Needs-Based Assessment

I know that school is out. That would explain my teenage son's presence around the house on a more frequent basis. It would explain my presence around the house on a more frequent basis. It would explain my wife's ever-changing levels of appreciation that the two of us are are around the house on a more frequent basis. That doesn't mean he stopped being a student or that I have stopped being a teacher. We are, to borrow a phrase from Ross Geller, "on a break." That doesn't mean I've stopped being a teacher. It also doesn't mean that enrollment is down and my son's school doesn't need teachers.
Quite the opposite is true. Hiring and retaining qualified teachers is something that school districts across the country struggle with, and these two months that serve as Summer Vacation for some is the time that others are auditioning and seeking positions in classrooms for the fall. So, why would Mitt "Cumbertonfitzwilly" Romney suggest that we need fewer teachers. And firefighters. And police. I understand that it is Mitten's assertion that class size is not a factor in the education of our kids, but enrollment is expected to increase by ten million students by the middle of the decade. Is his Mittiness suggesting that we raise class size limits to a couple hundred thousand to accommodate this change?
Or maybe he's still grinding the axe about unions. Firefighter and police unions. Teacher unions. Mitters saw in Wisconsin the people affirming this notion when they failed to recall their governor, the poster boy for union-busting. If public sector unions and their pension plans are the issue, let that be the issue. Deal with it up front. Don't tell me that we don't need more teachers because they have an expensive pension plan. Pension reform is a discussion that makes more sense, regardless of which side you happen to live.
I'm going on summer vacation soon, but I won't stop reading the news. Or being a teacher. We need more teachers.