Education Jobs Bill Faces Tough Climb in Congress

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, left, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Catherine Poff, a teacher from Kentucky who has received a layoff notice, appear a press conference in Washington on May 26 that called for legislation that would provide $23 billion to help school districts cope with a looming layoffs.

—Andrew Councill for Education Week

$23 Billion Sought to Stem Massive Layoffs in Schools

By Alyson Klein

Against a current of political resistance—including from some Democrats—the Obama administration and congressional leaders continue to seek new strategies to pass a $23 billion measure aimed at helping schools stave off what could be massive layoffs.

The effort to advance the bill before Memorial Day met with bipartisan opposition in both chambers, including from the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition of Democrats, who worried about the impact of the measure on the federal deficit. The legislation’s sponsor, Rep. David R. Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, decided to pull the bill from committee consideration.

That doesn’t mean that Rep. Obey has decided to abandon the bill, said Ellis Brachman, his spokesman. He said the chairman postponed the committee’s vote on the legislation because...