John Kerry emerges from his post-Reagan-funeral hiatus with sound bites and promises…to spend more of your money!
He was visiting his buddy (guy in the tan suit) in Chicago yesterday and offered up more of the same fixing-the-educational-system hype and reached out to “minorities” with the rich v. poor routine.
Kerry ranted about doing away with “tax cuts for the rich”, which we’re supposed to assume will pay for all his new educational programs. He proposes a big-government spending trap called the “National Education Trust Fund.” According to his campaign web site:
John Kerry believes it is time to stop sending mandates from Washington to school districts without providing the resources needed to carry them out. Kerry will make a new deal on education — if Washington is going to mandate accountability for our schools, then the funding should be mandatory. Kerry is proposing a “National Education Trust Fund” to make sure that, for the first time ever, the federal government meets its obligation to fully fund our education priorities.
Pouring more money down the drain with promises of “reduced class size” and “higher teacher pay” is passé and trite, so here’s something fresh. The No Excuses project offers real solutions that will require some grunt work:
Across the nation dozens of principals have demonstrated that with effective school leadership children of all income levels can excel. The No Excuses project has identified seven common traits in low-income schools that excel:
1. Principals are free.
2. Principals use measurable goals to foster achievement.
3. Master teachers bring out the best in a faculty.
4. Rigorous and regular testing are used to improve student performance.
5. Achievement is the key to discipline.
6. Principals work with parents to make the home a center of learning.
7. Effort creates ability.
According to the people in the trenches, this is what it will take to properly educate low-income children. It’s not very glamorous and won’t make headlines, but I think it’s the best hope for inner-city schools.
So whenever you hear politicians talking about a “trust fund”, hold on to your wallets. Kerry says he plans to raise our “annual investment” in education from $23.8 billion to about $35 billion.
Good idea. He should start with his wife’s bank account.
Update (10:00pm): I wrote the following in response to a commenter and realized it should have been included in this post:
Me: “[If] you’re implying that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is an ‘unfunded mandate’ (which most critics do), it’s neither unfunded nor is it a mandate. Education spending has actually increased under Bush (unfortunately), and state budget shortfalls can’t be blamed on the NCLB. States are allowed to opt-out of NCLB. John Kerry touts his ‘trust fund’ based on the unfunded mandate argument. People who don’t know the law or how the budget process works usually fall for such tactics.”
Good Night!
