White House Claims That Stimulus Money is Saving Jobs in Education
The Obama administration claimed on Monday, October 19, 2009, that the economic stimulus had saved or created 250,000 education jobs. Republicans in Congress say that the stimulus package is wasteful and has not actually saved or created as many jobs as Obama claims. Many school districts around the country complain that the stimulus money targeted for education comes with too many strings attached, and that hiring people is problematic since the stimulus money will dry up, and leave districts with employees they can no longer afford to pay.
The White House released this on the official White House blog:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 19TH, 2009 AT 10:06 AM
Recovery in Focus: Saving and Hiring 250,000 Teachers
Posted by Jesse Lee
The Recovery Act, which the President signed in February, is having positive impacts on almost every conceivable sector of our economy, both in the short term and in terms of creating a new foundation for the future. But one of the areas that might be felt even more directly by families than most – again, in both the short and the long terms — is in education. A new report out today from the Domestic Policy Council documents just how broad the impact has been.
Read the Report: Educational Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” (pdf)
From the introduction:
Immediately after President Obama signed ARRA into law on February 17th, the Department acted swiftly to move the first phase of these funds to states in response to drastic budget shortfalls. Over $67 billion in formula grants have been disbursed as of September 30th. As part of the unprecedented transparency requirements of ARRA, the first quarterly public accounting of all expenditures to date will be posted by the Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board on October 30th. Initial reporting from states find that the October 30 release will show at least 250,000 education jobs created or saved across the nation that are supporting our students and fueling our economy.
The report meticulously looks at the impact the Recovery Act had on state budgets, which had legislators facing awful choices on how to close massive shortfalls. And as it goes on to explain, the benefits of the Recovery Act ended up going to virtually every student in the schools that were affected, since teacher layoffs effect virtually every student:
Saving and generating jobs for teachers has had clear effects in the classroom. As local school districts are faced with budget shortfalls in a slowing economy, the number of teachers employed may decline.
However, the need to educate students does not decrease. Fewer teacher jobs, without fewer students, may lead to larger and often unacceptable class sizes.
Faced with these circumstances, some school districts have chosen to use ARRA funds to avert such class size expansion. For example, reports indicate that Peoria, IL used ARRA funding to focus on increasing the number of teaching positions and reducing class sizes in kindergarten, and at the first- and second-grade levels. At the Rothschild Middle School in Columbus, GA, the principal was able use ARRA funds to hire more math teachers to deliver individualized attention to students through smaller classes.
ARRA has also provided significant funding for low-income students ($10 billion Title I ARRA appropriation) and for students with disabilities ($12.2 billion under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). These funds have all been disbursed by the Department and are currently supporting essential special education professionals and programs throughout the nation and bolstering schools in many of our poorest communities.
Along the lines of the aforementioned “new foundation,” the Recovery Act funds have also helped our schools move towards the kind of reform that the President has spoken about, and which has been embraced across the political spectrum:
The overall goals for education in the ARRA are to stimulate the economy in the short term and to invest in education advancements to ensure the long-term economic health and success of our nation.
- Currently ARRA is, in fact, providing urgent fiscal relief to states and restoring education budgets in school districts, while also advancing the Administration’s four reform priorities:
- Rigorous college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments that are valid and reliable for all students;
- Pre-K-to college and career data systems that track progress and foster continuous improvement;
- Improvements in teacher effectiveness and in the equitable distribution of qualified teachers for all students; and
- Intensive support and effective interventions for the lowest-performing schools.
Media and direct accounts from districts across the country provide examples of local initiatives that are focusing ARRA funds towards one or more of these reform priorities.
It’s always hard to step back and gauge the entire impact of the Recovery Act, but this is one area where the benefits to the country and our children are beyond dispute.
President Obama released a statement addressing the many problems in Sudan, including the ongoing genocide in Darfur, and the unraveling of the peace agreement that ended (or paused?) the bloody Sudan Civil War between the North Sudan and South Sudan.
Statement of President Barack Obama on Sudan Strategy
October 19, 2009
Today, my Administration is releasing a comprehensive strategy to confront the serious and urgent situation in Sudan.
For years, the people of Sudan have faced enormous and unacceptable hardship. The genocide in Darfur has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and left millions more displaced. Conflict in the region has wrought more suffering, posing dangers beyond Sudan’s borders and blocking the potential of this important part of Africa. Sudan is now poised to fall further into chaos if swift action is not taken.
Our conscience and our interests in peace and security call upon the United States and the international community to act with a sense of urgency and purpose. First, we must seek a definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses and genocide in Darfur. Second, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South in Sudan must be implemented to create the possibility of long-term peace. These two goals must both be pursued simultaneously with urgency. Achieving them requires the commitment of the United States, as well as the active participation of international partners. Concurrently, we will work aggressively to ensure that Sudan does not provide a safe-haven for international terrorists.
The United States Special Envoy has worked actively and effectively to engage all of the parties involved, and he will continue to pursue engagement that saves lives and achieves results. Later this week, I will renew the declaration of a National Emergency with respect to Sudan, which will continue tough sanctions on the Sudanese Government. If the Government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives; if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community. As the United States and our international partners meet our responsibility to act, the Government of Sudan must meet its responsibilities to take concrete steps in a new direction.
Over the last several years, governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals, and from around the world have taken action to address the situation in Sudan, and to end the genocide in Darfur. Going forward, all of our efforts must be measured by the lives that are led by the people of Sudan. After so much suffering, they deserve a future that allows them to live with greater dignity, security, and opportunity. It will not be easy, and there are no simple answers to the extraordinary challenges that confront this part of the world. But now is the time for all of us to come together, and to make a strong and sustained effort on behalf of a better future for the people of Sudan.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Statement-of-President-Barack-Obama-on-Sudan-Strategy/
See also: http://www.historyguy.com/obamapresidency/obama_sudan_strategy_2009.htm
Maria Shriver has partnered with the Center for American Progress to produce the Shriver Report, a look at the changing nature of women’s roles in society, particularly their rise in the workplace. Maria Shriver is promoting her new report, A Woman’s Nation, on television, including Meet the Press, and The Today Show.
Maria Shriver is the First Lady of California, a member of the Kennedy and Shriver political families, a former media personality at NBC, and is a best-selling author.
Her Biography can be read at: http://www.historyguy.com/biofiles/shriver_maria.html
Critics of President Obama decry his miscalculation on trusting the media to keep a traditionally off-the-record chat time actually off-the-record. While preparing to tape an interview, Obama made conversation with the reporter and, accurately, it can be said, called Kanye West a “jackass” for his rude behavior at the MTV Music Awards.
The question is: If Obama miscalculates on a comment like this, and cannot control his mouth, what happens when he comments on something serious, like his opinion of friendly foreign leader or some other notable? Remember his comments about the Yale professor and the police officer? That caused at best a major distraction for him, at worst, it showed that he does not always think well on his feet. A criticism he faced in the presidential campaign was that he was an excellent speaker with a prepared speech, but not as good at off-the-cuff remarks.
Addison Graves “Joe” Wilson (b. July 31, 1947)
Joe Wilson serves as a Republican Congressman representing South Carolina’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Wilson’s district extends from the state capital of Columbia, and goes down to the Carolina coast to the resort towns of Beaufort and Hilton Head Island. Representative Wilson is a member of the Republican Party’s conservative wing, and is best known nationally for his outburst against President Obama on September 9, 2009, in which Wilson called Obama a liar in regard to the President’s health-care reforms.
Rep. Wilson is a conservative Republican, who, until his shouted “You Lie” comment to President Obama, was perhaps best known as one of only seven Republican State Senators to vote to continue flying the Confederate battle flag over the state capitol, stating that, “The Southern heritage, the Confederate heritage is very honorable.” The South Carolina Senate voted 36-7 to remove the Confederate flag. Joe Wilson’s affiliations include membership in the organization Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Since his outburst on national television during the President’s speech, Congressman Wilson’s campaign has registered over a million dollars in donations from conservatives around the nation.
Given all the heat regarding President Obama’s upcoming speech to the Nation’s students, it is a good time to reflect on how past presidents have communicated to American Youth. Take the first President Bush for example; he spoke to students at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington City back in October of 1991. Did Democrats raise a fuss? And this right before the ‘92 election season. For the video and full transcript of President George H. W. Bush’s talk to students, kindly go to: http://www.historyguy.com/biofiles/president_bush_speech_to_school_kids_1991.htm
Sources:
Bush Public Papers-1991-October–From the Bush
Presidential Library and Museum
On eve of 1992 campaign, Bush 41 pitches education plan in televised classroom speech–DailykosTV
Barack Obama is not the first president to address school children –PolitiFact.com
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/3/776393/-Another-wingnut-meme-goes-down-the-drain
Van Jones Resigns Due To Controversy
President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Van Jones, resigned September 5, 2009 due to the cascade of criticism about his public comments and about his apparant belief that the Bush Administration orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in order to create conditions conducive to invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
Van Jones’ public comment in February, 2009 that Republicans were fecal exit orifices (he used the more common and much more cruder term than used here), as well as the fact that in 2004, Van Jones was one of “100 notable Americans” who signed a petition called the ”911 Truth Statement” from 911Truth.org. Republicans and other conservatives called for his resignation over these two incidents.
A new biographical page, detailing the political career of John “Honey Fitz” Fitgerald, one of the progenitors of the Kennedy clan, is now online at http://www.historyguy.com/biofiles/fitzgerald_john_francis_honeyfitz.htm
John Fitzgerald was the grandfather of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, President John Kennedy, and Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy.
Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in at 11 AM on Aug. 8, 2009 (8 AM on the West Coast), in Chief Justice Roberts’s conference room in the Suprme Court building. This will be the first time that a Supreme Court swearing in will be recorded on television. Prior to this event, television cameras have not been allowed in the Supreme Court. It is very interesting that Chief Justice Roberts allowed television cameras for the first time.
Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation of her nomination to sit on the nation’s highest court after the United States Senate approved her nomination on August 6, 2009 by a vote of 68–31. Judge Sotomayor will be the Supreme Court’s 111th justice, its third female Justice (after Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and the first Latina Justice. Technically, she is not the first Hispanic as former Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, who was a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese descent, was the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.
http://www.historyguy.com/supremecourt/sonia_sotomayor_supreme_court_appointment.htm
