I-1351 creates education worker jobs

The costs of a significant teacher gap are measurable

In an Oct. 3, 2014 publication, Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Center released a report entitled “Strong Jobs Numbers for Teachers in September, but Large Jobs Gap Remains.” In it she make a case for the need for 377,000 more education jobs nation-wide, just to get us back to pre-recession levels of employment and cover increased enrollments.

She states, “Along with dismal trends in public sector employment in general, about a quarter million public education jobs were lost in the great recession and its aftermath. If we add to that the number of public education jobs that should have been added simply to keep up with growing enrollment, then we are currently experiencing a 377,000 job shortfall in local public education. The costs of a significant teacher gap are measurable: larger class sizes, fewer teacher aides, fewer extracurricular activities, and changes to the curriculum.”

In the text of her comments, Gould referred to a “national jobs” chart that tracks the “total job change for pubic-sector workers” during the last four recessions in America – 1981, 1990, 2001, & 2007. The disparity of the 62 month recover figures between 2007 and the other three recessions is stunning. The most apparent comparison for me was the rate of recovery after the recession was declared over. All three of the of the other recessions posted dramatic post-recession public-sector growth (+9%, 5.5%, and 3.7% respectively), while the 2007 recession posted a continuing decline in jobs (-3%). The total discrepancy is 12%, 8.5%, and 6.7%, respectively. We have a long way to go to get back to where we should be.

I-1351 would create jobs for thousands of education jobs in Washington state. Estimates are for approximately 7,000 more teachers and about twice that many in classroom aides and other support staff. That would go a long way toward recovering the lost jobs and addressing the requirements of McCleary.

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http://www.epi.org/blog/strong-jobs-numbers-teachers-september-large/