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Posted on 10/30/2009 3:04:58 PM PDT by Steelfish
Schools Are Where Stimulus Saved Jobs, New Data Show
By MICHAEL COOPER October 30, 2009
The best symbol of the $787 billion federal stimulus program turns out not to be of a construction worker in a hard hat, but rather of a classroom teacher saved from a layoff.
On Friday, the Obama administration released the most detailed information yet on the jobs created by the stimulus. Preliminary data showed that of the 640,239 jobs created or saved, 325,000, or more than half, were jobs in education that school districts claimed were saved when stimulus money averted the need for layoffs. While the stimulus was initially sold in large part as a public works program, only about 80,000 of the jobs that were claimed Friday were in construction.
The figures do not include jobs indirectly created by the money pumped into the economy through tax cuts, unemployment benefits and aid to states for Medicaid. If those were included, the administration estimates, the tally would rise to more than 1 million jobs saved or created.
Of course, counting jobs that were saved can be a squishier proposition than counting jobs that were created. And while teachers are being laid off in some areas — and there would undoubtedly have been more layoffs without the stimulus money — it is difficult to say for sure how many teachers would actually have been laid off without the stimulus money.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So this is what our tax dollars were spent on? You can bet that little of it will be used to benefit the students, who would be better off not being there at all anyway.
Gee! That is just great. < /sacrasm>
Obama smoke and mirrors.
Too bad he paved the road to give their retirement to the UAW. I didn’t catch that in the story, did I miss it?
More good money thrown on a failed system!!!!
I am a conservative high school history teacher, yes there are some of us, and my district hired two new administrative positions with the money while laying off one teacher in our foreign language dept. The “Obama money” as the staff calls it runs out next year and the local taxpayer will have to pick up the tab for the new administrative positions. You can bet they will be stuck with it “for the children”.
Probably in the nick of time, too. I’m pretty sure that local school district taxes (they’re based on property taxes in PA) took a big hit when they came due in September.
‘saved’ jobs is a hoax. No one can prove it was ‘saved’. How about Obama ‘saves’ the 500 thousand that will lose their job next month!
A little gamesmanship with the numbers. For example, Ohio received ‘stimulus’ money that was used to balance its budget. Since they allocated ‘stimulus’ money to education, as opposed to something else, education jobs were “saved”. Accounting magic.
Stimulus money saving teaching jobs is a joke. From what I can see, there are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of government jobs of all types which are hanging on by a thread all over the country. How many govt jobs are safe in LasVegas? California? Michigan or anywhere in the midwest? New York? The list can go on and on. Stimulus money may save a few this year, but what about next year?
On top of this, consider the ridiculously rich and corrupt public pension plans which will never meet all of their obligations. These plans can either be renegotiated now or we’re going to be watching a series of mighty crashes all over the country. I know that property taxpayers, younger workers, or immigrant workers are not going to be able to handle a fraction of the obligations. The more that government tries to squeeze taxpayers, the worse things are going to get. Spreading the money around sounds great to non-thinking people (Obama worshippers), but it will wreck our country first. Consider that wrecking our country may be just what Obama may actually be trying to do.
Communists, each and every one.
In these matters government can only transfer wealth, minus the cost of governmnet administration.
So every job “saved” means wealth got transferred from somewhere else, wealth that couldn’t get used somewhere else.
How many jobs were destroyed in order to “save” the teachers’ jobs?
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