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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (45815)	10/13/2000 6:32:51 PM
From: Joe Btfsplk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

whose fault is that, locally elected school boards perhaps? Snipped from an Op-Ed piece in the WSJ: "the riveting feature is the interview with John Gardner, director of the Milwaukee Public Schools since 1995. ...a longtime labor organizer and social activist, a passionate and articulate defender of public schools and the voucher program. ... take ten minutes to listen to Part 1 of the Gardner interview, you will learn much. Sample dialogue:" "Gardner: Public education, "which I love dearly . . . was not happening in Milwaukee." "The big turning point was in 1995, when for the first time, a major public school system faced direct and immediate competition from the voucher program . . . that included independent and religious schools. That was really a rallying cry. And there have been a tremendous number of small and very large systemic changes and school-specific changes and reforms that have benefited all the children of Milwaukee." "Interviewer: "What was wrong with the governing body, the board?" "Gardner: "Well, they were incoherent and they were dominated by the teachers union. Either would have been disastrous. The combination was particularly diabolical." More: "..ABC's "20/20" reported powerful positive effects -- after just one year of operation -- of the Florida Voucher program. (If you missed the broadcast, you can read a summary or transcript at the "20/20" Web site. Type "2020.abcnews.com" in your browser's address line. Then type "voucher" in the search engine at the upper right corner. You will see both items entered under Oct. 1.)" "Even more compelling: CNN broadcast a favorable one-hour documentary on Sept. 17 on the Milwaukee voucher program. CNN has a five-page Web site summary of the documentary, complete with three video clips (30 minutes each) of interviews with principal players in that drama -- 90% of the interview material did not appear in the documentary. (To access the summary and video clips, type "CNN.com" on your browser's address line. Type "voucher" in the search engine window at the top of the CNN home page. Click on "CNN Specials -- Democracy in America.")" "One video clip is of a principal of an outstanding public school, who says: "Personally, I like competition . . . In fact, it gets me going." Another is of Polly Williams, the Democrat legislator who spearheaded voucher legislation; the interview provides a good history of the struggle in Milwaukee." "....guaranteeing to ALL students a decent education" will require replacing bureaucratic control, particularly federal interference, with market solutions. I prefer to view the Bush proposals as the tiniest incremental step in a desirable direction