In a call-in session with reporters this afternoon prior to President Obama’s appearance in Texas promoting his American Jobs Act, Education Secretary Arne Duncan confirmed to Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington that the jobs bill would fund positions for only one year.
A transcript of the question and answer follows:
Carrington: If you look at each state, it is very clear to me that these are just jobs for one year. So if you were going to do this over two years, you would have only half as many jobs. Am I correct?
Duncan: I think that’s exactly right and those are the kinds of tough calls and tough decisions that states would have to make of whether to do more now or whether to spread it over a couple of years. This doesn’t solve all the challenges that states are facing, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. But your math is exactly accurate.
The administration also issued a report on jobs that would be created by the bill, including the following chart
which looks remarkably like this chart
That we put together for the original jobs story.
