NPR: FactWatch: Education Initiatives

FactWatch: Education Initiatives

From the speech:
"Now we must work together to increase accountability, add flexibility for states and districts, reduce the number of high school dropouts and provide extra help for struggling schools. Members of Congress: The No Child Left Behind Act is a bipartisan achievement. It is succeeding.

" ... I ask you to support a new $300 million program called Pell Grants for Kids. We have seen how Pell Grants help low-income college students realize their full potential. Together, we have expanded the size and reach of these grants. Now let's apply that same spirit to help liberate poor children trapped in failing public schools."

Analysis:
President Bush is proposing two education initiatives tonight that have two chances of being enacted — slim, and none. The president is asking once again for Congress to support a federal voucher program, proposing a $300 million program to help poor children in underperforming schools attend private or religious schools. The program has a new name, "Pell Grants for Kids," but it is likely to meet the same fate as other vouchers proposals: Democrats will shoot it down, arguing that vouchers take money away from public schools that are already starved for funds.

Ditto for the other proposal: reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. This initiative was one of the biggest successes of President Bush's first year in office, but last year, the president's efforts to reauthorize the program in its current form ran into a Democratic brick wall. Democratic leaders wanted to make substantial changes, and the administration refused to budge. This year is an election year, so it's even less likely that Congress will take up this controversial law. Most education watchers say nothing will happen until 2009.

- Larry Abramson

9:21 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

He doesn't really know what "purveyors of false populism" means...

Sent by David Youll | 9:25 PM ET | 01-28-2008

Larry, what happens if NCLB is not renewed? Does it disappear? Do states go back to what they were doing before? If it has no chance of being passed, do the national standards for testing and teacher licensing go away? thanks.

Sent by Ken | 9:30 PM ET | 01-28-2008

I believe he is displaying himself with a tactful eloquence, that can only be found in the great people of the world. Its amazing to watch one of the most cherished Presidents say his final speech to the nation.

Sent by Aarron Zagruder | 9:35 PM ET | 01-28-2008

No Child Left Untested is a better description of this plan. No one is against reasonable assessment, but why not use this assessment to HELP schools rather than penalize them and make the situation worse.

Sent by David Ribble | 9:39 PM ET | 01-28-2008

In the very first paragraph, there lies arguably the most egregious untruth:

"In that time, our country has been tested in ways none of us could have imagined."

Not true- not only have just such attacks been conceived, they've been thwarted many times. Here's an excerpt from the truthout.org (full address below):

"After the attacks, virtually every member of the Bush administration put forth the talking point that, "No one could have anticipated anyone using airplanes as bombs." The facts tell a different story.

In 1993, a $150,000 study was undertaken by the Pentagon to investigate the possibility of airplanes being used as bombs. A draft document of this was circulated throughout the Pentagon, the Justice Department, and to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In 1994, a disgruntled Federal Express employee invaded the cockpit of a DC10 with the intention of crashing it into a company building. Again in 1994, a pilot crashed a small airplane into a tree on the White House grounds, narrowly missing the building itself. Also in 1994, an Air France flight was hijacked by members of a terrorist organization called the Armed Islamic Group, who intended to crash the plane into the Eiffel Tower."

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/63/22170

Sent by Todd | 10:10 PM ET | 01-28-2008

Since when is it the responsibility of the federal government to try to prop up faith-based schools? It's one thing to trot out the old "help kids escape from failing public schools" rhetoric, but to lead with the notion that we need to inject parochial schools with public funds is downright insulting to all of us.

GWB will go down in history as one of the worst placeholders in our nation's history.

Sent by Tom | 10:20 PM ET | 01-28-2008

I would like to know how President Bust thinks that increasing money for private education is going to help the overall state of education in this country. Public schools are not adequately being supported currently in ways that allow them to meet the demands that the No Child Left Behind act create in its current form. In my city, student test scores from charter schools and many private schools are often lower than they are in public schools, which to me does not suggest that the answer to student achievement is found in the private school sector. As a special educator in an urban public school district, I see firsthand everyday how the current law leaves many students behind and educators frustrated when higher and higher demands are placed on an education system is not supported by the government.

I hope that Abramson's observations are correct and that the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and an increase in Pell Grants which give money to a select few people at the expense of the community education system that surrounds them, will be met with resistance. Education reform is essential, and I hope that Congress does not act rashly and support the President's education initiatives this year in lieu of waiting for new leadership and fashioning a true bipartisan initiative to positively affect the future of America's children.

Sent by Shalinn Ginn | 10:57 PM ET | 01-28-2008

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