Republicans nix bill to fund teachers’ jobs

Republicans on Oct. 21 scuttled a bid by Senate Democrats to spend $35 billion to save the jobs of teachers, police and firefighters. To pay for it, they proposed a 0.5 percent tax hike on income over $1 million.

The proposal was an attempt to salvage a popular element of President Obama’s American Jobs Act, which had failed to make it to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

“The choice is very stark with our colleagues across the aisle,” said New York State Sen. Charles Schumer at a briefing on Oct. 18. “Do you want to employ teachers and firefighters or do you want to protect those who make over a million dollars a year from paying a small amount more in taxes?”

Some 300,000 educators have lost their jobs nationwide over the past three years.

Some three out of four Americans, including 63 percent of Republicans, favor federal funding to states to help teachers and first responders, according to a CNN poll released on Oct. 17.

Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 18
Associated Press, Oct. 23