Teachers Seek $23b- Lifeline or Bailout?

[thundley4]

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is asking lawmakers to put aside “politics and ideology” as they consider a request for $23 billion in “emergency” funding for public schools – a measure Republicans reject as a massive federal bailout for the teachers’ unions.

The Obama administration is supporting the bill, formally titled the Keep Our Educators Working Act and sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).  In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) dated May 13, Duncan warned that if the bill is not enacted, “millions” of school children will be adversely affected and the ensuing damage will “undermine the groundbreaking reform efforts underway in states and districts all across the country.

“This is a bipartisan issue -- politics and ideology, around education, we have to put to the side,” Duncan said during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” on May 21.  “I'm very worried, very worried about anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 teachers being laid off this year.  We have school districts -- due to the horrendous budget times, conditions they're facing -- looking to eliminate summer school this summer, eliminating after-school and extracurricular activities, going to four-day weeks, not five-day school weeks…None of this is good for children.  None of this is good for education.  None of this is good for the economy.  So we are urging Congress to move with a real sense of urgency to pass this legislation."

Many Republicans oppose the measure, citing previous federal outlays for education, the size of the federal deficit, and the fact that the bill forces no spending cuts elsewhere in order to pay for itself.

“Fundamentally, what you're seeing is the failure of the stimulus,” Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee, told Fox News.  “What we're looking at here in Michigan is 14 percent unemployment; nationally, we're looking at 9.9 percent.  We've seen a spike in jobless claims -- all of which was supposed to have been prevented by the trillion dollars this administration already spent to ‘create or save’ jobs.

Fox News

Another bribe to the teachers unions. This is nothing but a bandaid on a gushing wound.

[rich_t]

One of the big problems with our public education is the damn teacher's union.

To hell with them. 

[zeitgeist]

One of the big problems with our public education is the damn teacher's union.

To hell with them. 

Zeitgeist's simple solution:  Nationalize teachers, pay them the same in all fifty states, put them on Medicare, nationalize all state retirement programs and roll any money (most states are in the red) into Social Security.  Allow teachers to retire at the same age as anyone else under Social Security.  Eliminate all teachers unions since they would now be unnecessary with  the teachers working for the G, getting Medicare, and having SSI coverage. Let them keep their 401's but tax them liberally like they want to tax everyone elses. They want it for everyone else I say make sure they have the same opportunity the rest have in spades.

Of course this would empty out the teaching ranks in short order but who cares?  The kids aren't learning all that much anyhow.   

[DumbAss Tanker]

Pure bailout.  In the case of NJ and CA, benefit packages as generous and unsustainable as the Greek pension system, extorted by said unions, this should be a day of judgment on them, but instead we get a $23B time out.

[thundley4]

Pure bailout.  In the case of NJ and CA, benefit packages as generous and unsustainable as the Greek pension system, extorted by said unions, this should be a day of judgment on them, but instead we get a $23B time out.

How about bailing out thier pensions, too?

http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,44588.0.html

[DumbAss Tanker]

Money is fungible, it will be applied wherever the system that gets it wants.  Current pension contribution payments are part of the benefit packet and will go straight out the back door to pay outstanding pension obligations.  Even under the fiction that this is going to teachers' salaries and not pensions, it really just means that money already within the school system which would have had to go for current salaries will be re-allocated to pay those pension obligations. 

It's a lot like trying to boycott a particular commodity such as Venezuelan oil in an open commodity market, it has no significant net effect on the bad behavior.

[Mustang]

Most teachers are not worth half their pay, yet people want to pay them more...

The age of decadence, reward shitty teachers for teaching shit. Brilliant.

[Carl]

If they had a true and honest performance review I would be more sympathetic but since denying that is as much a holy grail as perpetual pay increases are to the unions I say scrap the system.