abunchofrandom. joshua conner's weblog. - October 27th, 2004

Today's "stat": education. (Iraq has been moved to Monday never - sorry!)

I'm going to try to mostly let the issues speak for themselves on this one. So, in the interest of balance...

A list of good things our current President has done for education:

• No Child Left Behind: President Bush instituted a badly-needed measure for assessing the quality of education kids receive today. Yes, high-stakes testing has its drawbacks, but people pretty much have to take tests to do anything these days (get a drivers' license, go to college, even get a job at Outback Steakhouse), so it's in children's best interests for them to have as much practice as possible at high-stakes test situations. Additionally, as a result of NCLB, federal spending on elementary and secondary education increased from $18.5 billion in 2001 to $22.5 billion (requested) in 2005.
  
  
• Increase in Pell Grants: Total funding for Pell Grants increased 34% between 2001 and now, and the maximum amount of Pell Grant a student could receive increased from $3750/year to $4050/year.

Now, what the President DIDN'T do:

• NCLB is badly underfunded. Many school administrators complain that the additional funding allocated to schools under NCLB doesn't even cover the costs of implementing NCLB. It's actually a net loss of funding for schools.
  
  
• "The Bush administration has signaled that inflation-adjusted federal education
  spending is likely to fall in future years, if Bush is re-elected, [and] the Office of Management and Budget is considering a $1.5 billion cut in the Department of Education’s 2006 budget." (link to PDF) This means our already underfunded schools will receive even less money under a second Bush administration.
  
  
• "Pell grant spending did rise substantially after Bush came into office, but the increase was due primarily to the slow economy pushing a million more students under the program's $40,000 income threshold." (link)
  
  
• Bush's Pell Grant "increase" from $3750 to $4050, when adjusted for inflation, amounts to only 1% over four years. But according to this Washington Post article, the average increase in college tuition nationwide was 10.5% just last year, and down from 13% the year before. The President's Pell Grant increases don't come close to keeping up with actual college costs.

Basically, Bush has a record of paying lip service to supporting education while not actually following through, and his administration has admitted to plans to cut education spending further.

This is the man who calls himself the "education president?"

John Kerry, on the other hand, makes education a priority.

• "[Kerry] plans to give tax credits on the first $4,000 of tuition to all college students whose parents earn less than $100,000. The credit would cover 100 percent of the first $1,000 and 50 percent of the rest--essentially functioning as an extra $2,500 Pell grant. In an effort to curb runaway tuition hikes, he also proposes putting up $10 billion for states that keep tuition increases below the inflation rate for two years." (link)
  
  
• "Kerry proposes that high school students can engage in public service for two years in exchange for four years of the equivalent of public tuition in their state. This proposal is similar to Americorps, with the exception that Americorps participants join after college and can use their stipends to pay student loans or for future graduate study. About 200,000 are estimated to attend school full time and 300,000 would attend part time. We project program costs of $10.3 billion for 2006-2015. The Kerry campaign estimates the Service for College program will cost $13 billion over 10 years." (link)
  
  
• Kerry will more fully fund NCLB, through a $200 billion entitlement to states over the period of 10 years. (link)
  

Some would argue that it's unfair to compare Bush's record as President against Kerry's mere proposals. That's fair, but it's important to remember that this election is as much a referendum AGAINST our current President as it is an endorsement of John Kerry.

So the real question to ask is, "Do I want change, or more of the same?"

Come November 2, I'll be voting for change, and I hope you will too.

THURSDAY: Stem cells.