Great Timing, CCSD.

For some time, CCSD Administrators have cried that they're just too poor to keep all those horribly mean & expensive teachers on the job. Never mind that they always seem to find the money pay Dwight Jones a cool $282,571 (!!!) salary, fly him to fancy vacations conferences and recruitment sessions, and shower him with all the "support staff" and iPads he could ever desire. But now, we may finally see a bit of a reprieve as the feds are coming to the rescue.

The Clark County School District might be able to temporarily rehire about half of the 419 teachers it laid off last month after the School Board approved on Thursday the use of federal funding to serve the district’s most disadvantaged students.

The School District will receive nearly $82 million next school year through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of Title I, which grants federal dollars to public and private schools with high numbers of students from low-income families.

Each of these “Title I” schools will receive an additional $100 to $375 on top of the district’s per-pupil funding. The goal of the program is to lower the achievement gap between rich and poor students.

Nearly half — or $43 million — of this federal money will fund 199 additional teachers for one year at “Title I” schools. District officials maintained this federal money could not be used to restore lost teacher positions throughout the district, but only to fill “high-need” positions for one year at the 224 schools receiving “Title I” funding.

More than 1,000 teaching positions — including 419 current teachers — were eliminated from the district last month to help plug a $64 million budget deficit next fiscal year.

In order to qualify for federal Title I funding, schools must have at least 40% of students qualifying for free and reduced price school lunches. It's funny how these vultures administrators have no desire to feed kids from working poor families until it serves their political interests. I'd be laughing if we weren't talking about real life.

And in case that isn't disgusting enough, CCSD won't even commit to rehiring the teachers they just pink-slipped for no good reason. Oh no, they're already flirting with finding cheaper replacements. While it's often great to bring in new blood and fresh energy, it's egregiously offensive to ignominiously dump veteran teachers after threatening to bankrupt them, then refuse to hire them back after getting bailed out by the federal government in order to hire teachers!

I wish I could say I was truly surprised by this, but I'm not. After embracing the crazed anti-education teabaggers at NPRI, CCSD bosses truly have jumped the shark. They really seem to care more about boosting their own egos than doing what's right for local teachers and students.