Labor: The Secret Teacher Hiring Spree

It wasn't just a mad house-buying spree we were going through over the last decade, according to this eye-opening EdWeek article from Stephen Sawchuk. It was a mad teacher-hiring spree, too.

Six million Americans are already out of work. Layoff notices will outnumber actual layoffs by 100 to 1 when all is said and done.  Meanwhile, increases in the size of the teaching force more than doubled increases in student enrollment.  And the US Department of Education and the teachers unions (and bend-over-backwards education writers) all say that there's some sort of teacherpocalypse already upon us. 

It's impressive, and shameless, and it's sort of working.  Reformy types are whining about lack of strings attached to the Harkin jobs bill but are being told to shut up and go play in their little RTTT and i3 sandboxes. They can bask in all the glowy New York Times press coverage they want, as long as the teachers get their $23 billion.  Long live the teaching bubble.  May it never pop.  Because teachers unions aren't on their last legs.  They're the industry that's still too big to fail.