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Obama Signs Spending Bill to Protect Teachers' Jobs
BHEF applauds passage of the Education Jobs Bill
Contact: Pamela Lessard 202-367-1284, Alex Sittig 202-367-2393
Washington, DC (August 13, 2010) — The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) applauds Congress and the president for passing a $26 billion state aid package on Tuesday to provide assistance to states for education and healthcare. The legislation includes $10 billion for an Education Job Fund that supports elementary and secondary education. Estimates suggest that as a result, 138,000–160,000 teacher jobs will be saved.
The importance of this bill is highlighted by recent research from BHEF that analyzes the potential impacts of teacher layoffs. BHEF’s findings show that over the long-term, teacher layoffs would negatively impact students’ decision to choose STEM teaching careers, thereby leading to potential shortages in the hiring pool of highly effective teachers for years to come. They would also reduce proficiency of students in the short-term, especially in hard-to-staff schools. These outcomes are exacerbated by the ‘last hired, first fired’ policies, as was the case at the highly-touted MC² STEM High School in Cleveland, where all but 2 of its highly recruited and specially trained teachers were let go.
While the bill will help, according to Education Week, the Education Job Fund will likely not offset all the effects of current teacher layoffs. For example, some school districts plan to use the aid to recall recently laid-off teachers, however other districts, such as those in South Carolina, will likely use the funds to prevent future layoffs.
About the Business-Higher Education Forum
BHEF brings together a coalition of corporate, academic, and foundation chief executives who provide leadership to improve U.S education and competitiveness. Learn more at www.bhef.com.
Through its Securing America’s Leadership in STEM Initiative, BHEF is working to increase the number of STEM college graduates by strengthening the math and science teaching workforce and pursuing promising strategies to strengthen the education pipeline that leads to STEM careers. BHEF has authored, “An American Imperative: Transforming the Recruitment, Retention, and Renewal of Our Nation’s Mathematics and Science Teaching Workforce,” which lays out a comprehensive plan for creating a robust, world-class teaching workforce.
In addition, BHEF provides in an open-source environment the first-ever simulation and modeling tool for the U.S. STEM education system, the BHEF U.S. STEM Education Model, developed by Raytheon Company, which enables researchers, policymakers, and educators to explore scenarios that can strengthen education and workforce outcomes. Learn more at www.stemnetwork.org.
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