Eye On Freedom – Keeping a watchful eye on the preservation of our liberty at home and freedom around the world

Despite President Obama’s pledge for honest budgeting and billions of dollars in stimulus money spent to save teachers’ jobs, the Education Department is asking for off-the-books emergency funding to keep local districts from laying off school teachers next school year.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent Democratic lawmakers a request Thursday to pass a $26 billion emergency supplemental to fund up to 300,000 teachers’ jobs that he says will otherwise be lost in the fall.

Administration officials want to add the teacher funding to a $60 billion supplemental request sent to Congress to pay for ongoing military operations in Afghanistan as well as Haiti relief and money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed that measure on Thursday but Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has said he is reluctant to load the bill with additional spending goodies.

The request comes just a year after an unprecedented $100 billion in federal stimulus money was allocated to school districts as part of the $863 billion recovery act. Of that amount, $48 billion was designated for saving teachers’ jobs and investing in educational programs. Another $31 billion in stimulus funds were sent to school districts to use as they see fit.

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