President Bush: All-American

             The main points for the President's plan include some revolutionary ideas in the area of education. The goal of the plan is to reduce the gap between rich and poor students in America's more than 89,599 public schools. The main ideas for the plan are very wide spread. The President is allowing for more local and parental control in the schools. The act allows for local decision making on federal acts and less "red-tape" on government programs. By allowing for more local control, the government is putting half of the federal aid dollars into the hands of the school boards to use the money how they see fit. I believe that this is a great asset to the President. It shows that he is putting his trust into the parents and teachers and trying to remove the control of the centralized government. The act also allows students from unsafe and failing schools to transfer to better schools, or to receive assistance like tutoring. The biggest concerns for American citizens are the things that affect them directly. The easiest way to have citizens up in arms is to cut funding to educational programs. That is why I feel that this act will greatly help the President as he runs for a second term. The funding that he has given these educational programs under this act is unbelievable. President Bush has allowed for a 27% increase from last year for a total of 22.1 billion dollars being spent on education. There is also an additional 10.4 billion being spent on disadvantaged students and three billion being spent to higher and train qualified teachers and principals. Not to mention the two million being spent to make sure every child can read and relocate to different schools if necessary. I feel that it is very easy to see why this program is called the No Child Left Behind Act. I feel that by showing this much support for children and education the President is boosting his chances for re-election.