Thompson: Bush Education Program Failing

Candidate Says No Child Left Behind "Not Working," Vows Federal Funding With Fewer Strings Attached

(AP)  Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Thursday that President Bush's signature education program isn't working and that he would provide federal education money with fewer strings attached.

"We've been spending increasing amounts of federal money for decades, with increasing rules, increasing mandates, increasing regulations," Thompson said. "It's not working."

He added that there are problems with Bush's No Child Left Behind program, which requires annual testing and punishes schools that don't make progress.

"No Child Left Behind - good concept, I'm all for testing - but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test - you can't really tell that everybody's doing that well. And it's not objective," Thompson said.

Instead, he said the federal government should be providing block grants as long as states set up objective testing programs.

He said his message to states would be, "We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don't work out right."

The former Tennessee senator and star of NBC's ``Law & Order`` was responding to a question as he began a three-day bus tour of Florida, his first visit to the state since announced his candidacy last week. A woman asked what he would do for education. He told her decisions on how schools are run should be made by local and state decisions, not dictated out of Washington.

"It's your responsibility," he said. "If you don't like what's going on, don't get in your car and drive by your school board and maybe drive by the capitol and get on an airplane and fly to Washington and say, 'I don't like the way the school down the street is being run."'

[cassandragop]

So where are thier parents? Why didnt they teach thier kids english before dumping them on our tax dollars in english speaking schools....
Their parents may have been remiss in not teaching their children how to string together an understandable sentence....and perhaps those children do not even know how to spell "their" or use a spellcheck program.

[socrates392]

One of the biggest problems with all this is that 40% of the students in many big city schools cannot and will not learn english. This holds back the kids that want an education, and holds back money that should be used to give it to them.

Posted by pwrslm at 08:49 AM : Sep 14, 2007

Why are you trying to turn education reform into a debate about illegal immigration? I live in Detroit and the vast majority of the kids in the Detroit school system are native English speakers-- they are also some of the most underachieving students in the country! You can''t blame everything on immigration!

If you want better a educational system, pay your teachers more!

[pwrslm]

No child left behind? So where are thier parents? Why didnt they teach thier kids english before dumping them on our tax dollars in english speaking schools....

[pwrslm]

I missed the part of the constitution that said the Government should run schools and dictate what our kids should/should not learn.

One of the biggest problems with all this is that 40% of the students in many big city schools cannot and will not learn english. This holds back the kids that want an education, and holds back money that should be used to give it to them.

If a family doesnt speak english, they need to teach thier children to speak english in they want the education we provide. America should not be held responsible for all these millions of illegal immigrants who refuse to assimilate into our society, and we should not be taxed to our own detriment. OUR kids are what this educational system is for, not for non-english speaking foreigners looking for babysitters so they can work.

[realpatriot1]

cfin5,

Your sour moods are better than some people''s best days. No probs.

[cfin5]

realpatriot1,.....It''s a deal. I was earlier and still am somewhat in a sour mood as to what happened to that poor little girl in Texas. parrot2''s one sided posts touched me off. I see no problem in giving credit where credit is due to whoever it is. Same goes for rebuking where needed and including myself. Fair and square.

[realpatriot1]

cfin5,

It was a bipartison agreement and involved elements of both sides approach to the issue. Testing was Bush''s main component, that wasn''t Kennedy. You can blame the democrats for the red tape.

Better yet, let''s skip the blame and see if we can''t work together to make it better; that''s what would be beneficial to the kids.

[realpatriot1]

This is a good start for Fred.

He''s actually talking about taking something that doesn''t work and trying to fix it. It certainly beats knocking the opponent and not offering anything better.

The public deserves more of this and less of the smut.

[rushlimpdrug]

Wasn''t Reagan''s rule to not criticize another fellow repub?
So much for Freddy being like Reagan.

Here''s my one tip to Fred:
Fred, keep your wife away from Vitter.

[cfin5]

President Bush''s mistake was letting Ted Kennedy write the "ejukashun" bill for him to sign. Some bi-partisan efforts just don''t work when partisans are the author. The three "R''s" take a back seat to "socialist" studies these days.

[frankinaz]

The "No Child Left Behind" is really failing along the border states with Mexico, primarily due to large numbers of illegal immigrants who put their children in schools that have to teach them English. This concept is getting more expensive to solve every day, because no one is controlling the numbers of illegal immigrants that not only bring their children to this country, but also have their children here. Maybe the Federal Government should block further illegal immigration to this country, along with providing the states block grants.

[micma-2009]

Thompson is absolutely right and what we need to solve the nations problems is a career lobbyist turned actor as President. Not!

Thompson represents everything that''s wrong with Washington. A career lobbyist will only turn the country over to corporations and special interests. If you like Bu$h you''ll love Thompson. He''s a multinational corporation posing as a human being.

[gkc99]

NO! Bushit is succeeding. Bushit and his ilk do well when people are stupid and ignorant. Learning is dangerous to the neoconscum fascists.

Bushit is succeeding in keeping the American Sheeple fat and stupid and watching TV sitcoms and "reality shows". Don''t want those peasants actually thinking, do ya?