Old Obama Jobs Metric: “saved or created.” New Obama Jobs Metric: “supported.”

President Obama is claiming his jobs bill will create save support 400,000 teacher's union jobs.

Via Whitehouse.gov(pdf)

The American Jobs Act Could Prevent Hundreds of Thousands of Layoffs,
and Allow Schools to Rehire Thousands More:

• Nearly 300,000 Educator Jobs Have Been Lost Since 2008, 54 Percent of all Job Losses in Local Government: Local governments shed nearly 300,000 education jobs between August 2008 and August 2011. By another measure, employment of teachers fell by 7.2 percent between 2007-08 and 2010-11.
• Local Governments Have Lost Nearly 200,000 Education Jobs Over the Past Year: Over just the past 12 months, local government education employment has fallen by 194,000 jobs.
• State and Local Funding Cuts Put As Many as 280,000 Teacher Jobs At Risk Next Year: In the four largest states, budget reductions threaten teacher jobs and key funding for schools. In New York City alone, nearly 780 employees were expected to lose their jobs by October. In California, budget triggers may
shorten the school year. And in Texas and Florida, tens of thousands of teachers could be laid off.
• The American Jobs Act Will Support Nearly 400,000 Education Jobs—Preventing Layoffs and Allowing Thousands More to Be Hired or Rehired: The President’s plan will more than offset projected layoffs, providing support for nearly 400,000 education jobs— enough for states to avoid harmful layoffs and rehire tens of thousands of teachers who lost their jobs over the past three years.

The White House plays on the old idea that fewer teachers will cause increased class sizes and students learning less. That does not have to be true. Class size and money spent are not the driving factors behind improved student test scores. In Great Britain, they have found larger class sizes can lead to students learning more. Also, increased education spending does not necessarily equal better student scores.

 Via Education Next:

The strongest factors in increased math and science scoring by students was lack of strong teachers' unions involvement and strong competition from the private-school sector.

Via Education Next:

If President Obama really was concerned about education in America, he would ban teachers unions and institute school vouchers to increase competition. Sadly, President Obama is mainly concerned with saving the teachers, unions that are actually destroying education in America.