Jared Bernstein Graphically Illustrates Republican Policy Towards Eduction

Yeah the Anti-Poverty Folks Sure Have a Funny Way of Showing It

It is no secret that Republicans hate public education, and would like to reduce spending in that area and re-direct public dollars to private education.  Jared Bernstein illustrates what has happened during the Great Recession.

The Decline in Education Jobs, Properly Measured

January 10th, 2014 at 4:46 pm

Taking a break from the confusing and unsettling jobs number today, I wanted to briefly highlight a post by my CBPP colleague Chris Mai on the loss of jobs in local education over the last few years.

Whenever someone raises this issue, my first thought is “ok, but what’s happening with enrollments?”  That is, it’s not an obviously bad thing for schools to adjust staffing levels to demand, i.e., enrollment.  As shown in the figure, that’s not what’s happening here.  Mai makes that point that these jobs cuts are occurring when enrollment has been growing.

 

While Mr. Bernstein does not break this down by states, given the Republican control of states and anecdotal knowledge of what Republican Governors and legislators have done it is pretty easy to determine where all of this is.

Exactly how this is going to help alleviate poverty, the currently in vogue issue for Republicans (for about another week) is not clear.