More money for schools???

I came home today feeling gloomy. We had a staff meeting after school and the principal said she had bad news...then talks of budget cuts progressed and she informed the staff that a "seniority" list was being created at the district office because new teachers were on the chopping block. She basically said they had to somehow cut several million dollars from the budget and some special programs would be cut...class sizes would be getting bigger and there would be fewer teachers on the payroll. She said she just wanted to be honest and realistic with the staff so they knew what was going on and wouldn't be taken by surprise. Of course, a fellow cohort member and I were quite disturbed by the news...we will be looking for jobs when many more experienced teachers could be losing theirs! And I don't want to stand on my soapbox for long but it's a shame that it's simply a decision of cutting new teachers when in fact they may be even more effective than some "old" teachers. But that is another discussion to be had at a later date! Anyway...so I come home and open my email and here is this newsletter I got talking about how much money education could be receiving as a result of the new stimulus package. Pretty interesting stuff if you read the article and also the comments people have left..... interesting stuff indeed....

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-19-school-stimulus_N.htm