NAESP President Attends President Obama’s White House Jobs Speech, Supports Legislation 9/13/2011 4:44 PM(September 13, 2011 -- Washington, D.C.) National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) President Rob Monson attended President Obama’s Sept. 12 White House speech on the American Jobs Act, which proposes to prevent hundreds of thousands of teacher layoffs and modernize schools. The Obama administration requested that Monson—an elementary principal in Parkston, South Dakota—attend the invitation-only event to represent principals in their collective support of the legislation.
“I’m honored to have been invited to represent principals as the president spoke about sustaining public schools as a means to economic recovery,” said Monson. “There’s no greater threat to our economic stability than the erosion of support for public education. This is the time to invest in educators and in education.”
Overall, NAESP endorses President Obama’s plan, which targets at least $37 billion to support K-12 education, including an estimated $12 billion to prevent nearly 280,000 pending teacher and educator layoffs and an additional $25 billion to rebuild and shore-up America’s often-crumbling schools.
Although NAESP supports the sentiment and the framework of Obama’s plan, especially applauding the administration’s priority to rebuild and modernize school infrastructure in aging schools in rural areas and to carry out urgent emergency repair and renovation projects, the Association is concerned with potential cuts to existing essential programs. “NAESP’s focus in the coming weeks will be to prevent such a funding disaster. Federal dollars to preserve educators’ jobs and modernize schools must supplement current education funds, not replace them,” said NAESP Executive Director Gail Connelly.
Kaylen Tucker, Ph.D.
Associate Editor
National Association of Elementary School Principals
1615 Duke St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
Mission: The Minnesota Elementary School Principals' Association is dedicated to promoting and improving education for children and youth, strengthening the role as educational leader for elementary and middle level principals, and collaborating with partners in education to assist in achieving these goals.
Leading schools toward excellence through the MESPA vision to be the premiere resource for preparing today's principals for tomorrow and a strong leading voice for public education.
Minnesota Elementary School Principals' Association
