The U.S. Senate denied passage of an emergency spending bill last week that included a $10 billion provision to save 100,000 teachers who have been given pink slips due to shortfalls in state budgets. To call this a tragedy is an understatement and merely the latest in a litany of legislative efforts that undermine our education system and throw another roadblock in our children’s future.
Anyone with an ear to the ground on the education front knows we’re facing an emergency. My colleagues in the House get it, especially fellow House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, who fought to include the $10 billion provision. Our schools in Silicon Valley get it. Yet for some reason, Senate Republicans, responsible for killing the emergency funding last week, don’t get it.
Nationwide, an estimated 300,000 teaching jobs are in jeopardy, demonstrative of the severity of the situation facing state education budgets. This is not a new problem. This emergency was overshadowed by efforts to keep the economy from collapsing. We smartly passed “Pay-Go” legislation, which makes sure the government pays for new spending “as it goes.” “Pay-Go,” however, recognized that in certain emergency situations, Congress should be able to spend additional money — like for educational emergencies facing our nation.
Now that our economy is getting back on track, we must turn our attention to the future of our children. Given America’s low educational achievement rankings, repeatedly ranking near the bottom of the world’s 30 richest nations, the future of our nation’s economic competitiveness is at stake.
If this does not qualify as an emergency, I do not know what will. How Senate Republicans can justify blocking $10 billion that would have saved 100,000 teaching jobs is beyond me. To understand how bad it is, just take a look the crisis in Silicon Valley. The Cambrian School District had to cut $3.5 million out of its $27 million budget. To keep 30 teachers, who were slated to lose their jobs, Cambrian negotiated furlough days for teachers, increased class sizes and cut bus services.
The Campbell Union School District laid off various district and school employees, accepted a grant from the teachers union and increased furlough days for teachers. Even with these steps, Campbell was unable to keep all its teachers on board without increasing class sizes by two to four students per class.
The Cupertino School District planned to eliminate 107 teaching positions from its payroll. Cupertino raised $2 million in community funds, cut summer school and an array of instructional programs, and left a number of non-teaching positions empty.
Our school districts know how vital experienced, high-performing teachers are to a quality education for each child. They get that this is an emergency situation. Republicans, who don’t get it, proposed that we save teaching positions by cutting critical education programs — a response that would only worsen the crisis. They were even ready to go further by cutting “Race to the Top,” a grant program that awards states for innovation and excellence, and two programs that provided incentives for high performing-teachers and support for successful charter schools — all programs I support, as a former teacher, principal and school board member.
Cutting critical funds for education, as we work to rebuild our country’s economic competitiveness, is fiscally and morally irresponsible. We must save teachers’ jobs while simultaneously fully funding programs designed to reward innovation and excellence. Congress can and should provide $10 billion in emergency aid without cutting even $1 in existing programs. Our schools, parents and students have already faced enough tough tradeoffs and sacrifices. This is not one they should have to make.
MIKE HONDA, a Democrat, represents the 15th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He wrote this article for this newspaper.
