The Gavel: Bill to Save 319,000 Jobs Will Be Felt in Communities Across the Nation

The Gavel: August 9th, 2010 by Office of the Speaker

The fully-paid for legislation that reduces the deficit and closes loopholes that allow corporations to ship American jobs overseas is getting praise across the nation for keeping our children’s teachers on the job.

Teachers hope $26M jobs bill keeps them employed:

…Teachers call it the “yo-yo effect.” School budgets, facing severe reductions in state funding, are cut and layoffs are made, but then some or even all of the teachers are hired back over the summer as officials scramble for money…

State and local governments cut 29,500 education jobs in July, bringing total cuts this year to 61,800. More layoffs are likely as states still face yawning budget gaps…

Dave Ebersbach lost his job as a math teacher this summer, and he spends each day hoping that his poverty-stricken school in Ohio will call up and offer him his position back.

My biggest thing is I want to go back to the school I was at for the students,” said Ebersbach, 43, one of 14 math teachers in the Toledo school district to receive notice a few weeks ago that their jobs were cut. “We’re in a high-poverty school and one thing the students need more than anything else is consistency. And they’re not going to get that . . .
Aid bill provides $670M for NJ

Congress expects to pass legislation this week containing $670 million for New Jersey to expand its Medicaid rolls and prevent thousands of layoffs among teachers, police officers and firefighters…

New Jersey would get $400 million in Medicaid money and $268 million to avoid layoffs, mostly of K-12 teachers. The U.S. Department of Education estimated that 3,900 New Jersey teachers could be retained…

Michigan up for $600M in aid

Michigan is in line to get more than $600 million in school and Medicaid funding under a bill going to a vote before the U.S. House on Tuesday…

Michigan is slated to get more than $310 million in education money, the equivalent of 4,700 average teacher salaries, according to numbers provided by federal Department of Education…

This is not for bureaucracy,” [Gov. Jennifer] Granholm said. “This is for people, real people who need real help out here. And this bill was entirely funded … this doesn’t add to the deficit.”

Nebraska Teachers’ jobs hang on vote

… in a rare move, U.S. House members are being summoned back to Washington during their annual recess to consider a $26 billion package of education and Medicaid funding aimed at avoiding further layoffs of teachers and cuts to health care for the needy…

One person OK with the timing is Cindy Brazda, who was laid off from her position teaching high school business classes in Wood River, Neb…

Everyone always says you want the best education for your kids,” she said. If that’s going to happen, you have to figure out how to quit cutting these teachers and to keep them there. You can’t educate your kids if you keep cutting back . . .
Oklahoma may get $119 million to help save teacher jobs

…”Because of the historic recession, we’re having a tough time making ends meet, and the more resources we can get to classrooms and health care programs, the better for Oklahoma,” [Gov. Brad] Henry said.

In Tulsa, several hundred teaching positions were cut, and that story is being repeated in school districts across the state…

[Gov. Henry] said the federal legislation would provide a safety net to help protect important programs in the months to come and keep the state’s economy moving in the right direction…

NC leaders pleased bill could close gap by $343M

North Carolina likely won’t have to make across-the-board government spending cuts and could see thousands of additional public school positions preserved now that extra money appears headed to the state from Washington…

The $26 billion package also would give $10 billion to school districts nationwide in the form of grants to prevent teacher layoffs. [Sen. Kay] Hagan said North Carolina’s share could preserve 4,500 positions . . .The bill:

should secure every job for the coming school year, strengthen our retirement system, and give us the breathing room to prepare for the next couple fiscal years,” North Carolina Association of Educators President Sheri Strickland told colleagues . . .

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