Jeb and George Bush: True Education Reformers

by Nancy Salvato

President Bush time and again proves himself a man of his word, despite the accusations of the radical left. Believing in an idea or principle, he never wavers. His commitment to family, faith, and physical fitness, are a testament to his guiding values. When George Bush took office, he spoke of the need to reform education. Under his administration, The No Child Left Behind Act has been a force for positive change. However, the provisions built into the existing law only partly reflect his vision of education reform. Like the homeowner who mentally plans a house addition to address all the limitations in the original structure, President Bush has been awaiting the opportunity to enact the blueprints for his initial vision of NCLB, and as part of his proposed education budget, wants to begin construction immediately.

In order to persuade enough members of Congress to pass the initial version of NCLB, vouchers were dropped from the proposed legislation. The problem with the current law, according to Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, "Without real consequences, accountability is hollow." ¹ Nationwide, over the last six years there are about 1,000 schools consistently failing to meet standards. As part of President Bush’s newest education package, students attending failing schools could receive $4,000 scholarships for private school tuition or $3,000 for supplemental tutoring. He has earmarked $100 million federal dollars to achieve this goal.

As the current proposal stands, the budget would reduce existing spending levels by about $2.1 billion dollars. Tax payers would not be expected to shoulder an additional burden in order to help students leave failing schools because Bush wants to reduce or eliminate currently earmarked federal dollars used for unproductive or inefficient instructional programs which aren’t as directly related to student achievement; the arts, vocational education, parenting training or special interest agendas such as drug-free schools. ²

Spellings’ believes that it is time to give parents real educational options. True, tutoring and other services are available to students stuck in poorly performing neighborhood schools. However, students enduring failing educational institutions have not been given legitimate opportunity to transfer to the best available school, public or private. They’ve often had to settle for additional services to make up for gaps in instruction because under current law the best learning environment is not always an option.³
 

Of course, the unions will argue that public money belongs in public schools. Yet, it makes much more sense to have the money follow the child because competition for educational dollars will spur poorly performing schools to do better to attract students. To put it simply, they will be forced to sh-- or get off the pot.
 

This has been proven in Florida, where under Governor Jeb Bush, “Vouchers remain available to Floridians in all those schools that received an "F" grade under the state accountability system twice in any four-year period.” ⁴

The stigma of receiving a "D" by itself motivated schools to work harder the next year. They outperformed by a significant margin the "C" schools that just missed getting the worse grade. Still, the "F" schools, faced with the threat of vouchers, did even better, raising scores by an amount roughly equivalent to three to four months of student learning above the performance of students in the "C" schools. They did so despite the fact that these "F" schools had highly disadvantaged, predominantly minority populations.⁵

If a man cannot be trusted with his word, then what can be entrusted to him? Should it come as any surprise, then, that President Bush persists in trying to get Congress to enact true educational reform? No Child Left Behind was not built to the specifications necessary, to significantly change the status quo. Congress needs to understand the importance of competition in realizing that dream.

References:

² Education plan looks to give, take

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/NEWS01

/602070360/1008
 

¹ Federal program would finance private school tuitions under some circumstances

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sfl-pvoucher07feb07,0,5849054.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
 

^{4, 5} Power of the Voucher

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ksgnews/Features/opeds/041105

_peterson.htm
 

³ Vouchers included in education budget

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/13810895.htm
 

Copyright © Nancy Salvato 2006
 

Nancy Salvato is the President of The Basics Project, (www.Basicsproject.org) a non-profit, non-partisan research and educational project whose mission is to promote the education of the American public on the basic elements of relevant political, legal and social issues important to our country. She is also a Staff Writer, for the New Media Alliance, Inc., a non-profit (501c3) coalition of writers and grass-roots media outlets, where she contributes on matters of education policy.