Money to save teaching jobs only gets "lukewarm support from the White House" So it dies.

[Better Believe It]

Payout to save teaching jobs gets mild support from White House
By Associated Press
May 28, 2010

A $23 billion payout to save thousands of educators' jobs faltered Thursday -- perhaps for good -- to election-year jitters among moderate Democrats over deficit spending and only lukewarm support from the White House.

The proposal's chief advocate in the House abruptly canceled a committee meeting to put the money in a war spending bill. Its lead sponsor in the Senate gave up trying to do it, acknowledging that he lacked the necessary votes.

The developments jeopardized what liberals in Congress and some members of the Obama administration had described as a life raft for 100,000 to 300,000 teachers and other school personnel whose billions of dollars in salary subsidies, paid through federal stimulus funding, will run out this fall.

But voters have been telling politicians for months to hold down government spending -- even the kind intended to spur the nation's economic recovery. (Exactly what voters are those? BBI)

Some Democrats complained privately that the effort cried out for presidential advocacy. President Obama did not request the money in his budget; Education Secretary Arne Duncan seemed to be the only member of the administration making a strong case for it.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs released a statement that called for some emergency funding for teachers, but he stopped short of saying how much.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052706015.html

[DJ13]

1. Exactly what voters are those?

The only kind that seems to matter anymore to DC......conservatives.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Or, "the $23 billion education jobs bill faltered yesterday in Congress"

Edujobs Falters, but Is it Dead?

By Michele McNeil on May 28, 2010 6:56 PM

UPDATED

Even though the $23 billion education jobs bill faltered yesterday in Congress, proponents of this lifeline to the nation's public schools aren't giving up.

Yesterday, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis. canceled a committee meeting intended to add the $23 billion to the war-spending bill. Supporters have already encountered trouble getting enough votes in the Senate. And, apparently, Democrats are privately grumbling that President Obama isn't more involved in making the case for this money, which public school advocates say is desperately needed to forestall draconian teacher layoffs, according to this Associated Press story.

But the National Education Association's government relations director Kim Anderson said the education jobs bill simply got caught up in deficit politics, which are playing out today as the House considers a package of tax extenders involving jobless benefits and some tax cuts. "It's just a delay in time line," she told me today, noting that there's every reason to believe edujobs will be a top priority when Congress returns next month from its Memorial Day recess.

snip

In the coming days, expect proponents to concentrate more solidly on the House, especially as the Blue Dog Democrats dig in their fiscal heels over any attempts to add to the deficit by spending money without finding offsets somewhere else in the budget.

More at the link: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/05/edujobs_dead_or_not.html

I don't blame Obama for our misguided Congress.

:patriot:

[aquart]

5. Obama went to private schools.

It seems to have jaundiced his view of public education.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I don't buy that at all

I went to private schools. My dad taught for 40 years at private schools. But we have always supported public education. I now teach in public schools and my private school alumni magazine did a cover story on me and another alum who taught in a public school. The school honors us and is proud that we used our private school education to become public school teachers.

I know lots of private school grads who are strong supporters of public schools. So I don't buy this argument that Obama doesn't support public schools because he never attended them. Not for a minute.

[bluestateguy]

3. More obsession over the so-called "deficit"

If it can be acceptable to be an evolution denier or a global warming denier, then I will be a budget deficit denier.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. They tacked it onto the war funding bill

FAIL