Missouri reported more than 8,500 school jobs, Minnesota more than 5,900.
In Michigan, where officials said 19,500 jobs have been saved or created, three out of four were in education.
“They’re going to be the biggest driver of jobs from the state side,” said Chris Whatley, who tracks stimulus programs for the Council of State Governments.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
