In the tweet heard ’round the education world, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday afternoon answered a bipartisan call from Senate leaders to bring her members back to Washington to save 138,000 educators’ jobs.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), following their monumental vote this morning to move forward on a bill saving 138,000 educators’ jobs, urged their counterparts in the House to cut short their August recess. For President Obama to sign the bill in time for the start of the school year, the Senate must approve a similar version and the House must finalize that vote with its own.
This afternoon, Pelosi announced via Twitter, ‘I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors & children.’
Supporters pointed out that the earlier that schools know the $10 billion in aid from H.R. 1586 is on the way and the earlier they can receive it, the better their chances of preventing or calling off layoffs. Also, enacting the education jobs fund now will be less disruptive than waiting until mid-September when the House was originally scheduled to return from its recess.
(For the history buffs: this will mark the first time since the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1935 giving Congress’s leaders the right to reconvene either house ‘if the public interest shall require,’ that it has been invoked, according to the Congressional Research Service.)
By a vote of 61-38 (with Sen. David Vitter, R-La., not voting) earlier today, senators approved cloture, which moves the legislation containing $10 billion for education jobs funding forward one step. Snowe and fellow Maine Sen. Susan Collins crossed party lines to vote in favor of the motion, on behalf of the nation’s public school children.
Within the hour, Snowe joined Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) in calling for the members of the House to come back to Washington immediately to finalize the funding for education.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded the day’s events. From politico.com:
‘It is a great vote for American children, It showed a lot of courage,’ Duncan told POLITICO. ‘There were a lot of people of who given this up for dead. It shows you have to keep fighting and yes, I hope the House returns to get it done.’
Many parents and students return to schools across this country in the next few weeks and unless the bill is signed into law, they’ll find class sizes of 40, four-day school weeks, no after school programs, and fewer course selections.
To Urge your House Members to vote YES on the Education Jobs Package click here.
How much does each state get? Will it be enough? My district needed to cut 28 million just in teachers alone, in just ONE district! CA needs 10 billion just in education. I dont think this will help. Maybe in some states. But there are over 300,000 teachers nation wide who are unemployed at this moment. Its a start, but not the call we need.
Thanks for the comment Michele! Based on US Department of Education estimates, it looks like CA will be receiving $1.2 billion, which will save an estimated 13,515 jobs. You can see a chart of all the state estimates here.