MeanMesa is forwarding the following email from New Mexico Senator, Jeff Bingaman.
This is why the neo-cons, Republicans and other "tea baggers" have got their panties in knots to recapture the government. When they see a bill like this one, all they can think about is how to loot it before it gets out of the Senate.
Newsletter Update from U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman - September 02, 2010
As thousands of New Mexico families were preparing to send their children back to school earlier this summer, they were uncertain about how state budget cuts were going to affect their neighborhood schools. Fortunately for New Mexico students, the worst case scenario—extensive teacher layoffs—will not play out this year. Congress stepped in to help close budget gaps in school districts in New Mexico and across the country.
I strongly supported the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act, which is sending $65 million to New Mexico to be invested in our public schools – funding that will keep 1,000 teachers, who had been given pink slips because of tight budgets, in the classroom. This important funding ensures that, even in difficult economic times, we can put New Mexico’s children first.
Keeping teachers in the classroom is crucial to student learning and success. When teachers are fired, student-to-teacher ratios increase, and the remaining teachers and students are forced to try to teach and learn in challenging, overcrowded environments. New Mexico’s students deserve the opportunity to learn, graduate on time, and be prepared to compete in the job market and in college. Overcrowded classrooms are a barrier to that opportunity.
While we all agree that we must invest in our nation’s future by investing in students, we in Congress ensured that this boost to schools was done in a fiscally prudent way – without adding to our nation’s debt. To achieve this, we paid for this jobs bill by cutting current spending in other areas of the budget and by closing some unfair tax loopholes.
The education jobs bill also includes funding to maintain continuity of health care services for lower-income families. States are scrambling to continue providing basic services during tough economic times, and all too often services for the most vulnerable citizens are cut. To make certain this does not happen, Congress included Medicaid extension funding in the education jobs bill. The estimated $126 million New Mexico will receive through Medicaid will ensure that life-saving health care services continue, and will free up state funds to close the state’s budget deficit, while supporting other priorities important to New Mexico’s working families.
Our state’s economic future is riding on the quality of education today’s students receive, and that is why I voted for the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act.
Sincerely,
Jeff Bingaman
United States Senator
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