Congress should be ashamed of bill that averts teacher layoffs

CONGRESSIONAL lawmakers should be ashamed of raiding food programs to fund a misguided bailout for teachers.

Known as the edu-jobs bill, the measure passed by Congress this week sends $10 billion to school districts nationwide to avert teacher layoffs. Teachers unions single-mindedly urged lawmakers to save their members' jobs even as many Americans lose theirs.

To come up with the cash, nearly $12 billion was drained from the food-stamp program and tens of millions more from the child-nutrition program that provides schoolchildren with breakfast, lunch and summer meals.

Union leaders may see this as a victory and testament of their clout and influence. But children's advocates are right to be disgusted. Cutting food programs and learning resources, such as the $50 million Congress took from an adolescent literacy program, will do more harm to educational goals than good.

Defenders of the bailout say the money will save more than 100,000 teaching jobs, including 3,000 in Washington state, and allow school districts to make new hires. But most districts have made their budget decisions and report fewer layoffs than anticipated. A new school year is just weeks away, huge changes in hiring are unlikely.

Congress also failed to use the money to exact reform. For example, advocates for poor and minority children failed to persuade lawmakers to make school districts shed a long-standing practice of teacher layoffs that prioritize seniority over other factors, such as effectiveness.

Education is the best investment of public dollars, but only if spending drives improvements, rather than rewarding a powerful interest group.

Lawmakers shouldn't be proud of spending $10 billion on adults at the expense of hungry children and those struggling to learn. They should be ashamed.