8/26/2004

Date: August 26, 2004
Subject: We're all liberals now

When it comes to education, we're all liberals now. It started when President Bush had a "what's wrong with this picture?" moment when he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the second-most liberal Senator, Ted Kennedy, at the rollout of the reauthorization of the mammoth federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a.k.a. No Child Left Behind. President Bush's 2005 budget requests:
  • $37 billion for K-12 education, a $12 billion (49%) increase since 2001

  • $13 billion for Title I funding, a $4.6 billion (52%) increase since 2001

  • $11 billion for Special Education funding, a $4.7 billion (75%) increase since 2001

(Source: GeorgeWBush.com)

And the federal government is not even Constitutionally chartered to provide K-12 public education, the states are.

It used to be a rule of thumb that the Republicans will never outspend the Democrats. For John Kerry's fuzzy math on education funding, see The Kerry Spot on National Review Online.

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