(On the clip below Whitehouse Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes explains to Joe Scarborough of "Morning Joe" how the Stimulus money helped save Teacher Jobs nationwide.
I guess Ms. Barnes never reads the Charlotte Observer because in Charlotte, NC almost 700 teachers were laid off this year with only about 350-400 re-hired. I wonder why the Charlotte-Meck. School district didn't use the Stimulus money to save more Teacher jobs. In fact I think most of the Stimulus Money distributed to Charlotte was pretty much wasted by regional Politicians, especially the Charlotte-Meck. County Commissioners who are notorius for wasting Federal money.
Charlotte Politicians (most of them) have always seemed to care more about building Jails than Educating young people. I wonder why.)
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Schools Are Where Stimulus Saved Jobs, New Data Show
The best symbol of the $787 billion federal stimulus program turns out not to be a construction worker in a hard hat, but rather 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. Of the 640,239 jobs recipients claimed to have created or saved so far, officials said, more than half — 325,000 — were in education. Most were teachers’ jobs that states said were saved when stimulus money averted a need for layoffs.
Although 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.
Of course, counting jobs that were saved can be a squishier proposition than counting jobs that were created. Teachers have been laid off in some areas — and budget officials say that there would have been more layoffs without the stimulus money — but it is difficult to say with certainty how many teachers would have been laid off without that money.
Indiana, for example, reported saving or creating 13,232 education jobs with its stimulus money, but Cris Johnston, the director of the government efficiency division of the state budget office, said that it was difficult to say whether the state would have actually lost those jobs without the money.
“We can’t make the statement that they were created or retained,” Mr. Johnston said. Indiana, he said had followed federal guidelines in reporting how many full-time jobs were paid for with the stimulus money, which also paid for education supplies and other expenses. And while New York City officials have said the stimulus helped them save thousands of teaching jobs, it would have been politically difficult for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to actually lay off that many teachers while running for re-election.
Hard hats could surpass teachers next year, as more construction projects get under way. In Florida, for instance, one of the biggest infrastructure projects is its plan to build the Indian Street Bridge in Martin County. But with a big, complex project like that, it takes a while before construction can start. That project, which will cost more than $72 million, claims to have saved or created just one job so far.
An analysis by The New York Times of the grants and contracts in the stimulus showed that as of the end of September, only 7 percent of the work had been completed and 9 percent was more than half done, while 46 percent was less than half done and 38 percent had not begun.
The jobs announced Friday were created by about $159 billion in grants, loans and contracts made available to the states. About $37 billion of that amount has been paid out so far.
The Obama administration said the jobs were evidence that the stimulus was on track to save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
Officials did not count jobs that were indirectly created by the $84 billion pumped into the economy through tax cuts so far, or from the billions of dollars’ worth of unemployment benefits and aid to states for Medicaid. If those were included, the administration estimated, the tally of jobs saved or created would rise to more than 1 million.
“There is strong and mounting evidence that the recovery act is putting people back to work,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said at a news conference in Washington.
The figures should be taken with a grain of salt, though. They come from reports submitted by more than 130,000 recipients of contracts, grants and loans that were published on the government’s Web site, www.recovery.gov. But officials expect there to be errors; the first reports of federal contracts earlier this month contained some filings that overstated or understated jobs.
The jobs reports came a day after new figures showed the economy grew by 3.5 percent during the last quarter, ending the longest economic contraction since World War II. But while many economists credited the stimulus with spurring some of that growth, many in Washington have raised doubts about the stimulus program’s effectiveness at creating jobs.
Republicans have cited the high unemployment figure, at 9.8 percent, as proof of the failure of the stimulus, which they voted overwhelmingly opposed. Democrats said that the recession was more severe than most economists predicted and credited the stimulus with helping avert a second Great Depression.
The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, questioned what had happened to the many private-sector jobs that the administration had promised to create.
“While Washington keeps spending and piling more debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren,” he said in a statement Friday, “out-of-work families keep asking, ‘where are the jobs?’ ”
Sensitive to such criticisms, the Obama administration invited a marquee Republican to the White House to praise the stimulus: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, whose state has faced perhaps the most severe budget crisis in the nation.
“Some of our colleagues are saying that it hasn’t done much, or was a waste of money,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said, sharing the stage with Mr. Biden. “Well, I would dispute that.”
He said the stimulus had created or saved more than 100,000 jobs in California, the most in the nation, more than half of which — 62,000 — were the jobs of teachers, professors and school administrators. Mr. Schwarzenegger noted that some people have questioned whether those teachers would actually have been laid off without the stimulus. “No, those teachers would have been gone, if it wouldn’t have been for the federal stimulus money,” he said.
Michigan, whose unemployment rate of 15.3 percent was the highest in the nation, reported creating or saving 22,514 jobs, the ninth most in the nation. But Rhode Island, whose 13 percent unemployment rate made it the third highest in the nation, ranked near the bottom with 2,012 jobs.
(CMS to restore 286 teacher jobs)
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman said Tuesday night the district will fill 286 teacher positions that had been eliminated earlier this year because of budget cuts.
The news means that some of the 665 CMS teachers laid off in recent months may have a chance to rejoin the school district. Those include some teachers with four years or less of experience, part-timers who want to go full time, and retirees not drawing a pension.
But not everyone who lost their job will be brought back, Gorman told school board members. For example, the district won't rehire teachers who were laid off because of poor performance.
And teachers may also face competition from others who have applied for jobs within the district.
The 286 positions being filled will join other jobs that have already been restored by CMS. That includes career teachers with five years or more of experience who have been rehired. In addition, the district is using stimulus money for other positions.
Tuesday's announcement comes less than a week before teachers are to report to work for the new school year.
Gorman said the district planned to post general job descriptions of open positions. A breakdown of which schools will get the jobs wasn't immediately available, with school administrators planning to work with principals to settle on staffing plans.
The teacher layoffs were part of more than $100 million in budget cuts CMS leaders have announced since the spring in anticipation of receiving less money from the state and county. In all, the district has cut more than 1,175 staff positions since spring.
But Gorman said the state cuts aren't as much as originally predicted, in part because the recently adopted state budget includes a 1-cent sales tax increase. He said the state revenue package helped to spare CMS about $20.6 million in cuts.
“We planned for the worst,” Gorman said. “We hoped for the best. I cannot believe that I ever thought cuts of this magnitude would still be the best, but it is still not as bad as we originally thought.”
CMS plans to spend $13.8 million to bring back the 286 teacher positions, with money also going to hire 20 high school counselors and secretaries. About $5.7 million will be spent on technology and textbooks to offset state cuts in those areas.
Gorman cautioned the budget estimates are still preliminary until state education officials tell CMS how many teaching positions will be allocated to the system.
Then, the school board must adopt a final budget for 2009-10, a vote that could come as early as its next meeting on Aug. 25.
School board members said Tuesday they're glad the district is able to bring back some of its teachers. But some, like Tom Tate, said they wished the district could also bring back support staff, such as social workers.
Kimberly Mitchell-Walker urged school leaders to bring back teachers who are the best performers and not those who are just the most popular.
Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, said she is “somewhat satisfied” with the plan to restore the teaching positions, noting that she is sad that teachers with less experience will have to re-interview for their jobs.
CMS will lay out plans for rehiring teachers
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials are expected to disclose plans today for how many laid-off teachers they will rehire for the upcoming school year.
Superintendent Peter Gorman also is likely to give some indications of how the system will decide which teachers will return.
Gorman is expected to outline those plans to the school board during tonight's 6 p.m. meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.
Gorman said last week that the decision by state lawmakers to increase the sales tax by 1 cent is expected to give CMS enough money to rehire "a substantial number" of the 665 teachers he laid off earlier this summer.
"We will bring back teachers -- absolutely," Gorman said late last week. "And I am thrilled about it."
Gorman said Monday that it might be several more days before state education officials tell CMS how many teaching positions will be allocated to the system, but he said the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools can't wait.
"We've got to move on this," Gorman said, noting that school starts in two weeks and teachers are due in classrooms next week.
The big questions are:
-- How many of the 665 teachers will be rehired?
-- How many will go to each school, and how will CMS decide which teachers return?
Gorman said last week that teachers who had low performance ratings, and those who were already receiving pensions, will not be rehired.
Gorman and his executive staff met for several hours Monday afternoon. He will meet later this afternoon with school principals, prior to the board meeting.
304 CMS teachers told of job loss
Just over 300 classroom teachers got layoff notices from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Friday, with more coming next week.
The layoffs, which take effect at the end of the school year, were anticipated. Superintendent Peter Gorman has been talking for weeks about eliminating hundreds of teacher jobs in anticipation of cuts in county money. He says he hopes to rehire teachers and other employees if the budget picture brightens.
But Gorman said in Friday's news release it looks like all the cuts he has outlined – just over 1,300 jobs, including 367 teachers – will be needed, “and perhaps even more.”
The CMS release, e-mailed at 5:23 p.m., says 304 teachers got pink-slipped Friday, including 178 teachers who did not meet performance standards and 58 who did not have full licensure. It was not clear what accounted for the rest. A spokesman for human resources Chief Maurice Ambler referred calls to the public information office, which did not answer phones or return calls.
Teachers who will get notices next week include part-timers, retirees who have been rehired and teachers on one-year contracts, the statement says.
Gorman has said he's targeting low-performing teachers, but as word gets out about who's losing jobs, there's bound to be debate over whether that's really happening.
“Some of them are valid,” Judy Kidd, head of the Classroom Teachers Association, said of the “action plans” that identify teachers in trouble. “But some of it's a retaliation by an administrator directed at a teacher.”
Jennifer O'Kane-Fenk, a high-school teacher who heads a group that advises Gorman, said Friday afternoon she had not heard about the notices. Teachers have been “so, so, so worried,” she said, and are unlikely to feel relieved even if they escaped Friday's cuts. An N.C. House committee has proposed cutting 6,000 classroom teacher jobs statewide, and it's unclear how that would play out in CMS if that plan passes.
“I don't think very many people think they're safe overall,” she said.
The CMS statement says teachers who have gotten layoff notices can be tapped to fill vacancies if they have good performance evaluations and a license.
Gorman's budget plan calls for eliminating 1,300 of the district's 19,000-plus jobs. Other employees who have already gotten layoff notices include assistant principals, campus security guards, school psychologists, teacher assistants and central-office staff.
The teacher layoffs are landing during a tough stretch for educators.
The state is taking a half-percent of their annual pay – $250 for someone making $50,000 – out of the final checks for this school year, just as teachers go into a summer without pay. A House committee has proposed furloughing teachers for five days in 2009-10 and 10 days in 2010-11 to save money, with the teachers working longer days so kids won't lose class time.
And the bad news comes while teachers are in the thick of year-end testing: Elementary and middle schools gave their state exams this week and high schools start next week. The state and local bonuses that have traditionally been offered for strong performance are expected to vanish.
Layoff notices going out to hundreds of CMS teachers
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will soon start sending out layoff notices to hundreds of teachers after the county manager said Thursday he'll recommend cutting nearly $34 million from the district next year.
County Manager Harry Jones also said he'll propose a roughly $2.4 million cut to Central Piedmont Community College when he presents his budget later this month.
The school district and college – which account for about half the county's annual spending – have been bracing for cuts for months. Both agencies were told in January to identify ways to trim their budgets by up to 10 percent below current levels.
Thursday's announcement in a memo to county commissioners helped to end some uncertainty about how deep the cuts will be, but nothing is final until commissioners approve the budget next month.
CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman said the news didn't surprise him. But, he said, “I'm sad for the students and I'm sad for the staff. These are difficult times.”
The school district was already planning to cut 534 jobs, but had planned to spare classroom teachers unless the county asked for cuts. Now, about 1,300 school employees – including more than 400 teachers – could lose their jobs.
Some jobs could be saved if the county cuts other services or raises property taxes, but commissioners say they want to avoid a tax increase. It's also unclear whether federal stimulus money could help.
“Our options are really very limited,” said commissioner Dumont Clarke. “There's really no magic here.”
Mecklenburg is facing a shortfall of at least $78.9 million in the budget year that starts July 1 because of declines in sales taxes and other revenue sources. To close the gap, Jones has recommended about $38 million in cuts to county services, including some layoffs. He also recently announced $285,000 in cuts from WTVI. The proposed cuts to CMS and CPCC means the county has almost eliminated the shortfall.
Some county commissioners said Thursday that while the education cuts are difficult, they are consistent with the cuts being asked of other county agencies. Together, the county will cuts its funding to the college and school district by about 9 percent each, the same amount, on average, as county departments.
CMS would lose more jobs
Still, the news for CMS could bring angst in many classrooms.
In recommending his budget last month, Gorman called for flat funding from the county. The plan eliminated 534 jobs, including central office staff, teacher assistants and others, but no classroom teachers.
However, Gorman also outlined four tiers of cuts to reach the 10 percent in trims requested by the county. Under that plan, a 10 percent cut would require losing 782 more jobs, including 456 teachers and 83 assistant principals.
Gorman said Thursday he expects to notify all the additional employees that they will be laid off, but he hopes to rescind the layoffs for some of them. The final payroll won't be known until this summer or later, after county commissioners and state legislators vote on spending for education and more is known about federal stimulus money. The county said CMS could receive at least $56 million in stimulus money.
It's not clear how much of the money targeted for high-poverty schools and disabled students can be used to save jobs, Gorman said. But the bigger question is an additional batch of stimulus money that must be requested and distributed by the state.
Commissioner Karen Bentley said the fact that there is stimulus money coming to CMS gives her some solace.
But commissioner Bill James said he believes the school district should get rid of some initiatives, such as the Bright Beginning pre-K program, before they cut teacher jobs. “Their charter is to provide K-12 education,” James said. “For them to threaten to layoff K-12 teachers while they're offering a pre-K program that's not part of their mission from the state is inappropriate.”
The school board will vote on the 2009-10 budget plan on Tuesday. Board Chair Molly Griffin asked board members to submit any changes they intend to propose by the end of the day Thursday, but as of midafternoon, the school board office had received no proposals.
CPCC braces
At Central Piedmont, spokeswoman Jessica Graham said the college will operate on a four-day workweek during the summer to help save money and also cut back on its maintenance and security. The college also is eliminating vacant positions, but for now it has not discussed layoffs, Graham said.
Graham said CPCC leaders understand the situation the county is in, and noted that the college is making cuts even as its enrollment grows. “We're having to do more with less, which is challenging,” Graham said. “But we're doing everything we can to adjust to the cuts as best we can.”
Commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts said county leaders have lots to consider in the coming weeks. She and others have said for months there is little community appetite for a tax increase, but she said not having one means there is little flexibility to make changes in the budget.
Jones will formally present his budget on May 19. He said Thursday that this budget season is “a time like I've never experienced before.”
“I wish we could do all the things that people want us to do,” he said. Staff Writer Ann Doss Helms contributed.
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Sources: NY Times, Whitehouse.gov, Recovery, gov, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, MSNBC, Morning Joe Show, Charmeck.org, Google Maps
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