"Deficit Hawkery's Harsh Impact on Education"

Why are we letting this happen?:

Deficit hawkery's harsh impact on education, by Harold Meyerson, Commentary, Washington Post: ...The worst recession since the 1930s is clobbering the nation's schools. ... A recent American Association of School Administrators survey ... shows how bad things are. One-third of the districts are looking at eliminating summer school... Fourteen percent are considering going to four-day weeks (last year, just 2 percent did). Fully 62 percent anticipate increasing class size next year, up from 26 percent in the current school year. ... Nationwide, estimates of teacher layoffs range from 100,000 to 300,000, with some experts pegging the most likely number nearer the high end. ...

One of the signal accomplishments of the Obama stimulus package ... was to spare school districts from more draconian cuts. Of the $787 billion legislation, $100 billion was directed to schools; while districts still had to lay off teachers and reduce course offerings, hundreds of thousands of layoffs and other cuts were averted. ...

But the $100 billion ... is largely spent, and no omnibus second stimulus looms. One problem with the current wave of deficit hawkery is that while it purports to be concerned with the nation's long-term debt,... it endangers our short-term recovery and our long-term economic prospects. Not to mention the development of America's children.

"You can't just push the pause button on kids' education and say, 'Wait a while,' " says Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin... Yet there is little willingness in Congress to craft another broad stimulus package even though education provisions plainly enhance the nation's ability to create a globally competitive workforce. There is also little support for finding offsetting cuts or tax hikes to pay for such a bill. ...

It is a mantra of the deficit hawks that they are working to ensure their children and grandchildren will one day have the same opportunities that they have had. But right now, in real time, those same children and grandchildren are having those opportunities taken away. ...