[StBernard] Teacher Unions get paid off by Obama

[Westley Annis]

Should anyone really be surprised by this?  I think we all know this so
called "stimulus" package is nothing more than a big pork "spendulus"
package to pay off all the Demo's liberal supporters.
 
John
 
 
 
"Democrats and Obama thank teachers unions with 'stimulus' Money " 
 
Pete Chagnon - ONN News - 2/18/2009 7:00:00 AM  

The managing editor of Budget & Tax News says no money for education should
have been included in the recently signed economic "stimulus" bill.

 

In a recent press conference, Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned that if
the economic stimulus bill did not pass, up to 600,000 education workers
could lose their jobs as states face enormous budget shortfalls. But Steve
Stanek of The Heartland Institute <http://www.heartland.org/>  argues that
the bill should not have included the allotted $87 billion for education.
 
Stanek argues that the stimulus basically amounts to a payoff for teachers
and teachers unions who supported Obama.
 
"The teachers unions are extremely powerful at the local and state levels --
and certainly at the federal level," Stanek acknowledges. "You can look at
the money that [the Democratic Party] receives from the teachers unions and
it's enormous! And they are not fans of meaningful reform in education."
 
According to an Associated Press report, $39 billion is going towards K-12
and higher education, $8 billion is to be used in upgrading existing
schools, $4 billion will be used for Head Start and Early Head Start
programs, and $25 billion will be used to bolster No Child Left Behind.
Stanek has little positive to say about George W. Bush's signature education
program.
 
"I did not like No Child Left Behind. I think it's a huge intrusion of the
federal government into what ought to be local and state issues," he shares.
"It's a way for the federal government to simply grab more power, and I
think another $25 billion is just $25 billion more power the federal
government is going to have over public school education."
 
Stanek contends that lawmakers in Washington, DC, used the economic downturn
as an excuse to throw more money at education. He notes that in the last
decade the U.S. has only seen a nine-percent increase in student enrollment,
but a 22-percent increase in the number of teachers and administrators in
K-12 education.