Will "Huge Teacher Layoffs" be Prevented?

Christina Romer makes the case for helping states keep teachers in the classroom:

How to prevent huge teacher layoffs, by Christina D. Romer, Commentary, Washington Post: The emergency spending bill before the House would address the education crisis facing communities across America -- and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers are at stake. Because ... state and local budgets are stressed to the breaking point..., hundreds of thousands of public school teachers are likely to be laid off over the next few months. As many as one out of every 15 teachers could receive a pink slip this summer...

Additional federal aid targeted at preventing these layoffs can play a critical role in combating the crisis. Such aid would be very cost-effective. There are no hiring or setup costs. The teachers are there, eager to stay in their classrooms. ...

Furthermore, by preventing layoffs, we would save on unemployment insurance payments, food stamps and COBRA subsidies for health insurance, and we would maintain tax revenue. Accounting for these savings, the actual cost of the program is likely to be 20 to 40 percent below the sticker price...

Yes, we all understand that our budget deficit is too large. ... But it would be penny-wise and pound-foolish to deal with that issue by failing to allot essential spending on teachers at a time when the unemployment rate is still near 10 percent.

The right way to deal with a budget problem that was years in the making is by formulating a credible plan to reduce the deficit over time and as the economy is able to withstand the necessary fiscal belt-tightening. ...

And here's the response:

Bill on jobless benefits, state financial help scaled back, by Lori Montgomery, Washington Post: Under fire from rank-and-file Democrats worried about the soaring national debt, congressional leaders reached a tentative agreement Wednesday to scale back a package that would have devoted nearly $200 billion to jobless benefits and other economic provisions...

After struggling throughout the day to reach a compromise, House leaders scheduled a Thursday vote on the slimmed-down package in hopes of pushing it through both chambers before the 10-day Memorial Day recess...

But the ultimate fate of the package was unclear as Republicans stepped up efforts to paint it as irresponsible when the recession and its aftermath are driving the nation deeply into debt -- a concern many Democrats share. ...

"This is fiscal recklessness. And that's why even some Democrats are starting to revolt," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said...

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) was noncommittal when pressed by reporters about the tax bill's chances in his chamber. ... While expressing confidence that some form of the legislation would pass, Reid said he had yet to secure commitments from any Republicans. At least one GOP senator must defect...

But Reid said the Senate would at the very least approve an unemployment extension before adjourning this weekend. "We can't leave here unless we address that issue," he said.

The deficit hawks generally talk about the fate of our children when making the case to reduce the deficit, but at a time like now when the recession is pressuring school budgets, how are kids helped by reducing their educational opportunities?

More on recent trends in education:

Economic segregation rising in US public schools, by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, csmonitor.com: ...The portion of schools where at least three-quarters of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals – a proxy for poverty – climbed from 12 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2008.

The federal government released a statistical portrait of these schools Thursday as part of its annual Condition of Education report. When it comes to educational opportunities and achievement, the report shows a stark contrast between students in high-poverty and low-poverty schools (those where 25 percent or less are poor).

Economic segregation is on the rise in American schools, and that “separation of rich and poor is the fountainhead of inequality,” says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation... High-poverty schools “get worse teachers ... are more chaotic ... [have] lower levels of parental involvement ... and lower expectations than at middle-class schools – all of which translate into lower levels of achievement.”

Cities aren’t the only places facing this challenge: Forty percent of urban elementary schools have high poverty rates, but 13 percent of suburban and 10 percent of rural elementary schools do as well. In some states – Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico – concentrated poverty affects more than one-third of K-12 schools.

Hispanic and black children make up the majority of students in high-poverty schools – 46 percent and 34 percent, respectively, compared with just 14 percent white and 4 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. ...

“There have been gains in achievement in high-poverty schools over the last decade or so ... but what we don’t see in most cases is a closing of the gap,” says Daria Hall, director of K-12 policy at the Education Trust in Washington...

In graduation rates, there’s actually been a backward slide. In 2008, high-poverty schools reported that 68 percent of seniors graduated the previous year, compared with 86 percent in 2000. For students in low-poverty schools, the rate remained about 91 percent.

Solutions have been hard to come by... While efforts to improve high-poverty schools are valiant, they’ve haven’t worked very well...