Citing 'national emergency,' Bush unveils plans for national reading program

March 28, 2000
Web posted at: 9:03 p.m. EST (0203 GMT)

RESTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Declaring children's illiteracy a "national emergency," presumptive Republican presidential nominee Texas Gov. George W. Bush on Tuesday unveiled the latest addition to his education agenda -- a national literacy program.

"Too many of our children can't read," Bush declared, as he outlined the proposed federal program before a gathering of Asian-American business people at the headquarters of Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student loan provider, in Reston, Virginia.

Gov. George W. Bush spoke Tuesday in Reston, Virginia.

Dubbed "Reading First," Bush's five-year, $5 billion program aims to ensure that students in public schools should be able to read by the end of the third grade. According to 1998 statistics cited by the Texas governor, 68 percent of the fourth graders in the nation's poorest school areas tested below basic reading standards.

"There is a tension at the heart of our prosperity. All our wealth has not purchased educational achievement... Our economy is the envy of the world, unfortunately our schools are not," Bush said.

The proposal would set aside money for diagnostic programs to identify troubled children in kindergarten and first grade, and also pay teachers a stipend of $230 per day to receive training to detect such problems. Most of the funding -- about $900 million annually -- would go toward designing and implementing reading programs at the state and local level.

"There must be intensive training for teachers in the early grades so the teachers have the tools necessary to not only impart their love, but to impart their knowledge," Bush said. "States will design their own programs, local folks will chart the path to excellence, local folks will have accountability systems."

Gore: Bush education plan plays second fiddle to tax cuts

Recent polls indicate that most voters are divided over whether Bush or Vice President Al Gore, the presumptiveÊDemocratic nominee, would better tackle the education issue as president. Democrats have long held a decided advantage among voters attracted to the issue, and Bush went as far as to laud some of their efforts on Tuesday.

"There are reforms taking place all across the country, reforms spearheaded by Democrat governors, Republican governors, Democrat mayors, people outside the scope and sphere of Washington, D.C.," Bush said.

But the Texas governor couldn't resist taking a slightly veiled jab at Gore. "Others have proposed throwing money at the problem, but they have proposed resources without reform. That approach has no history of results and really no prospect of success," he said.

Bush wasted little time in going after Gore on education after he all but wrapped up the GOP nomination on March 14. His campaign has already hitÊthe airwaves in a few likely battleground states -- Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri -- with TV ads that charge "Gore and (President Bill) Clinton had eight years, but they've failed" on education.

Gore scoffed at Bush's education plan on Tuesday, asserting that Bush's agenda was "subordinate to his risky tax scheme, which would actually slash money for education."

The Texas governor's five-year, $483 billion tax cut plan "puts a huge cloud over everything that he says about education," Gore continued. "You can't propose an economic plan that results in devastating, slashing cuts to education and pretend that you're not doing so."

The vice president champions spending some $115 billion in federal budget surplus monies over 10 years to continue President Clinton's program to reduce class size, improve school buildings, and hire 100,000 new teachers nationwide.

Gore has also voiced his support for a proposal before Congress that would authorize the federal government to pay up to $25 billion to cover interest on local construction bonds for schools.

"This sort of approach is what he (Bush) calls 'bricks and mortar,'" Gore said last week. "Well, 'bricks and mortar' is better than 'smoke and mirrors.'"

Revamping Head Start

Bush's latest new proposal follows earlier calls by the Texas governor to revamp Head Start -- the federal program for pre-school-age children from low-income families -- to concentrate less on social activities and more on preparation for elementary school.

"It's important that we change Head Start so that it becomes a national reading program," Bush said Tuesday. "It's the place where children must be given the basics on how to read."

Bush also continued his consistent theme that at least part of the solution to the problems plaguing the public education system would be to curb the role of the federal government, while passing off more authority to states and local districts.

"It's important to have local control of our schools, it's incredibly important to pass power back to local jurisdictions wherever possible. Decisions should be made atÊthe level closest to the people. The theory is simple: those who know your name are more likely to understand your needs," he said.

More proposals

The Texas governor has proposed spending some $5.5 billion over five years on education improvements with a plan that directly links each school's performance to the Title I funding it is eligible to receive. The federal Title I program allocates about $8 billion a year to school districts with large numbers of underprivileged children.

"In exchange for flexibility, in exchange for freedom, states must set up real accountability systems," Bush said. "School report cards must be reported on the Internet. There needs to be full disclosure ... we need to praise success and challenge failure."

Under a national testing system, schools that consistently fail to turn out properly prepared and educated students would lose their Title I funding, and the money would be given to parents under a controversial school voucher plan.

"If at the end of three years, there is still no progress, (the school's) Title I funds will be divided up, matched by other federal education money, given to the state, and made directly available to parents coming to about $1,500 per year," Bush said during a stump speech last week.

Bush has also focused on issues such as character education and abstinence. He has often touted his "Right Choices for Youth" program in Texas, which encourages children to stay in school, avoid drugs, alcohol, tobacco and sex.

Bush has delivered three major education speeches since last fall. Tuesday's trip to Virginia was part of a two-day East Coast swing that also included appearances and fund-raisers in northern New Jersey, New York and Baltimore.

The Texas governor will travel to Wisconsin on Wednesday, where he's expected to detail a proposal to recruit, retrain and retain more public school teachers.

CNN's Pat Neal and The Associated Press contributed to this report, which was written by Mike Ferullo.