'Laid Off Teachers' a Fiction

President Obama, Gov. Granholm and much of the political class are misleading the public by leaving out key information when they say that the $26 billion state budgets bailout bill signed into law yesterday will reverse "thousands of teacher layoffs."

Those layoffs are a fiction. Here are the facts from the Mackinac Center's Michael Van Beek:

"As explained in a recent Mackinac Center 'School Funding Myths' series, because of advance layoff notice requirements and other budget inflexibilities imposed by most school employee collective bargaining agreements, districts here typically send out thousands of 'just in case' pink slips in June. Almost all the 'laid off' employees retain their jobs come September."

The president, the governor, the head of the Michigan Education Association employees union and others promoting the bailout bill are benefiting from the public's lack of knowledge regarding this regular annual pattern. Unfortunately, many media outlets are helping feed the misunderstanding by failing to analyze the claims of the political class. 

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