The Fake Jobs of Obama’s Government Union Bailout

Conn Carroll / August 16, 2010

When President Barack Obama signed the latest bailout for spendthrift states and government unions, he claimed the $10 billion earmarked for education spending would save the jobs of 160,000 teachers. But as we pointed out before the bill was signed, this number was completely made up. Since local governments always exaggerate the number of government workers they will lay off, only a tiny fraction of teacher jobs was ever in real jeopardy. And even then, layoffs could have been avoided if teachers unions would have just agreed to pay freezes or cuts.

Undaunted by this reality, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) took to the floor of the Senate last week and claimed that the state bailout bill would save 3,300 teaching jobs in her state alone. There is one problem, though. The Washington Professional Educators Standards Board surveyed school districts last spring and found that just 445 teachers in the entire state received reduction-in-force letters last spring. Oops. So how did Murray come up with her 3,300 number? (more…)