George W. Bush: The Education President?
by Joseph C. Hinson
December 21, 2001

Hyping the bill as the needed boost in the arm for the nations underachieving education system, lawmakers passed President Bush's education reform bill last week increasing federal spending by twenty percent. The biggest overhaul of U.S. education since the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it authorizes $26.5 billion in federal spending for the 2002 fiscal year that began Oct. 1 -- a roughly $7 billion increase over 2001.

"The education of every child in America must always be a top priority,'' the president said in a statement. "The conference agreement will ensure that no child in America is left behind.'' While no one would argue that educating the children should not be a top priority, I'm not sure how this bill out of all that have been passed in history is The One That Works. I do think it is telling how he said it. I know all politicians talk this way, but I got the feeling that he believes he has the answers to everything. At the same time, maybe a president should be that conceited. If you don't think you can do the job, why pay for the job?

Many Republicans in recent years had wanted to dismantle the Department of Education and leave education in local hands. But Bush demanded greater federal involvement to assure accountability and a renewed drive to close the achievement gap between poor students and more affluent ones. I wonder if conservatives see the irony in this. Bush was supposed to be more conservative than his father, a throwback to Ronald Reagan. But what does he less than one year after taking office? He makes the government bigger, just the opposite of the Republicans long-held mantra. If Clinton was accused of stealing Republican ideals and calling them his own, then the opposite must be said of Bush in this case. He's taking long held Democratic principles, giving them a makeover and hailing them as the one thing that is going to restore the future of America's education system.

"The president is pleased that the House has acted quickly on these monumental reforms to provide every child with a first-rate education,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said after the vote. See. The man is starting to believe his own bullshit.

About the bill: "We can no longer accept the level of failure that we have in the past, and this legislation says that we won't,'' said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who helped write the bill. Miller then added that we must find newer, bolder ways to fail at levels like we never have failed before. (Sarcasm alert.)

The package is opposed by several groups that say it will force states and school districts to spend millions more at a time when their revenues are shrinking. Opponents include the National School Boards Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Association of School Administrators.

Others say it will build even a greater bureaucracy than we have now, where more of the taxpayers money is spent to pay administrative costs than, for example, paper, crayons and glue in the classroom. I think we need to spend more time and money on the those problems before we start tacking the bigger issues. By addressing the smaller problems, we may go a long way toward fixing the big picture. For example, why is it that teachers often have to pay for the supplies for their class out of their own pocket? Classrooms all over America, especially in the poorer neighborhoods, are missing key elements to learning -- construction paper, scissors, glue, basic things that are needed on a day to day basis.

Further, school teachers are paid way too low and it's starting to show. The best minds no longer want to teach. A number of reasons are involved, the low pay, the administrative hassle... guns. Actually, I think more teachers are worried about how they are going to teach their class with what they have been handed than if Johnny is going to blow her away because Eugene took his lunch money all through 8th grade.

The fact that teachers are not paid fairly goes back to when most teachers were women. It was thought that they didn't need a lot of money since their husbands were the ones bringing home the bacon. Women were just out because they wanted to teach, not because they needed the money. It was, of course, sexist to think this way.

Over the years, more and more men have stepped into the teaching ranks. More of the women who do teach are either single or are the main providers for the families. Yet, teachers are still grossly underpaid and nothing seems to be done about it. But here comes President Bush to save the day!

And a word must be said about Bush's past performance in school. This man has never been an intellectual giant. He's never been above a C student. While this alone should not disqualify him from saving the nations children, it should be kept in mind. In some ways, having Bush lead the charge to reform the education system would be like Ted Kennedy urging the states to rethink their anti prohibition stance.

Bush at Yale University's 300th commencement in May: "To the C students, I say, 'You too can be president of the United States.'"

After consideration of his performance in school, serious thought should then be given to his time of governor of Texas. Texas teachers say the crucial reforms that led to today's better test results happened before Bush became governor -- and, in fact, he was against some of them. Let's take a look at what he "did" for Texas in the little matter of education from the site NEA Online: Primer on the Texas Miracle:

1.) How did smaller primary grade classes and the big push for public preschools come to Texas?

Both of these reforms were launched by the pivotal Texas education law of 1984, usually called HB72. All of these provisions upgraded the importance of learning in Texas. They were proposed by a commission led by Ross Perot that was appointed by Governor Mark White. White worked hard to see them enacted into law. George Bush, according to his official biography, was working in his family oil business at the time.

2.) What other factors have helped Texas teachers boost student achievement, especially for minority students?

A lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund led to a state Supreme Court ruling in 1989 declaring that the Texas school finance system was unconstitutional. The evidence showed the wealthiest district in Texas had over $14 million of assessed valuation per child, while the poorest district had only $20,000 -- a ratio of 700 to 1.

The legislature responded with a 1993 law often called "Robin Hood," under which state funds are used to compensate -- partially -- for local differences in property wealth. Ann Richards was the governor when this law was passed. George Bush, that year, was working with a group of partners who had bought the Texas Rangers baseball team. As governor, Bush said he was against Robin Hood.

3.) What has Bush done about education as governor?

Mostly, he's not tried to turn the clock back on the reforms launched by his predecessors. He has also promoted more funding for reading programs. On the negative side, Bush pushed for vouchers in all three of the legislative sessions during his time in office. The legislature turned him down, but he kept coming back to try again.

4.) Where has Bush stood on state funding for education?

In the year previous to this report, the state had a budget surplus of $6 billion. The legislature wanted to use most of this surplus for teacher raises, realizing that Texas salaries are far below the national average. Governor Bush disagreed. He wanted the lion's share for tax cuts. (Where have we heard that before?) The money left over, Bush said, should go to school boards to use as they saw fit. He didn't want it earmarked for teacher raises.

After a six-month battle with the legislature, the governor got $2 billion in tax cuts, but he had to accept $3,000 raises for all teachers. The compromise left Texas teachers better off than before. But due to Bush's opposition, their salaries are still several thousand dollars below the national average. Low salaries make it hard to attract and keep qualified teachers. Texas has 500,000 certified teachers who have left the profession. It needs only 270,000 to staff every classroom, but districts can't fill vacancies. Again in the year previous to this report, there were 12,000 teachers on emergency permits and 10,000 permanent subs.

So, George Bush as the Education President is a little tough to swallow. In truth what we have is more of the same -- politics as usual, a Band-Aid on a bullet hole while the carnival clowns makes wiener dogs out of balloons to draw our attention away from the medics in the background.

Clinton, by the way, was not an education president either. Just look at who he nominated as Secretary of Education, Dick Riley. Riley was a two-term governor of South Carolina during the 80s and by most accounts a very decent man. However, South Carolina has traditionally had among the lowest education scores in the country and they stayed low during Riley's terms. Yet, he gets to top the nations education bureaucracy. What's next? Gary Condit leading a House panel on ethics?

Lastly, Lancaster, SC -- my glorious hometown -- has always been among the lowest school districts in the state. One year we were last in the state and the state was last in the country. Further, I, like my president, have always been a C student at best. What does that mean? Well, for one, it means that one of the dumbest fucks around may be writing these rants. If you believe the statistics. With that said, I did just get my grades back from York Tech. I have a 3.5 GPA. What does this mean? It means that I am currently a better college student now than the current President of the United States ever was. Go figure.

See Also:
September 11, 2001 (10/26/2001)
Is Our President-Elect Learning? (12/14/2000)
George Bush the Younger (08/07/2000)

to my next rant (when posted)
My Rants and Raves
The Joseph C. Hinson Home Page