Warning: Political blather ahead
Okay, so . . . I was poking around the internet when I was supposed to be grading papers today, and I found this amusing:
From AFT (American Federation of Teachers) website:
As part of our efforts to provide information to AFT members about the candidates and issues in the 2004 presidential campaign, the union in August 2003 asked all the presidential candidates, including President Bush, to complete a questionnaire to gauge their views on issues of concern to members.
Note the date: August 200*3*. Now, read the response from the "Bush/Cheney Campaign":
Thank you for your letter inviting President Bush to respond to the American Federation of Teachers candidate questionnaire.
President Bush is committed to educating America's children and he is grateful for the opportunity to provide your members with more information about his positive agenda for America and his hopeful vision for the future.
Our campaign is just now assembling our team and facilities. Once established, we will respond directly to your inquiry.
We look forward to working with you and the American Federation of Teachers throughout this election period.
In contrast, read Kerry's response. If you want to know why I'm voting for Kerry, aside from the whole "not Bush" aspect and . . . well, there are a whole lot of reasons. But his first answer on that questionnaire? Is a major one.
In the hopes that I'll get to see if he lives up to his rhetoric, I'm also storing it
Q. What do you believe are the challenges facing public education, and how would your administration address those challenges?
A. We need to reform the way we fund our public schools. Our system penalizes the urban school systems that need the most help. And it creates public schools that are separate and unequal. It's time to secure for every school the resources it needs to insure that no school will be left behind, especially low-performing schools and under-resourced schools.
My first priority as President will be to live up to the funding commitments made in the No Child Left Behind Act and fully fund the law. Unless schools receive the resources they were promised and respect they deserve, the new law will fail and inequality will persist. Where the Bush Administration sought to cut funding for school reform and issued restrictive guidelines, I will fund the law and ensure states have the flexibility to meet the goals of the law. The No Child Left Behind Act is a compromise and there are going to be significant things that need to be fixed as we go forward. In particular, we will have to look at the definition of adequate yearly progress and whether it is meeting the goals of holding schools accountable and making improvements.
I will also make full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act a top priority. The federal government has never met its funding obligation for special education and the impact has been devastating to schools and communities, which have been forced to make up the difference. I have consistently supported efforts to fully fund IDEA in Congress and as President I will ensure that the federal government becomes a true partner of state and local governments in the provision of special education.
Teachers play a critical role in helping children learn and succeed. And teacher quality is perhaps the single most important factor in closing the achievement gap between low and high income children. Yet the Bush Administration proposed cutting $81 million from programs to improve teacher quality this year. I understand that supporting teachers requires dedication and resources, not just rhetoric, and as President I will provide the necessary support for professional development, I will treat teachers with the respect they deserve, and I will support programs that encourage talented young people to become teachers. Instead of fostering environments that drive dedicated teachers from schools, I will work to create supportive environments that provide teachers with opportunities to improve their skills, that have robust mentoring programs, smaller class size, and alternative education programs for chronically disruptive and violent students so that teachers can focus more on teaching and less on discipline.
Smaller classes promote student achievement, improve discipline and classroom order, and expand quality learning time. It's just common sense--and it's borne out by research--that when teachers have more time to spend with individual students, there are tremendous learning benefits to the child. I have consistently supported efforts to provide a dedicated funding stream for reducing class size. Rather than terminate successful programs to reduce class size like the Bush Administration has done, I will champion initiatives that ensure children are not forced to learn in overcrowded classrooms, particularly in the early grades.
The physical structure of our nation's school buildings are in desperate shape: there are $127 billion worth of school construction and emergency repair needs nationally; 14 million children are learning in substandard schools in need of major renovation; and half of all schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition, such as polluted drinking water or soot-filled ventilation. I have been at the forefront of the fight in Congress to obtain federal funding for school construction, introducing legislation that would allow the federal government to issue $24.8 billion in school modernization bonds in order to help states and school districts repair and build modern schools. As President, I will make repairing and renovating existing school buildings and building new ones a major priority. I will end the partisan divide that threatens progress on school construction and bring members of both parties together to do what is in the best interest and safety of our nation's school children.
In my Administration, initiatives that help children get ready for school and provide support after school will be top priorities. Students who reach the first grade without having had the opportunity to develop cognitive or language comprehension skills begin school at a disadvantage. Children who have not had the chance to develop social and emotional skills do not begin school ready to learn. I believe it is the obligation of government to ensure that all children have the opportunity to succeed. As President, I will work toward providing a healthy, safe, and supportive start for all children of pre-school age.
After-school programs are also an important component of helping students succeed in school. Unfortunately, President Bush has proposed cutting funding for the federal after-school program by 40 percent--more than 550,000 children across the country would lose access to after school programs under the President's plan. This Administration's decision to decimate federal after-school funding is tragic for the hundreds of thousands of young people who will be denied a place to go after school and an unwise decision for improving educational outcomes. I will fight the Bush Administration's cuts and as President, I will work to provide funding to public schools and programs that provides after-school programs.
Quite frankly, I was disappointed at how little attention education got in the debates. Bush patted himself on the back for "All Children Stuck in the Quagmire" and Kerry mentioned that it was underfunded, but beyond that, the issues that we're facing in education--issues the president *should* be aware of and *should* address--were not mentioned. Even *vouchers* weren't mentioned. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that it's because the American public *and* the American government are almost totally ignorant of what goes on in public education. Their only contact with public education comes (for most of them) from their own stint in its hallowed halls, during which they were mostly wishing it was the weekend.
And, in other political news, the sucky thing about living in Texas is that, thanks to the electoral college, my vote for Kerry pretty much counts for nothing but griping rights for the next four years. And since Ralph Hall has neither died nor retired (and, to be clear, I wish the latter on him, not the former), my vote in that race won't count for much, either. Maybe some of the local races won't be predetermined.
Quit laughing. It could happen.
From AFT (American Federation of Teachers) website:
As part of our efforts to provide information to AFT members about the candidates and issues in the 2004 presidential campaign, the union in August 2003 asked all the presidential candidates, including President Bush, to complete a questionnaire to gauge their views on issues of concern to members.
Note the date: August 200*3*. Now, read the response from the "Bush/Cheney Campaign":
Thank you for your letter inviting President Bush to respond to the American Federation of Teachers candidate questionnaire.
President Bush is committed to educating America's children and he is grateful for the opportunity to provide your members with more information about his positive agenda for America and his hopeful vision for the future.
Our campaign is just now assembling our team and facilities. Once established, we will respond directly to your inquiry.
We look forward to working with you and the American Federation of Teachers throughout this election period.
In contrast, read Kerry's response. If you want to know why I'm voting for Kerry, aside from the whole "not Bush" aspect and . . . well, there are a whole lot of reasons. But his first answer on that questionnaire? Is a major one.
In the hopes that I'll get to see if he lives up to his rhetoric, I'm also storing it
Q. What do you believe are the challenges facing public education, and how would your administration address those challenges?
A. We need to reform the way we fund our public schools. Our system penalizes the urban school systems that need the most help. And it creates public schools that are separate and unequal. It's time to secure for every school the resources it needs to insure that no school will be left behind, especially low-performing schools and under-resourced schools.
My first priority as President will be to live up to the funding commitments made in the No Child Left Behind Act and fully fund the law. Unless schools receive the resources they were promised and respect they deserve, the new law will fail and inequality will persist. Where the Bush Administration sought to cut funding for school reform and issued restrictive guidelines, I will fund the law and ensure states have the flexibility to meet the goals of the law. The No Child Left Behind Act is a compromise and there are going to be significant things that need to be fixed as we go forward. In particular, we will have to look at the definition of adequate yearly progress and whether it is meeting the goals of holding schools accountable and making improvements.
I will also make full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act a top priority. The federal government has never met its funding obligation for special education and the impact has been devastating to schools and communities, which have been forced to make up the difference. I have consistently supported efforts to fully fund IDEA in Congress and as President I will ensure that the federal government becomes a true partner of state and local governments in the provision of special education.
Teachers play a critical role in helping children learn and succeed. And teacher quality is perhaps the single most important factor in closing the achievement gap between low and high income children. Yet the Bush Administration proposed cutting $81 million from programs to improve teacher quality this year. I understand that supporting teachers requires dedication and resources, not just rhetoric, and as President I will provide the necessary support for professional development, I will treat teachers with the respect they deserve, and I will support programs that encourage talented young people to become teachers. Instead of fostering environments that drive dedicated teachers from schools, I will work to create supportive environments that provide teachers with opportunities to improve their skills, that have robust mentoring programs, smaller class size, and alternative education programs for chronically disruptive and violent students so that teachers can focus more on teaching and less on discipline.
Smaller classes promote student achievement, improve discipline and classroom order, and expand quality learning time. It's just common sense--and it's borne out by research--that when teachers have more time to spend with individual students, there are tremendous learning benefits to the child. I have consistently supported efforts to provide a dedicated funding stream for reducing class size. Rather than terminate successful programs to reduce class size like the Bush Administration has done, I will champion initiatives that ensure children are not forced to learn in overcrowded classrooms, particularly in the early grades.
The physical structure of our nation's school buildings are in desperate shape: there are $127 billion worth of school construction and emergency repair needs nationally; 14 million children are learning in substandard schools in need of major renovation; and half of all schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition, such as polluted drinking water or soot-filled ventilation. I have been at the forefront of the fight in Congress to obtain federal funding for school construction, introducing legislation that would allow the federal government to issue $24.8 billion in school modernization bonds in order to help states and school districts repair and build modern schools. As President, I will make repairing and renovating existing school buildings and building new ones a major priority. I will end the partisan divide that threatens progress on school construction and bring members of both parties together to do what is in the best interest and safety of our nation's school children.
In my Administration, initiatives that help children get ready for school and provide support after school will be top priorities. Students who reach the first grade without having had the opportunity to develop cognitive or language comprehension skills begin school at a disadvantage. Children who have not had the chance to develop social and emotional skills do not begin school ready to learn. I believe it is the obligation of government to ensure that all children have the opportunity to succeed. As President, I will work toward providing a healthy, safe, and supportive start for all children of pre-school age.
After-school programs are also an important component of helping students succeed in school. Unfortunately, President Bush has proposed cutting funding for the federal after-school program by 40 percent--more than 550,000 children across the country would lose access to after school programs under the President's plan. This Administration's decision to decimate federal after-school funding is tragic for the hundreds of thousands of young people who will be denied a place to go after school and an unwise decision for improving educational outcomes. I will fight the Bush Administration's cuts and as President, I will work to provide funding to public schools and programs that provides after-school programs.
Quite frankly, I was disappointed at how little attention education got in the debates. Bush patted himself on the back for "All Children Stuck in the Quagmire" and Kerry mentioned that it was underfunded, but beyond that, the issues that we're facing in education--issues the president *should* be aware of and *should* address--were not mentioned. Even *vouchers* weren't mentioned. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that it's because the American public *and* the American government are almost totally ignorant of what goes on in public education. Their only contact with public education comes (for most of them) from their own stint in its hallowed halls, during which they were mostly wishing it was the weekend.
And, in other political news, the sucky thing about living in Texas is that, thanks to the electoral college, my vote for Kerry pretty much counts for nothing but griping rights for the next four years. And since Ralph Hall has neither died nor retired (and, to be clear, I wish the latter on him, not the former), my vote in that race won't count for much, either. Maybe some of the local races won't be predetermined.
Quit laughing. It could happen.