Saturday, October 07, 2006

no tragedy left unexploited

Bush's solution to the two recent attacks on girls at US schools - shamelessly use it as a means for promotion of GOP policy.

Apparently reauthorizing "No child left behind" will somehow help. This is as much Bush's stupidity as the mainstream media's gullibility (or complicity) for reporting on this as if it were a fucking coherent, relevant story. Is the idea that a would be shooter, upon attempting to enter the school with the intent to rape and kill girls, would become caught and hopelessly trapped in the web of red tape spun about our schools?

Real, responsible news story here?
"Desperate Bush uses tragedies in schools to promote failing "No Child Left Behind" law"
"Bush to lawmakers: (re)pass my law or the girls get it"

If it weren't so sick, Bush's having linked these two issues together would be silly.

President Bush on Saturday lamented recent "shocking acts of violence" in schools, and promised his administration will do what it can to keep centers of learning safe for students.

Bush also pushed for reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law, which he says needs some changes. Under the law, schools that get federal poverty aid and fall short of their yearly progress goals for two straight years must offer transfers to students. After three years of failure, schools must offer low-income parents a choice of tutors....

The president outlined a series of ways in which the law could be improved, such as by expanding testing in high schools, an idea he has pitched to Congress for two years. He also said he wants the federal government to pay for 28,000 low-income students across the country to transfer to private schools, and has asked for $100 million to pay for the initiative.

"Thanks to this good law, we are leaving behind the days when schools just shuffled children from grade to grade, whether they learned anything or not," Bush said. "Yet we still have a lot of work to do."

No comments: