by Calculated Risk on 4/20/2010 06:48:00 PM

From Tamar Lewin and Sam Dillon at the NY Times: School Districts Warn of Even Deeper Teacher Cuts (ht Ann)

School districts around the country ... are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June.

... their usual sources of revenue — state money and local property taxes — have been hit hard by the recession. In addition, federal stimulus money earmarked for education has been mostly used up this year.
...
Districts in California have pink-slipped 22,000 teachers. Illinois authorities are predicting 17,000 public school job cuts. And New York has warned nearly 15,000 teachers that their jobs could disappear in June.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan estimated that state budget cuts imperiled 100,000 to 300,000 public school jobs. In an interview on Monday, he said the nation was flirting with “education catastrophe.”

These cuts will make the employment situation worse. This is also a reminder that the Federal stimulus spending peaks in Q2, and then starts to decline in Q3.