"The economic stimulus bill that is expected to win passage in the Senate on Tuesday would provide about $83 billion for child care, public schools and universities."While this is significantly lower than the $150 billion that the House voted on, it is still a major increase. I personally feel as though any amount of money and attention spent on furthering the nation's childrens' education is well received by educators, parents, and children. I am glad that the House is campaigning to negotiate with Senate negotiators over the trimming of money for school renovation and for money that was going to allocated for a fund for the states. The fund was going to be set up to help states and school districts continue paying their employees as the tax revenue plummets in the recession. With the budget shortfalls that I know North Carolina has had to make recently, I am disappointed that the Senate has chosen to trim that part of the bill. However, hopefully the House negotiators can do their job in working with the Senate to see what can be done in turn with the money that they do pass.
Earlier in the week on the 6th, there was another article entitled "Desperate School Districts are Eager for Stimulus Money," which also discussed how important this money is going to be within school districts and just how desperate the districts in this country are getting during this terrible economic situation. This article, also in the NY Times, focused in on New Jersey school districts in particular, which like states across the country has had to make tremendous budget cuts. This article did discuss the bill as it was being proposed in the House of Representatives before it was sent to the Senate and trimmed. But it did state that New Jersey alone could reap the benefits of receiving nearly $900 million from the Stimulus bill that on the 6th was still in talks of reaching $900 billion in all. In reading this article, it was releaving to hear that a local House Representative from NJ had held a conference call with nearly 100 officials in the education scene in NJ.
The third article that interested me on this topic was found in the Washington Post and entitled "House, Senate Negotiators Reach Agreement on Stimulus." This was the main article of the page and it did say that the negotiators were successful in creating a balance of requests that leaves a plan with a cost of about $789 billion dollars. The middle ground that was reached creates more jobs than the original Senate bill and spends much less than the original House bill. I am so excited to hear that the Senate and House were able to negotiate their differences and still come up with a plan that will hopefully work to ensure a much more stable economy in our country.
However, House and Senate leaders had not negotiated every detail as of late this afternoon. There will be a final conference committee meeting and one of the main things that will be discussed are the differences on school construction funding that the House and White House wanted to pass and Senate did not. The bill that was presented this afternoon included nothing on school infrastructure. Apparently, the bill was expanded to include more state aid specifically for school renovations, but the House was still unsatisfied.
I think that some money should be added, however I believe that the House did ask for quite a bit. The fact that both parts of Congress are working together so well. While I was in D.C. for Winter Term, two of my favorite speakers were Bob Beckel and Cal Thomas who spoke of finding middle ground between parties. However, I think that it is just as important for the House and Senate to be able to work together in order to get the stimulus plan passed quickly.
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