Schools across the nation are looking for their own bailout

Reports are starting to come in that as many as 100,000 teachers might soon be out of a job if new sources of federal funding aren’t authorized ASAP – but will the Congress have the political will to explain the necessity of yet another emergency bailout-style appropriation? Even if its for the schools?

Obama is seeking support for another $23 billion to be sent to local school districts for the specific purpose of keeping teachers in the classroom, yet most Republicans and even some of the Democrats in Obama’s own party are resistant to the spending based on the concern that we’ve already spent way too much money in the near recent past.  Who would have imagined that keeping all of those zombie businesses and banks on life support would have actually caused some kind of… opportunity cost!

Whether or not the money arrives, there’s no guarantee that many states and districts won’t end up firing a bunch of teachers anyway or finding other places to cut corners in education funding.  It has been a relatively stressful time to be a teacher as there is a constant uncertainty about whether or not jobs and paychecks will still be around during the next fiscal year.  While many critics complain that it is hard to terminate educators based on performance-related evaluations, it is a lot easier to get rid of them when the money simply isn’t there to be spent.

And of course, its not just the students who lose out on the chipping away of public education – its the future potential of our society as well.  By avoiding these costs now, we’re really just pushing the consequences down the line, to when a new generation of kids grows up to realize that the political system never really cared about their well-being and human potential…