Reduced State and Local Spending on Education Means Large Layoffs in Education

Is This America’s Priority?

In 2009 the Federal government put forth the much maligned Stimulus Program.  The Program was designed to stimulate a strong recovery from what is now termed “The Great Recession”.  Because the Stimulus Program was poorly designed and insufficient to the task, it did not achieve this goal.  It did arrest the decline in the economy and produce what has turned out to be a short lived expansion.

Part of the Program was massive transfers to state and local governments to keep them from drastically cutting spending and laying off employees.  This worked, but by the beginning of 2011 the funding ended and state and local governments have had to lay off substantial numbers of employees.

Since education is a major component of state and local spending, the layoffs in education have been devastating.  Mark Thoma’s excellent Forum shows this in graphic detail with this graph.

Note the relatively small layoffs in 2009 and 2010.  Why, because the Stimulus, which Republicans and Conservatives say didn’t work did work.  Why the huge layoffs in 2011.  Because the Stimulus was no longer in place.

For Conservatives this is a great story.  Not only do they have higher unemployment to blame on the Obama Administration, but the layoffs in education will further erode the quality of public education, giving them even more ammunition to support their goal to divert public education resources to private schools.  And it can all be blamed on  the Teacher Unions!

For those concerned about the future of the nation and the nation’s youth, not  such a good story.