Alyson Klein, writing at the Education Week (9/9, 39K) "Politics K-12" blog describes President Obama's calls for "$30 billion in new money to stave off teacher layoffs-and $30 billion more to revamp facilities at the nation's K-12 schools and community colleges" in his jobs speech Thursday. She quotes NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, "I think the American people are saying to Congress, it's time that you start caring about us. We have stories coming from the field, classes as large as forty or forty-five students in the elementary grades ... that's just wrong." She notes that the NEA "has already endorsed Obama's re-election campaign, but teachers are still skeptical of his policies."
The Huffington Post (9/9, Resmovits) adds that both the NEA and the AFT "praised the president for including $60 billion in relief for cash-strapped school districts in his jobs package announced Thursday evening. 'We have for months been talking about jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs,' Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told The Huffington Post." The Post adds, "Vice President Joe Biden called both Weingarten and Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association, earlier Thursday to brief them on the plan. 'I told him I was pleased with the things they were mentioning,' Van Roekel said."
No comments:
Post a Comment