The federal Department of Education is trying to push a jobs bill through Congress that would save an estimated 7,100 teachers in Tennessee from getting a pink slip this fall.
The U.S. House has passed the jobs bill and it’s still being debated in the Senate. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is trying to apply the pressure of an impending school year, saying Congress doesn’t have time to delay.
“To see 7,100 teachers being laid off going into the fall is not good for anybody, obviously terrible educationally. I would argue from an economic standpoint, you don’t want these teachers in Tennessee and across the country in the unemployment lines and not in the classroom.”
Duncan says the bill would pump nearly $200 million into Tennessee to save teaching jobs. He doesn’t propose how to pay for the $10 billion package, but he says he doesn’t like a proposal in the Senate that takes money out of the Race to the Top fund.
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