Investment in public education is the best investment for the nation's economy, both in the short run and the long run. Additional federal money for public education will have an immediate impact on improving the employment picture because it is one of the most labor intensive industries. Saving an education employee from being laid off involves no wait time for grants and contracts to be drawn up or materials to be acquired.

An Education Jobs Fund will also help keep schools fully staffed so that class sizes do not swell and jeopardize efforts to raise student achievement and ensure our competitiveness, and will help keep education support professionals, such as guidance counselors, in our schools when many students' families are suffering financially and creating undue stress on children.

And, it will help address the negative impacts on student learning of economic distress. A recent study at the University of California found that children in families where the head of the household had lost a job were 15 percent more likely to repeat a grade.

I also support including in the jobs package an infrastructure investment program to modernize schools, put Americans to work and help students learn. Investing in school infrastructure will create jobs in the construction industry and among the many suppliers, ranging from architects and engineers to roofing contractors and other workers who design and build our nation's schools.

While Congressional and Administration leaders are focused on job creation, it will be counterproductive to lowering the unemployment rate if states and local governments are forced to lay off hundreds of thousands of public sector employees.

Education investments reflect good public policy that will help keep our nation on the road to economic recovery.

Sincerely,

Jamie Sanderson