Florida Teachers Go Back to Work (FL)

August 19, 2010

Last week, the House approved H.R. 1586, the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. President Obama signed the legislation into law the very same day, sending $10 billion to local school districts to prevent education layoffs and rehire teachers who had already received pink slips. The law is expected to save the jobs of 161,000 American teachers, and is already impacting communities across the county. Today’s Miami Herald reported that the Broward County School Board recently approved plans to rehire nearly 100 teachers due to the influx of federal aid:

"With days to go before classes begin, the Broward County School Board gave the OK Tuesday for its superintendent to start recalling nearly 100 laid-off teachers and other teachers whose work has been curtailed.

"Broward schools will receive about $54 million to rehire teachers and other employees, thanks to a new federal stimulus package with $10 billion earmarked for education jobs."

Chairman Miller has been a lead congressional advocate for emergency aid to stop teacher layoffs, saying on many occasions, "We can’t allow a child’s education to become a casualty of what is happening in our economy."

Miller proposed a $23 billion dollar emergency "Education Jobs Fund" in late 2009 and authored the Local Jobs for America Act, which would help save local communities from devastating public sector layoffs.