Bush stumps for 'No Child Left Behind'
Critics assail funding shortfalls, unfair grading
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President Bush spends time with fourth graders at Pierre Laclede Elementary School in St. Louis, Missouri.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is defending his "No Child Left Behind" initiative against Democrats who, in fighting for a political advantage on the education issue, argue that the law is too rigid and is being shortchanged by the administration.
Bush scheduled a visit Monday with fourth-graders and a roundtable-style conversation on education at Pierre Laclede Elementary School in St. Louis, Missouri.
On Thursday -- the second anniversary of the signing of the "No Child Left Behind Act" -- Bush will hold a similar event at West View Elementary School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both events are paired with re-election campaign fund-raisers in the two cities.
Bush and other Republicans praise the law, signed on January 8, 2002, saying it expands testing and toughens standards for teachers, schools and students. The initiative, however, has lost support of some Democrats who say too little money has been spent on the mandated actions.
Critics, expected to speak out more frequently as the campaign season heats up, have argued that the funding increases that Bush touts aren't nearly enough to cover the costs of the new requirements, including the expense of creating tests and processing their results.
"We agree with the whole idea of standards and accountability, but it isn't being funded the way everybody thought it would be," Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union representing more than 1 million teachers, said in a telephone interview Sunday. "An increase that is billions short of what you need to carry out the mandates just doesn't do it."
In fiscal years 2002 through the current 2004, Congress authorized between $26.4 billion and $32 billion to be spent on the "No Child Left Behind" initiative. While Bush's budget request rose in each of those years, it still fell far short of the authorization.
And in the past two fiscal years, the president's request of about $22 billion was less than what Congress had appropriated the year before. Both years, Congress provided more than Bush requested.
"If President Bush's budgets had been accepted by Congress unchanged, there would be 6.6 billion fewer dollars for 'No Child Left Behind' over the last three years," said Joel Packer, a staffer at the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union.
Critics also say that the way the "No Child Left Behind" federal grading system works isn't fair in some cases because it requires yearly progress not just from a school but from every subgroup of students, including those with disabilities or ones who speak English as a second language.
Bush, however, defends the law's ambitious standards. "The time for excuses has passed," he said in his weekly radio address Saturday. "Our reforms insist on high standards because we know every child can learn." (Bush's defense)
Democrats, meanwhile, are holding strategy sessions on Capitol Hill, plotting ways to challenge Bush's record on education.
"The president's budget fails to recognize that strong schools are as important to our future as a strong defense," Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement Sunday. "Parents and communities are fighting every day for better schools with high standards for their children, and they expect the federal government to do its part."
The St. Louis stop was Bush's 14th visit to Missouri as president. In the 2000 election, he won the state's 11 electoral votes by fewer than 79,000 votes and the Bush-Cheney campaign is working hard to keep the state in the Republican column.
Following the hour-long stop at the school, Bush scheduled an appearance at a campaign fund-raiser, one of three on his agenda this week.
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Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
