By John Zaremba
President Obama spun a work of creative nonfiction yesterday in his latest pitch for his jobs plan, fudging the facts of a Boston schoolteacher’s White House visit as he cast the man as a poster boy for the hot-button bill.
“I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz,” the president said at a midday news conference. “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. 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?”
Two problems: Obama never met Baroz. And Baroz remains happily employed.
It is technically true that Obama had a chanceto meet Baroz. But the closest Baroz actually got to Obama was the front row of a Rose Garden press conference on the jobs bill in September, with a handful of other teachers. He later met with White House aides and Obama’s education chief, but never met the president.
Baroz has in fact received three pink slips in four years, but in each case, his job was saved, either through stimulus funds or the 2010 Congressional Jobs Bill. He now works as a literacy and data coach at the Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain, analyzing MCAS data and applying it to teachers’ everyday lessons.
White House spokeswoman Joanna Rosholm said: “The President highlighted the story of a great Boston teacher who is not in the classroom today — because his school, like so many across the country, is facing a budget crunch. If Congress will pass the American Jobs Act, then we can put thousands of teachers like Mr. Baroz back in the classroom.”
Baroz, who supports Obama and his efforts to restore the public sector, told the Herald yesterday he doesn’t mind if the president — or his speechwriters — took some liberties with the facts. It was all in aid of a higher truth, he said.
“People who want to fuss over the word choice are missing the point. It’s about our investing in education and in communities,” Baroz said. “It was technically correct; yes, I did lose my position three times within four years in the Boston Public Schools. To me, the question he posed to the people was a rhetorical question. The emphasis was on ‘like Robert.’ It’s people who are like me, highly qualified, and are not working. That’s the spirit of it.”
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