Today we get a lovely piece in the New York Times describing the glorious efforts of the Bush administration and Congressional Repubicans to provide for our children’s education:
WASHINGTON, July 18 — With Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joining them in a show of support, Congressional Republicans proposed Tuesday to spend $100 million on vouchers for low-income students in chronically failing public schools around the country to attend private and religious schools.
The legislation, modeled on a pilot program here, would pay for tuition and private tutoring for some 28,000 students seeking a way out of public schools that fail to raise test scores sufficiently for at least five years.
Did you read that? 100 Million Dollars!
Gee golly, those Republicans sure are generous…I wonder what else they have done for our students?
February 10, 2006:
Less than one week after President Bush used his State of the Union address to pay lip service to improving educational opportunities for American students, he released a budget proposal that includes the largest cut in the Department of Education’s history. President Bush’s radical education budget would eliminate 42 highly effective education programs, including all vocational and technical education programs, education technology state grants, Upward Bound programs, and even the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants.
What we are talking about here is over 500 million dollars in proposed cuts to education programs, and this will eventually translate into billions of dollars lost.
The following is a summary of the Democratic Policy Committee study of President Bush’s cuts in education spending:
Forcing working families to pay more for college. President Bush’s budget freezes the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,050, the same level as Fiscal Year 2003, and eliminates the Perkins loan program altogether. President Bush also proposed eliminating the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) program, which provides a federal match to states for need-based grant and work-study assistance.
Underfunding No Child Left Behind. The President’s proposed funding for NCLB programs is $15.4 billion below the authorized level.
Inadequate Title I grants. The President’s budget fails to fully fund the Title I program, which provides needed resources to local school districts to help disadvantaged students succeed academically. Twenty-nine states would lose Title I funding in Fiscal Year 2007.
A step backward on special education. The President’s budget for Part B State Grants under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) would provide just 17 percent of the extra cost of special education in Fiscal Year 2007, down from 18 percent in Fiscal Year 2006 and 19 percent in Fiscal Year 2007. Proposed funding is also $6.3 billion below the amount Congress authorized for Fiscal Year 2007 when IDEA was reauthorized in 2004.
Shortchanging after-school programs. President Bush proposes keeping funding for key after-school programs at $981 million in Fiscal Year 2007, $1.5 billion below the authorized level, denying two million students after-school services through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.
Inadequate funding for Head Start. With current funding levels, the Head Start program serves only about one-half of eligible children. Because President Bush’s budget would not even provide a cost-of-living adjustment, fewer children will likely receive Head Start services.
Well, that may be…but perhaps Bush is just trying to close the budget gap. This couldn’t be reflective of a pattern of behavior…could it?
Overall Discretionary Education Funding
Fiscal Year 2001 (pre-Bush)
* Final Appropriation: $42.2 billion
Fiscal Year 2002
* Bush Proposal: $44.5 billion(+5.5%)
* Final Appropriation: $49.9 billion (+18.2%)
Fiscal Year 2003
* Bush Proposal: $50.3 billion (+0.7%)
* Final Appropriation: $53.1 billion (+6.4%)
Fiscal Year 2004
* Bush proposal: $53.1 billion(+0.05%)
* Final Appropriation: $55.7 billion (+4.8%)
Fiscal Year 2005
* Bush Proposal: $57.3 billion(+3%)
* Final Appropriation: $56.6 billion (+1.6%)
Fiscal Year 2006
* Bush Proposal: $56.1 billion (-0.9%)
* Final Appropriation:$56.5 billion (-0.1%)
(Note: includes extra $600 million shifted from mandatory to discretionary spending)
Fiscal Year 2007
* Bush proposal: $54.41 billion (-3.8%)
It gives me shivers just looking at it. The pattern is clear.
Bush does not care about education.
But what about that 100 million for school voucher programs? Isn’t that something?
Well, let’s put it into perspective.
The Republicans say that the 100 million dollars would pay for 28,000 students.
$100,000,000 / 28,000 = $3571.43 per student
Seems like a fine amount of money doesn’t it? Well, until you look at how much Bush is willing to pay for things he really cares about.
The Bush administration has more than doubled its spending on outside contracts with public relations firms during the past four years, according to an analysis of federal procurement data by congressional Democrats.
The administration spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush’s first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton between 1997 and 2000. The analysis did not examine what the Clinton administration spent during its first term.
88 million dollars. In one year. On PR. To the American fucking people.
One might hope that they could approach the matter in the following way: If our programs are successful, we won’t need PR. But no, that isn’t how they look at things. It is much more cost effective to just fool people into thinking they are right.
And that $3571 a student? Chump change…
“While not all public relations spending is illegal or inappropriate, this rapid rise in public relations contracts at a time of growing budget deficits raises questions about the priorities of the administration,” said the report by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee.
The administration’s public relations efforts have been under scrutiny since USA TODAY reported that the Education Department, through a Ketchum contract, paid $240,000 to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams for helping to promote Bush’s No Child Left Behind program.
So instead of giving another four classrooms worth of low-income kids an opportunity to experience a private school, Bush thought it was better to send his lapdog pundit around the cable TV shows. I don’t even like school voucher programs, but I would much rather see a kid getting a good education, than have our tax dollars subsidizing the Bush spin machine.
Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education, said recently that parents of students in failing public schools, “need more options.”
I completely agree, and the choice should be made clear to any parent entering the ballot box this November.
Author’s Note: I want to just point out that I don’t agree with spending any money on school voucher programs, and I oppose the idea wholeheartedly. What I was hoping to do here was show how Bush has cut funding to vital programs while simultaneously offering up token sums of money to his base. If money is going to be spent on school vouchers, I would rather they at least spend it effectively.
(Originally posted at Deny My Freedom and cross posted at My Left Wing and Daily Kos)
