U.S. Senate To Vote On Education Aid Bill; Thousands Of Teaching Jobs At Stake

Amidst one of the most difficult recessions in American history, education has seen massive cuts to government funding. Without the proper funding, it is impossible for America’s public schools to preserve jobs and at the same time maintain reasonable classroom sizes.

Headed before the U.S. Senate is, what is being called a modest, health and education funding bill. The bill would provide $26.1 billion to the states, in order to help them deal with the budget shortfalls resulting from the housing crisis. About $10 billion of the aid would go to school boards to help with teacher hiring.

If the bill does not pass, thousands of teachers across the country could face mass layoffs for the 2010 school year.

The state of Kansas, for one, would experience more than 5,000 layoffs if the bill were to not pass. Other states, such as Arizona, Oklahoma, Indiana, Alabama, and more would face teacher layoffs in the range of 2,000- 5,000 per state.

Sources say that every state in the U.S. is dealing with a teacher shortage and while every state is going to incur layoffs in education, the passing of the $26.1 billion in state aid would reduce those numbers considerably.