John Kerry knows better when he claims that Pres. Bush “has underfunded [the No Child Left Behind law] by $28 billion.” During President Bush’s administration, funding for education has grown by 58% during his first three years and he has proposed another 5% increase for the coming fiscal year.
Kerry claims that the President broke a "promise" to fund the law at the maximum Congress authorized but that’s not true, either. What the President promised was to “provide the resources necessary.” Of course that leads us into semantics…and what the definition of “necessary” is.
Democrats have wrongly accused Pres. Bush of cutting education budgets 27%. A study of the record, however, shows that funding for the department of education has gone from Clinton-funded $39,932 in 2001 to Bush-funded $66,434 in 2005.
Another “fib” Kerry promotes is his claim that Pres. Bush "slashes job training by 24%." What the administration actually proposes to do is to move $250 million out of what it calls “outdated high-school shop courses ill-matched to the modern job market” and move them into a new "Community College Initiative" to upgrade technical and career training at 2-year colleges. Innovative, yes. Provocative, maybe. But “slashes job training,” not at all.
The saddest thing about all this is that Kerry and the DNC know the truth; they just prefer not to acknowledge it and try to come up with something better. The American people deserve candidates who are careful to face campaigning facts as they are, not to obscure and obfuscate reality.
Sources:
"The President's Agenda for Long-Term Growth & Prosperity: Remarks by the President on the Economy," Birmingham, Alabama 15 July 2002.
Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2005, Analytical Perspectives , Table 24 4. Beneficiary Projections For Major Benefit Programs, Jan 2004: P361.
Budget of United States Government, Fiscal Year 2005, "Historical tables, Table 5.2-Budget Authority by Agency: 1976-2009" Jan 2004.
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