Will the madness ever stop?  Just over two weeks ago, Congress passed a $10 billion “Education Jobs Fund” that gave money to cash-strapped states to keep teachers and other school employees on the job.  It was spun as a victory for the kids, but the real winners were the teacher unions who were spared from making any concessions on pay and benefits that are necessary to balancing school budgets.

Once that $10 billion is spent, the structural problems of school spending will still remain.  A recent study from the Manhattan Institute and the Foundation for Educational Choice finds that “teacher pension liabilities for all 50 states now total almost $1 trillion….almost triple the cost of what state officials have on their balance sheets.”  The study concludes that these unfunded public burdens “could bankrupt state budgets including education programs.”

While the teacher unions won a temporary victory, we have to believe that they are paying careful attention to another, bigger bailout that is lurking in the shadows.   And this time, there is more at stake than just a few billion dollars.  If this latest bailout becomes law, it will mark the first time in American history that tax dollars are used to fund the pension plans of private—unionized—industry.

The teachers unions know that their lavish pension plans will result in a financial tsunami for the states.  Should this new bailout go through, it will pave the way for a massive bailout for the teacher unions, the likes of which have never seen.  This is a very big deal.

In late July, Sen. Dick Durbin (D – IL), the second most powerful Democrat in the U.S. Senate, announced that he is supporting the “Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act of 2010.” This proposed bill that would make certain labor union pension plans the “obligations of the United States.” Put another way, the American taxpayer will be on the hook for financially disastrous pension plans.

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Unions moved one step closer to receiving their own bailout Wednesday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the U.S. House back from recess to vote on a stimulus bill for unionized public employees.

The House will vote to create a $10 billion “Education Jobs Fund,” a euphemism for a public school bailout.  Those aren’t my words – that’s American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s line.

And Pelosi made a telling admission when she announced via Twitter, “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs…”

It’s not about student achievement.  It’s about protecting the adults.

Public schools have a spending problem, not a funding problem.  Pelosi and her regime are perpetuating the problem at a time America literally can’t afford it.

According to The Hill, Pelosi’s action came about after urging from a public employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Taxpayers must now foot the bill for the demands of unions and the politicians that kowtow to them.

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Senate Democrats were set to vote on a $10 billion bailout for public schools, claiming all along the measure was “paid for with spending cuts.”  When the Congressional Budget Office revealed it was going to add $5 billion to the deficit, the vote was delayed until Wednesday.

The National Education Association, the biggest beneficiary of the legislation, perpetuated the lie on its website.  The NEA stands to gain about $36 million in dues dollars.

While news reports indicate it could come up again Wednesday, here’s to hoping it won’t see the light of day again.

Americans can ill afford to continue adding to the deficit for a jobs plan that does little for the future and continues funding the status quo.  Public education has become little more than a public works project, throwing good money after bad.

Democrats in Washington are throwing a bone to the teachers unions – a very expensive bone at that – and it should continue to be opposed by sensible Senators from both parties.

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The two top teachers unions and Senate Democrats are proving the old adage that dead bodies float to the surface.  Just when we thought the wrong-headed “Education Jobs Fund” was dead, it comes back to life.

The U.S. Senate is poised to vote Monday on the “public school bailout,” the brainchild of teachers unions to stave off tens of thousands of school employee layoffs.  Progressive blogs say it will come at 5pm.

When Democrats realized the bailout wasn’t going to pass attached to the Afghanistan war spending.  It’s now riding on a Federal Aviation Administration bill.

The American Federation of Teachers claims the $10 billion in ”debt-financed” spending (ie. spending the money of the children unions’ purport to care about) will prevent the firing of 300,000 school employees – the vast majority of which are union members.

House Democrats and the Obama administration claim the public school bailout will save 140,000 jobs.  It would be nice if they’d use the same talking points and give us a somewhat accurate number – assuming one actually exists.

But using the union’s number, the school bailout would also result in a major dues windfall for teachers unions: an estimated $36 million for the NEA and roughly $14 million for the smaller American Federation of Teachers.

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It appears the millions of dollars the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers spent electing President Obama and a Democratic Congress is turning out to be a bad investment, because the Democrats in power failed to deliver the $10 billion “education jobs fund” for the unions.

Even the trimmed amount, originally $23 billion, was more than election-weary Democrats could handle and they removed the pork spending from the Afghanistan appropriations bill.

According to Politico, the Senate-passed version of the bill, minus the education pork, will now head back to the House, where leaders are anticipating quick passage so troops won’t be left stranded in the battlefield.

Thank goodness.

Now the teachers unions will see how the other half lives.  They, and the school districts they strong-arm, will have to made do within their means, just like American families and businesses.

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Democrats and the teachers unions are trying every which way to pass a $23 billion “education jobs fund” bill, a bailout for our public schools.  The money would be used to ease the ever-increasing burden of employee retirement costs, health care increases and other benefits.  The spending has little if anything to do with children.

But that hasn’t stopped the National Education Association from using children in its television advertising.  Kids are doing the dirty work for the adults because, of course, long-faced kids tugging at America’s heartstrings are much more impactful than a bunch of adults with their hand out.

The “education jobs fund” is little more than a back scratch for the teachers unions, because in 2008, they scratched the back of those currently in power in Washington DC with millions of dollars of campaign contributions and boots on the ground in key states and districts.

This all gets back to the fact that the NEA (and the AFT) wants to maintain its power and that is done through money and members.

Kids are an afterthought in the NEA’s political calculation, if they ever dawn on the union at all.

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