White House Calls on Educators to Support the Jobs Bill

By Tim Walker In a conference call with more than 2,000 educators earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden provided specifics on how the $447 billion American Jobs Act will help save educators jobs and modernize school buildings across the country. Biden urged all educators to call their representatives and senators to push for a [...]

Obama Jobs Program Would Boost Education

By Alain Jehlen In a speech to Congress on September 8, President Obama laid out a broad proposal to put Americans back to work with economic measures that both Democrats and Republicans have agreed upon in the past. “The next election is fourteen months away,” the President said.  “And the people who sent us here – [...]

As School Year Begins, States Reel From Education Cuts

By Alain Jehlen and Tim Walker Most school districts are heading into their third straight year of funding cuts, and students will pay the price. The Center for Education Policy (CEP) and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), two independent think tanks, recently surveyed the national budget landscape and detailed the extent of [...]

Budget Cuts Take Bigger Slice Out of School Supplies

By Cindy Long Education budget cuts take a big toll in the classroom – not only are there more students cramming into already crowded classes, there are fewer supplies to go around. Cuts have been so severe that many educators, who have long dipped into their own pocketbooks for classroom and student supplies, can no [...]

Public School, For a Price

By Rebecca Bright What is the value of a child’s annual school band performance? How about his first-year Spanish class or her position on the swim team? And who should pay for it? In an era of state budget cuts, a slow economy and decreasing tax revenues, many school districts around the country have been [...]

U.S. Competitors Agree: To Beat the Recession, Spend More On Schools

By Alain Jehlen In America, school funding cuts are the order of the day from coast to coast and north to south. But most of our competitors around the world have embarked on a different road to economic recovery. Investing in education is what’s going to pull them out of the quagmire and move them [...]

As Pell Grants Go, So Goeth the Economy

By Mary Ellen Flannery Teri Sibenaller, an English and education major at Northern Illinois University, knows she’s going to be a great teacher someday — but not if conservative lawmakers cut short the college dreams of millions of Americans who rely on federal Pell Grants to pay their tuition. “It’s taken me 10 years to [...]

What the Bush Tax Cuts Are Costing Education

By Tim Walker Recent polls show the public’s pessimism over the economy is on the rise, an anxiety fed by lagging job growth but also by the reckless budget-slashing on Capitol Hill. While the general idea of “cutting spending” has public support, when confronted with the details – particularly in the FY12 budget passed by [...]

GOP Budget Slashes Education and Health Services

By Mary Ellen Flannery On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled his much-anticipated 2012 budget proposal. Ryan calls his program The Path to Prosperity, which it probably is – if you happen to be rich and are looking to get richer. If, on the other hand, you are a middle-class American who [...]

Will Corporations Ever Share in the Sacrifice?

By Tim Walker Across the nation, public education, health care, and other critical services are getting slashed because, as many politicians love to say, “We’re broke.” Apparently it’s the fault of the middle class, so the burden of restoring fiscal stability has been placed on the shoulders of working men and women. It’s time to [...]

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