Joe Biden's Teachable Moments

In one of those inspired innovations designed to keep American classrooms on the cutting edge of educational excellence, the administration has been sending Joe Biden out to talk to schoolchildren. Last week, it was the Fourth Grade at Alexander B Goode Elementary School in York, Pa., that found itself on the receiving end of the vice president's wisdom:

"Here in this school, your school, you've had a lot of teachers who used to work here, but because there's no money for them in the city, they're not working. And so what happens is, when that occurs, each of the teachers that stays have more kids to teach. And they don't get to spend as much time with you as they did when your classes were smaller.

"We think the federal government in Washington, D.C. should say to the cities and states, look, we're going to give you some money so that you can hire back all those people. And the way we're going to do it, we're going to ask people who have a lot of money to pay just a little bit more in taxes."

Who knew it was that easy?

So let's see if I follow the vice president's thinking: The school laid off these teachers because "there's no money for them in the city." That's true. York City School District is broke. It has a $14 million budget deficit.

So instead Washington, D.C., is going to "give you some money" to hire these teachers back. So, unlike York, Pa., presumably Washington, D.C., has "money for them"?

More