The Markets and the Financial Media were stunned by the August Jobs report, which said there were no net jobs created in August. Whatever gains there have been in certain sectors of private industry, every parent in the country with school-age kids can tell you how a sizable chunk of those gains were erased.

Cuts to school budgets.

Serious business leaders know that poor schools today means less qualified workers tomorrow. Local chambers of commerce get it, but if you expect the US Chamber of Commerce to come out in favor of more actual spending for school districts . . . well, I’ve got an abandoned school building to sell you.

Let us consider who else might be looking for jobs today. Today’s jobs report, the President reminded us, showed the private sector added over 150,000 new jobs, but that was offset by state and local governments laying off another 30,000 government employees. Those public sector layoffs have been occurring for months, and it looks like that layoff average will continue for another year or two.

It’s important to remember that Republican governors like Scott Walker (R-WI) aren’t just targeting unions when they go after teachers — they’re targeting public schools. Why? Because conservatives hate them.

On the heels of massive public demonstrations in Wisconsin and Ohio after Republican governors over-played their hands in seeking to destroy collective bargaining for public employees and make punitive cuts to education, Florida may be next in line. Tuesday, March 8 has been designated the day to “Awake The State“, with over thirty demonstrations planned across the state, spanning from Key West to Pensacola. There will even be multiple demonstrations in Tallahassee and Miami.

In one of the local Kansas City area school districts, a proposed levy increase that would have put an end to three years of major budget cuts failed, and so the cuts continue even as enrollment rises. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, cuts are driven not so much by the economy but by union-busting politicians. Elsewhere in the US, teacher layoffs are being announced. ‘Tis the season . . .

And yet, despite all this, the teachers still teach.

I am so grateful for those who taught me, and even today I am still realizing just how much of a gift they gave me.

James O’Keefe is not the “boy who cried ‘wolf’.” He’s a serial liar.

It’s still “uniquely American” to hold down three jobs, even when you’re a college student.

Although there wasn’t any room for teachers’ jobs, there was apparently enough for some money for working people: included in the bill was $22 million in mine safety funding. This money will help alleviate a “backlog of more than 17,000 cases involving mine operator appeals of safety and health violations,” according to the House Education and Labor Committee.

Our country and its legislators have been considering cutting the food allowance to those suffering most in this recession in order to keep some teachers on the job, all while we appropriate $33 billion to fight around 350 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

At the AFT convention last week in Seattle, I outlined a vision to save public education. Our vision is:

• That every neighborhood school should be an excellent school that all families know they can count on, every year, for all of their children.
• To build on what works, and replicate it for all kids, in all schools, in all communities.
• Of schools where good teachers can work together to meet each child’s individual needs, where students develop their unique talents through a well-rounded curriculum, where all children have the support they need to reach their full potential.
• For teachers to get the necessary support to constantly improve, in an environment in which students have what they need to succeed.

That’s in sharp contract to the vision of what I call the blame the teacher” crowd, which has made some inroads among politicians and the mainstream media. Their proposed solutions inevitably come down to affixing blame – usually on teachers – rather than fixing schools.