Cbs Channel 6 News Story Michael Reynolds Sr Green Country Veteran Feeding Tsa Workers
Stimulus Jobs Check: Are They for Real?
Where are all the jobs the White House is talking about? California got $18.5 billion in stimulus money, producing more than 110,000 jobs. Illinois got nearly $6.5 billion, and turned that into more than 24,000 jobs. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy brings us the story from California, and CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports from Illinois.
At Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, classrooms and budgets are tight despite the influx of stimulus dollars.
California received $7 billion for education. The government says that created or saved 62,000 jobs. But the teacher's union says California also made $6 billion in cuts to education resulting in 20,000 jobs lost. Friday, California's governor said that number could have been much worse.
"Teachers would have been gone if it wouldn't have been for the federal stimulus money," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "I just want to make sure you understand that."
Fairfax lost eight teachers - they each taught about 175 students, who are now packed in with the rest.
When CBS News visited, one student was sitting on top of a file cabinet because there weren't any seats. Forty-two kids were piled into a room built for 30.
"What does it mean for your relationship with the teacher and your ability to learn?" asked CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.
"You don't have that one-on-one with the teacher," said Arionne Featherstone, a senior. "If you have a question, you'll probably have to wait."
In one room, three students shared the teacher's desk.
"I think every student here knows that there's something going wrong when you have three students or four students sitting at the teacher's desk," said Ricardo Daniels, a student.
A lack of teachers is not just a problem here in California. More than half of the 160 superintendents who responded to a nationwide survey said they had to cut teachers in core subjects - despite getting federal stimulus money. More than 80 percent cut librarians, school nurses and custodians.
"The stimulus money has made the layoffs less extreme, but the stimulus money won't last forever," said Tim Daly, the president of the New Teacher Project.
Nationwide, $100 billion in stimulus was allotted for education. But three-quarters of that has already been awarded and it will all run out by 2011.
"Honestly I shudder to think what that situation will be like," said Fairfax Principal Edward Zubiate.
Without stimulus dollars, the principal at Fairfax is not sure he can even keep the supply cabinet full.
"You know the basic supplies: pens, pencils, inks for the copiers, etc.," Zubiate said.
Meanwhile, Ricardo Daniels is just trying to finish his last year of high school.
"I have to come to school every single day and do the best that I possibly can to become successful with what's handed to me," Ricardo said.
But what he's been handed is a school still in need of a handout.
In Chicago, CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds found that at the Ba Le Vietnamese Bakery, owner Tim Nguyen said the stimulus money sustained his business, saved his workers and found jobs for others.
"I was able to keep my employees and create more positions," Nguyen said.
He received a $270,000 loan from the Small Business Administration. Without that money, he said he would have had to cut employees' hours, and cut some jobs.
With the money he was able to proceed with plans to move to a new spot next door, which in turn created construction jobs in advance of the January opening. About 30 people had jobs building the new place, he said.
Seven miles away, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner toured a job training center that received $200,000 in stimulus, a center that helped Francisco Chavez land a job after 18 months without one.
"Going through the training made me more marketable," Chavez said. "It updated my skills. It enhanced them."
Don Schultz's construction firm did $8 million in business on four shovel-ready projects with stimulus money Illinois received from the Transportation Department.
While that meant jobs for 30 workers, those jobs end next month, and Shultz worries about what happens next for his business.
"We've got to just go out and get some more work and there's going to be less work because we don't have those stimulus jobs to bid on," Schultz said.
Which could bring his business to a grinding halt.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stimulus-jobs-check-are-they-for-real/
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