How Congress Keeps Screwing Up Education

By Jonathan Alter, in Newsweek

A first-grade teacher in Vallejo, Calif., works with students. Schools across the country are struggling with deep budget cuts.

For more than 40 years, Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the third-ranking member of the House, has been a fiery and highly effective legislator. Any history of how the country avoided another depression must include Obey, who shepherded the $787 billion Recovery Act through Congress last year with great skill (and no earmarks). He has been an inspiring antiwar liberal dating back to Vietnam and a rare man of conscience in Washington.

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