I can’t help thinking of one of those old silent movies. You know, where the hero arrives on his white steed to save the heroine from certain death at the hands of the villain. Only in this scenario, the hero isn’t some strapping young man, it’s Congress armed with the $10 billion Education Jobs Bill. The heroine strapped to the railroad tracks with a runaway train bearing down? The jobs of thousands of educators in peril due to the budgetary woes of school districts across the nation.

New York is slated to receive some $607 million under the plan, which received the final seal of approval from the president yesterday. Enough to avert the layoff of around 8,100 teachers, according to numbers released by Senator Charles Schumer’s office earlier this week. Depending on how the state decides to allocate those funds, it could mean $2.47 million for Chenango County schools.

But is this initiative really the panacea legislators and teachers unions would have us believe it to be?

On the surface, it does look like the answer to everyone’s prayers. No one likes to see anyone lose their job, particularly those responsible for educating our nation’s youth. Today’s students are, after all, our future. This past budget season was brutal, as districts (and taxpayers) were forced to make tough decisions based on economic realities.