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Modernize Education to remain competitive

Our ability to rise to the challenges of the global economy depends on our ability to improve public schools and ensure that every single child in America gets a quality education. Keeping our country globally competitive means providing greater opportunities for all of our students to attend and complete college. Here again, the Bush Administration has broken its commitment and missed opportunities. In both his 2000 and 2004 campaigns, President Bush pledged to raise the maximum Pell grant to $5,100. Yet today that maximum grant remains a thousand dollars lower, where it’s been frozen for four years. The college aid package offered by Republicans last year was so restrictive that it will reach only 9 percent of the 5 million students in need of aid.


President Bush still doesn’t realize that the No Child Left Behind is a promise, not a political slogan. Over the past four years, he and the Republican Congress have shortchanged funding for the Act to the tune of $40 billion and we’ll pay the price well into the future. This school year alone, Republican budget cuts have left behind more than 3 million needy children in America’s classrooms, and left 1.6 million children out of the after-school help they need to meet high standards.

I applaud the President’s interest in doing more in math and science education. But it’s going to take more than rhetoric to meet that challenge. So far, the Bush Administration has fallen far short, proposing serious reductions in last year’s budget to training for math and science teachers at the National Science Foundation, and eliminating funding to support technology in the classroom.
President Bush talks about keeping our country globally competitive, but has cut job training again and again. Workers need information on labor market indicators. They need information about the best job training providers and they need a system that supports and guides them into jobs, but also stays with them so that they can engage in career ladders and see continuous growth in job responsibilities and salary.

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