Bush & GOP Roll Out Education Ads

(CBS)  The CBS News Political Unit is tracking the latest campaign commercials. Jane Ruvelson analyzes two new ads from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and George W. Bush's campaign hailing the governor's record on education in Texas.

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The Ad:
The RNC and the Bush campaign have released ads highlighting what the Republicans are calling America's "education recession." The commercials focus on national education problems and tout public school successes in Texas. The RNC's ad, Education Recession, began airing Sunday; the Bush spot, 58 Percent, will go up later this week. Both will run in 17 battleground states: Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Audio for Education Recession:
Announcer: America's having a recession - an education recession. Our students rank last in the world in math and physics - and most fourth graders in our cities can't read. The Clinton/Gore Education Recession - it's failing our kids. But in Texas, George Bush raised standards - and test scores soared. Now Texas leads the nation in academic improvement. Learn more about the Bush Blueprint for accountability, high standards, and local control.

Audio for 58 Percent:
Announcer: Fifty-eight percent of fourth grade kids in our low-income schools can't read. There's an education recession in America. Governor Bush has a plan. Require strict accountability and measurements that Al Gore opposes. Propose a teacher protection act that Gore won't support.
George W. Bush: If we really want to make sure no child gets left behind in America, we need the courage to raise standards in our schools. We need more accountability and more discipline. It's easy just to spend more. Let's start by expecting more.

Visual:
Both commercials feature plenty of kids in school and scenes of Bush interacting with students. While 58 Percent uses close-ups of Bush speaking to the camera, Education Recession relies on footage from his convention address.

Fact Check:
Both ads are misleading. First, the gloom and doom of an Education Recession ignores statistics that show that U.S. students' scores have consistently inched over the last eight years. Second, both commercials point to fourth graders who "can’t read." But while 58 Percent provides more clarification than Education Recession, neither ad makes it clear that the statistic refers to only those in the highest poverty schools. Third, the RNC's charge that "U.S. students rank last" refers only to one subset of children, tested back in 1995, against other industrialized nations. Finally, in regard to education gains in Texas, though scores for minority students have incrased markedly, overall scores don't reflect such a trend. This is evidenced by Texas' national SAT ranking, which went from 41st when Bush took office to 47th this year.

The Strategy:
The release of Education Recession and 58 Percent coincide with a week the Bush campaign will spend focused on the failures of the current education system as well as his education "Recovery Plan." Bush considers education to be his signature issue and recent polls indicate that it is his best "women's issue" against Vice President Al Gore, his Democratic rival. Bush is hoping to hold that line or even improve his standing on education with a target group of women - those who are married and have children.