Tom Torlakson, California Superintendent of Public Instruction

California could receive more than $3 billion from the president's American Jobs Act, preventing the layoffs of roughly 30,000 people employed in education across the state, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said Monday.

“The place for our teachers is in the classroom—not the unemployment line,” Torlakson said in a prepared statement. “The American Jobs Act represents an opportunity to begin to address the financial emergency facing California’s schools, and to put people to work rebuilding and modernizing our aging school buildings."
 
Torlakson applauded the president’s plan to use funds from the jobs plan to renovate K-12 public school facilities and build science and computer labs.

Such projects have mostly been abandoned over the past few years, Torlakson said, due to massive state budget shortfalls totaling $18 billion over the past three years.

"That’s a smart investment in the future of our state," he said.

Obama announced his plan to send the new jobs proposal to Congress late Monday. His $447 billion jobs proposal allocates $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers nationwide.

To view the American Jobs Act's projected impact on California, see below:

The American Jobs Act Impact CA

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