Here’s a reason to check out CBS in the next 24 hours. Via Fox Nation, we learned CBS Boston reported President Obama gaffed in his press conference Thursday. He used the story of a teacher in the Boston area, Robert Baroz of Wellesley, to push his jobs bill Thursday: "Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?” But Baroz already has a job in the classroom. Oops.
At the beginning of his White House news conference, Mister Obama told a story of how he recently met Baroz, and how's received "three pink slips" as he works as a provisional teacher:
“I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz. He’s an English teacher in Boston who came to the White House a few weeks ago. He’s got two decades of teaching experience. He’s got a master’s degree. He’s got an outstanding track record of helping his students make huge gains in reading and writing,” the president said.
“In the last few years, he’s received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?”
But Baroz is working in the Boston Public Schools this year as a middle school English teacher.
“I’ve managed to land on my feet, but it’s sometimes at the last minute,” said Baroz, who is endorsing the President’s jobs bill. He told aides to President Obama that others have not been so lucky in finding a job. He did not meet directly with the President.
In fact, Baroz is employed through a Department of Education teaching fellowship,and is featured on the Education Department's website proclaiming "Currently, I work as a middle school English teacher in the Boston Public Schools and work part-time as an English instructor at MassBay Community College.he's working this year."
Obviously, Baroz credits the federal government for his employment, but Obama presented him as someone who would be taken off the unemployment line by his jobs bill. It remains a puzzle how keeping provisional teachers in the public schools is a short-term "stimulus" proposal for the economy.
