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Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (19556)	10/17/2004 7:54:28 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27181

One 4 you Westi:'No Child Left Behind' Top Education Issue 17-Oct-2004 AP / BEN FELLER WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush asked for it. Sen. John Kerry voted for it. Both candidates now find their education agendas driven by the No Child Left Behind law. The most aggressive shake-up to schools in a generation, the law is the top education issue in a presidential race dominated by war, terrorism, jobs, taxes and credibility. The law orders schools to ensure all children achieve regardless of race, ethnicity or income. Afterall, all children are capable of learning if given adequate instruction. For voters, the line dividing Bush and Kerry is subtle. The nominees diverge on how much to spend on the law and how much to tinker with it as schools try to comply. The Republican incumbent promotes his spending record. He also says it is time to expand the law by requiring two more years of state math and reading tests in the high school grades. Kerry talks of expanding the way student progress is measured in No Child Left Behind, a law built on testing. Both candidates have ideas all along the education spectrum, from college aid and teacher pay to high school rigor and math and science classes. Some ideas are modest; others would continue an expanding federal role in schools. Yet all this is largely unnoticed by voters and lightly mentioned by the candidates, even though the next president will take on a backlog of school matters affecting millions of people "People are still concerned about education, but terrorism and personal security have significantly increased in concern," said Republican pollster David Winston. "And then you've got a rough economy, made worse by 9-11. People are managing a lot more things." The result has been a vastly different campaign than the one four years ago. In 2000, Bush was the Texas governor and made education a successful theme of his presidential bid. His focus on schools, traditionally a Democratic issue, helped mold his national image. In office, he won bipartisan support in 2001 for No Child Left Behind, which calls for all students to reach state standards in reading and math by 2014. Parents get more school choices, and schools face penalties if standards are not met. So far the program has started to successfully close the gap between minority and mainstream students. Some states have balked at what they call federal intrusion. Some parents are perplexed to see their schools labeled as "needing improvement" under the law even if those same schools get stellar marks from their states. The disparity occurs because the NCLB law sets slightly higher standards than individual states. "He got that law passed and has focused people on the problem of the achievement gap, and that is a big accomplishment," said Diane Stark Rentner, deputy director of the independent Center on Education Policy. Under Bush, spending on the law's programs and on help for disabled children has grown from $24.7 billion to $35.5 billion, a 43 percent increase. Counting his current budget request, the increase during his term would be 49 percent, a number he cites while campaigning. Those figures would not be as high if Congress had not added billions to Bush's requests. Still, to critics, Bush can fairly make the point, "How big of an increase does it have to be satisfy you guys?" said Tom Loveless, senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. Democrats compare what has been spent on the law and the maximum allowed, called an authorization. But laws routinely are not funded to maximum levels. As for the law itself, Bush largely talks of staying the course. Kerry has signaled he may try to change how schools are graded, and expanding teacher testing. Kerry has raised the possibility of grading schools on such additional factors as teacher attendance and parental satisfaction. Whoever wins will have other education issues waiting for him, including overdue updates of higher education and Head Start laws. Even so, said Loveless: "No Child Left Behind is still going to be the story out of Washington for the next four or five years."