Oppose Teacher Employment Bailout Bill
From the John Birch Society 17 May 2010 e-newsletter:
“This bill would create an Education Jobs Fund that states can use for retaining or hiring employees, at the pre-K and K-12 levels, and also at public institutions of higher education,” proclaims Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on his newly introduced legislation, S. 3206. The Keep our Educators Working Act of 2010, is a $23 billion bill that would bail out municipal and university school teachers, with the funding to be used in six months.
It’s very true that every aspect of our economy has been affected by the recession and families and businesses have had to cut back their spending in various ways; even items once looked upon as necessities have had to be eliminated. Not so with the government-run schools. They are not expected to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending, or live within a scaled-back budget. They have the federal government to bail out at least the teachers’ salaries and benefits with another $23 billion of taxpayer money, even though public schools are already receiving $150 billion for education over two years from the stimulus bill.
The gift of $23 billion to educators will be used in 2010 for compensation, benefits, and “other expenses.” The bill is aimed at retaining or hiring “150,000 or more” government school employees. On Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website, Kyle Olson figured that the $23 billion spent on 150,000 jobs equals $153,333 per job. But with the average teacher salary, according to the teachers' union’s own data, at around $51,009, he wondered where the other $100,000 was going.
Not only is this a favorite bill of the 26 cosponsors -- all Democrats but for one “independent” -- it is also a favorite of teachers’ unions -- the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), colleges and universities, and individual teachers, of course. These “teacher advocates” insist that if they don’t receive these perks, education will suffer, so they are engaged in a “massive 24/7 lobbying campaign” to get Harkin’s bill passed.
Opensecrets.org reveals that Sen. Harkin received $45,000 from the AFT, and $73,886 from the University of Iowa since 1989. The website also reports that Harkin’s campaign committee has received $144,050 from the Education industry from 2005-2010. That's the kind of money that could get one wondering if it isn’t payback time.
Do you think it is fair, and constitutional, to have the federal government using your taxes to bailout teachers? Is it a proper goal and role of Congress to continually bail out unions? If you don’t think it is, immediately contact your representative and senators and tell them to stop all federal government bailouts, including S. 3206 -- they have absolutely no legal or constitutional right to redistribute our tax dollars into the pockets of government educators while busting our budgets.
Thanks.
Your friends at The John Birch Society
“This bill would create an Education Jobs Fund that states can use for retaining or hiring employees, at the pre-K and K-12 levels, and also at public institutions of higher education,” proclaims Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on his newly introduced legislation, S. 3206. The Keep our Educators Working Act of 2010, is a $23 billion bill that would bail out municipal and university school teachers, with the funding to be used in six months.
It’s very true that every aspect of our economy has been affected by the recession and families and businesses have had to cut back their spending in various ways; even items once looked upon as necessities have had to be eliminated. Not so with the government-run schools. They are not expected to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending, or live within a scaled-back budget. They have the federal government to bail out at least the teachers’ salaries and benefits with another $23 billion of taxpayer money, even though public schools are already receiving $150 billion for education over two years from the stimulus bill.
The gift of $23 billion to educators will be used in 2010 for compensation, benefits, and “other expenses.” The bill is aimed at retaining or hiring “150,000 or more” government school employees. On Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website, Kyle Olson figured that the $23 billion spent on 150,000 jobs equals $153,333 per job. But with the average teacher salary, according to the teachers' union’s own data, at around $51,009, he wondered where the other $100,000 was going.
Not only is this a favorite bill of the 26 cosponsors -- all Democrats but for one “independent” -- it is also a favorite of teachers’ unions -- the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), colleges and universities, and individual teachers, of course. These “teacher advocates” insist that if they don’t receive these perks, education will suffer, so they are engaged in a “massive 24/7 lobbying campaign” to get Harkin’s bill passed.
Opensecrets.org reveals that Sen. Harkin received $45,000 from the AFT, and $73,886 from the University of Iowa since 1989. The website also reports that Harkin’s campaign committee has received $144,050 from the Education industry from 2005-2010. That's the kind of money that could get one wondering if it isn’t payback time.
Do you think it is fair, and constitutional, to have the federal government using your taxes to bailout teachers? Is it a proper goal and role of Congress to continually bail out unions? If you don’t think it is, immediately contact your representative and senators and tell them to stop all federal government bailouts, including S. 3206 -- they have absolutely no legal or constitutional right to redistribute our tax dollars into the pockets of government educators while busting our budgets.
Thanks.
Your friends at The John Birch Society
