Schools bailout package should have strings attached

05-21-2010

Editorial/Los Angeles Times

The stirrings of better economic times have not reached state budgets and certainly haven't led to increased or even stable revenue for schools. And if the country is going to continue to invest in jobs as part of the economic stimulus, it only makes sense for some of those to be the jobs of teachers. We have strong reservations about the $23-billion Keep Our Educators Working Act, expected to reach the Senate floor by the beginning of next week, but those are outweighed by the alternative scenario in which millions of students around the country would lose their teachers. The new package would come on top of $54 billion in stabilization funds given to schools last year in addition to Title I and other federal education spending. That money was supposed to last schools for two academic years, but unions exerted heavy pressure on school districts to spend all or most of it in the first year in the hopes that more money would show up by the next year.

(more...)

Document Actions

Print this

Personal tools

Sections

Schools bailout package should have strings attached

Document Actions