Election 2004
Another False and Misleading Attack Ad From Bush

BUSH-CHENEY AD FACT CHECK

AD TITLE: “Accountability”

DATE: 5/12/04

NARRATOR: “Better Education is about accountability. For years, low standards and poor accountability plagued our schools. Then President Bush signed the most sweeping education reforms in 35 years. John Kerry praised the President’s reforms. Even voted for them.”

THE FACTS:

Bush Shortchanged Own Education Law by $9.4 Billion in 2005. Bush proposed $9.4 billion less for his No Child Left Behind Act than was authorized by the act in his 2005 budget. Bush has shortchanged NCLB by a total of $33.2 billion in his last four budgets. [Department of Ed Budgets 2001-2005, www.ed.gov]

Bush Terminated Dropout Prevention Programs. Bush cut dropout prevention programs entirely out of his 2005 budget. In explanation of the cut, OMB called the programs “unnecessary,” saying that other funding was available for this purpose. [Budget of the United States, www.omb.gov; Major Reductions and Terminations in the 2005 Budget, OMB]

Half of All Hispanics Drop Out by High School. According to a study released in February 2004 by The Urban Institute, only 53 percent of all Hispanic students got a high school diploma in 2001. [The Urban Institute, Who Graduates, Who doesn’t,www.urban.org, 2/25/04]

NARRATOR: “But now, under pressure from education unions, Kerry has changed his mind.”

THE FACTS:

Kerry’s Plan Goes “Against the Grain of Liberal Orthodoxy” By Taking on Teacher’s Unions – “His [education] proposal Thursday on teacher pay, too, went against the grain of liberal orthodoxy, as a partisan, teacher-heavy crowd showed in its reaction. ‘I believe we need to offer teachers more pay,’ he began, interrupted by applause. He continued: ‘More training, more career choices, and more options for education. And we must ask more in return. That's the bargain.’ And there was silence. Mr. Kerry said he would demand accountability of poor teachers by setting up speedy evaluation processes, including peer review, to remove them. ‘Some people who choose to go into teaching will be great, but some will not,’ he said. ‘It's like any profession. Not everybody always has the ability to make it.’” [New York Times, 5/7/04]

Conservative Group Hails Kerry for Taking on Teacher’s Union. Kerry’s “call for linking higher pay to tougher teacher standards drew praise even from leading conservative analysts. ‘I'm impressed that he was willing to come out and state that publicly,’ said Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank. ‘I know it can be difficult with the Democratic constituencies, so he deserves credit for taking that step.’” [Los Angeles Times, Brownstein, 5/7/04]

Kerry Has Consistently Criticized Bush’s for His Failure to Fund “No Child Left Behind” – Kerry began criticizing President Bush’s education plans in 2001 when he declared: "We will show President Bush how you leave no child behind," Kerry said. Since then, John Kerry has been a strong voice criticizing President Bush for failing to fund Ted Kennedy’s No Child Left Behind Education measure. "It is long since time we had a president who made real the words 'leave no child behind'," Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts told a child advocacy group in April. "I am running for president to hold this president accountable for making a mockery of those words.” And: “By signing the No Child Left Behind Act and then breaking his promise by not giving schools the resources to help meet new standards, George Bush has undermined public education and left millions of children behind.” [Boston Herald, 6/10/01; Associated Press, 6/27/03]

Kerry Believes Teachers Must Meet Higher Standards. “Kerry: Teachers Should Meet Higher Standards” “John Kerry said Thursday that if elected president he would make teachers meet higher standards, his latest effort to appeal to the political center as his Republican rivals try to paint him as a liberal Democrat.” [AP, 5/7/04]

Bush Proposed Cutting Millions From Education Programs That Teach Children English. Bush proposed $665 million for language acquisition in his 2004 budget, a cut of nearly $21 million from the previous year. [Department of Education, 2004 Budget, www.ed.gov]

Bush Terminated “Family Literacy” Program. Bush cut all funding for his Even Start program, which provided family literacy education to children and parents in low income areas. According to the National Even Start Association, the program integrated “early childhood education, adult literacy and adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified literacy program.” Even Start received $247 million in 2004. [Budget of the United States, www.omb.gov; Major Reductions and Terminations in the 2005 Budget, OMB]

Bush Has Consistently Attacked Literacy Program. Bush has consistently attacked the Even Start Program by proposing massive funding cuts, $75 million in 2004 and $50 million in 2003. [Children’s Defense Fund, 2/26/03; House Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/5/02]

NARRATOR: “Kerry’s new plan: less accountability to parents”

THE FACTS:

John Kerry Will Strongly Enforce Accountability Provisions for Dropout Rates. John Kerry will enforce NCLB’s accountability provisions for dropouts. While we need more flexibility in NCLB so we do not see absurd results, we do NOT need schools taking shortcuts when it comes to dropout rates.

John Kerry Has Called for Common Sense Accountability from America’s Schools. “I want standards and accountability. But you cannot do it without the resources, and you also can't do it in a way where you turn schools into testing factories.” [2004 Democratic Debate, Los Angeles, 2/26/04]

John Kerry Will Demand Greater Accountability for Special Education. John Kerry believes ‘No Child Left Behind’ is far from perfect, but accountability for special education students is long overdue. We must do a better job educating our school in the use of alternative assessments and IEP timetables. John Kerry will direct the Secretary of Education to provide states with guidance that has been sorely lacking under the Bush Administration. [www.JohnKerry.com/issues/awd/education.html]

Bush Proposed Killing Successful Head Start Programs, Which Serve 270,000 Hispanic Children Each Year. Bush proposed dropping the federal government’s responsibility to provide quality preschool programs through Head Start and handing it off to states, and included $45 million in his 2005 budget for an eight-state test. Head Start teachers and proponents note that most states are unprepared to offer the same quality of programs as the federal government, due to budget problems, lack of infrastructure and oversight capability, and the fact that many states have been cutting social spending. The National Head Start Association said that Bush’s proposal would “dismantle” Head Start “within 5 years.” Head Start prepares 270,000 Hispanic children to attend school every year, and nearly one third of all Head Start enrollees are Hispanic. [Washington Post, 2/1/03, 5/23/03; National Head Start Association report, www.nhsa.org, 4/16/03; HHS Head Start Bureau, www.dhs.gov; House Budget Dems, 2/6/04;]

NARRATOR: “John Kerry: Playing Politics with Education.”

THE FACTS:

John Kerry is Holding Bush Accountable for His Playing Politics at the Expense of Hispanic Students. Hispanic students face a number of challenges when it comes to education and that they have been let down by President Bush. Nearly 50 percent of Hispanic young people do not graduate high school, and Hispanic 13-year olds score significantly lower than other students in reading and math proficiency tests. These disparities in education present a serious, lifelong challenge, as Hispanic students are one-third as likely to graduate college and reap the rewards, like higher salaries, that come with a college degree. Instead of helping to bridge this gap, Kerry has said that George Bush failed to fully fund No Child Left Behind (NCLB), proposed three freezes and one cut to bilingual education programs and failed to pass the DREAM Act, a bill John Kerry supports, which would allow high school graduates who are immigrants to attend college and get on the path to citizenship.

Bush Froze Funding for Pell Grants and Cut $100 Million From Perkins Loans. Bush’s budget froze the maximum Pell Grants at $4,050, and cut funding for Perkins Loans by $100 million. Both programs help students with demonstrated financial need attend college. Hispanic college students are more than twice as likely to qualify for the need-based Pell Grant. [National Education Data Resource Center, nces.ed.gov]

Public College Costs are Skyrocketing and Hispanic Students are Struggling to Pay. With state budgets $100 billion in the red last year, colleges and universities have faced widespread cutbacks. State schools announced double-digit tuition increases this year, some as high as 40 percent. Hispanic college students are being disproportionately hurt by these increases. The 1.8 million Hispanic college students are unable to meet the costs of attending school at higher than average rates and on average have 16 percent more unmet college costs than white college students. A 2002 national study reported that 400,000 qualified high school graduates of all races a year are kept out of college because of an inability to pay the rising costs. [National Education Data Resource Center, Postsecondary education tables, http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas; US Census Bureau, School Enrollment: 2000, www.census.gov; United Press International, 7/29/03; Washington Post, 7/22/03; Boston Globe, 6/27/02]





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