The Teachers and First Responders Back To Work Act
UPDATE: Unfortunately, it looks like Senator Brown has decided to vote against allowing debate on the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act. Without his vote, the Act had no chance of passing. So much for bipartisanship.
Last week Scott Brown voted against the American Jobs Act, saying “we should be working together to immediately pass the sections of the President’s jobs bill where there is bipartisan agreement”. Now he’ll get his chance. Democrats in the Senate have now broken the American Jobs Act into a series of smaller bills, letting each Senator vote for what they like and vote against what they don’t like.
The “Teachers and First Responders Back To Work Act” is the first of these smaller bills to be introduced in the Senate. The Act will invest $591.8 million in Massachusetts, supporting 6,300 jobs in education.
The Teachers and First Responders Back To Work Act is fully paid for with a 0.5% surtax on incomes over $1 million beginning in 2013.
In Massachusetts, 1,600 Education Jobs Have Been Lost Since 2008. As a result of the most severe fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, Massachusetts faced a budget shortfall of $1.8 billion in 2012, a staggering 5.6% of the state’s General Fund. Given the dramatic reduction in state revenue, the state was forced to slash funding for educational programs and services. As a result, Massachusetts schools have cut 1,600 education jobs since 2008. These unprecedented layoffs extended the recession and have slowed the recovery in Massachusetts. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 10/7/11; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed on 10/14/11; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 6/17/11]
With Fewer Teachers and Resources, Massachusetts School Systems Make Choices That Impact the Learning Environment for Students “Massachusetts enacted cuts to Head Start, universal pre-kindergarten programs, and early intervention services to help special-needs children develop appropriately and be ready for school. The state also cut K-12 funding, including spending for mentoring, teacher training, reimbursements for special education residential schools, services for disabled students, and programs for gifted and talented students.” [National Education Association, 4/10]
Democrats Helped Massachusetts Avoid an Even Worse Situation, Preventing Thousands of Potential Layoffs. Without Democratic intervention in 2010, Massachusetts school districts would have been forced to lay off as many as 3,900 teachers. Recognizing the financial difficulty that many state and local governments were experiencing, Democrats shepherded the bipartisan Education Jobs Act into law, thereby protecting 2,900 education jobs in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, thousands of teacher jobs are still at stake today. [U.S. Department of Education analysis, 8/6/10; National Education Association, 5/10]
Data courtesy of the DPCC, read more on their website.
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