Herbert: The Kids Left Behind (by Whistle-Ass)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/opinion/28HERB.html

He was going to be the education president, and during the campaign in 2000 he hugged kids from coast to coast, crowing about the education miracle in Texas and promising to spread the Texas model nationwide.

He said he was a different kind of Republican, a man of honor and compassion who would look out for the kids.

It was all smoke, of course — photo-ops in a cynical campaign. You knew it was smoke when the "compassionate" George W. Bush put Dick Cheney on the ticket, a former congressman who had voted against funding for Head Start, against subsidizing school lunches and against federal aid for college students.

In other words, against kids.

Next week the Senate will take up the education budget proposed for next year by the White House and Senate Republicans. From the perspective of those who are pro-children, it's loaded with bad news. Not only does the bill fall far short of the photo-op promises Mr. Bush made to provide funding for programs to improve public education, but it would actually cut $200 million from the president's very own (and relentlessly touted) No Child Left Behind Act.

We're talking about a real cut — $200 million less than is being spent on this already underfunded initiative.