Here's the NEA's position on Federal proposals regarding the budget:
The House of Representative is expected to pass very shortly a budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 (which begins October 1) that will result in more joblessness for the middle class and more tax breaks for the wealthiest in our country. The middle class continues to struggle to find work, pay more for health care, and worry about their children’s education and future. Seniors continue to worry about their retirement security. Yet, the House budget provides rhetoric rather than solutions.
and....
NEA believes that, particularly in these troubling economic times, investing in education makes both good fiscal sense and good public policy. Funding targeted to quality public schools will see the greatest return on taxpayer money and will strengthen the entire economy.
The NEA is supposedly concerned about public education. What has the Public Education Sector received this past year? States received a portion of the stimulus funding of $10,000,000,000 from the Education Jobs Fund, a fund to support education jobs in the 2010-11 school year. This money was distributed to states by a formula based on population figures, and states can distribute their funding to school districts based on their own primary funding formula or districts' relative share of federal Title I funds.
How many jobs were created or saved with $10,000,000,000 from the Federal Government? You can see the jobs saved from this document from the NEA. This particular graph breaks the money given and jobs saved by Congressional District.
This graph breaks the information down by state and district receiving funds.
According to the congressional, state and district maps it doesn't appear as if many jobs were created; the money apparently went to save education jobs...or did it? The graph doesn't indicate how many education jobs have been lost because of the downturn and in fact, some states used the money to plug up shortfalls in other areas of their budget.
What do you think is going to happen next year when there will be no federal money to shore up education jobs and the bill for implementing common core standards and assessments will be presented to the taxpayers? Will we have fancy graphs next year showing a zero contribution for federal money received and millions of dollars expected from the states to fulfill mandates and pay for education positions they can't possibly fund?
The NEA's position paper on the budget proposal states: the House budget provides rhetoric rather than solutions.
Our question: what do you think this stimulus money provided for Education in the long term? It "saved jobs" (perhaps) but doesn't seem to have been a solution for the worsening state budgets for 2012. The American people were told stimulus monies would help the economy and education. Was that rhetoric or a solution?
Sandy Stotsky gave testimony yesterday at this hearing in support of a bill introduced in the Texas legislature to ensure state sovereignty over national standards, curricula, and tests. All six speakers at the hearing spoke in favor and none against the bill's passage.
ReplyDeleteThe Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Florence Shapiro, was highly enthusiastic about the bill and will work to support its passage by the Texas Senate. The teachers' association in Texas also supports the bill.
The video link (below) is to the House Committee's work over the entire day. The beginning of the section of testimony is at 23.41, where Robert Scott, the Commissioner of Education in Texas, begins his remarks on the bill. Sandy Stotsky's testimony begins at 1.01.00.
http://tinyurl.com/3e4pf3z
I posted the comment above about the TX hearing. If you're not familiar with Sandra Stotsky's work, you can find information here:
ReplyDeletehttp://concernedabouteducation.posterous.com/transparency-yeah-right