education is the economic issue of our time, then how exactly is our economy affected by just lopping a whole day of instruction off the school week? how exactly is our economy affected by 46,000 education jobs being lost over the past three months? in order to prevent more of that, in order to prevent things like cops and firefighters being laid off and street lights being shut off, something extraordinary is happening in politics this week. members of the house of representatives are returning to washington during their august recess to vote on emergency funding for states and local governments, a $26 billion state aid bill that will among other things prevent thousands of teachers from being laid off. which is, if you ask tea party activists, it is a horrible idea to try to stop teachers from being laid off. tea party activists have reportedly planned protests against the aid package in at least a dozen states. "the hill" newspaper says, quote, the activists are upset