Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2002/01/21/no_child_left_behind_bush_at_unh.php
Monday, January 21, 2002
'It's about this tall,' says President George W. Bush as he holds his left hand out about three and a half feet off the ground, and jokingly adds, ' I hadn't read it all yet,'
The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by the President into law just hours before his arrival in New Hampshire, represents the largest influx of federal resources into education since the Sixties. Passage of the Act was a great success for the Bush administration, which successfully guided it through both Houses of Congress with unprecedented bipartisan support.
After the signing ceremony, held in Hamilton, Ohio, with Rep. John Boehner, Chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, the President and his entourage journeyed to the Durham campus of the University of New Hampshire, where the President spoke on the Act and touted the role of NH Sen. Judd Gregg in its passage. The visit marks Bush's first appearance in New Hampshire as President.
The event, held at Lundholm Stadium at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, before a crowd of several thousand, began with speeches by University President Joan Leitzel and New Hampshire Teacher of the Year Nancy McIver. Entertainment included singing performances by the Elm Street Beat, a sickly insipid company of singing and dancing youth who sang songs paying homage to principles of love, diversity, and blandness.
Bush's arrival was met with an eruption of cheers, applause and flashing cameras. Secretary of Education Rod Paige spoke first on the enormity and importance of the Act, and introduced Sen. Gregg, who, noting the unlikelihood of his sharing a stage with Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (seated behind him on the dais), said that 'this must be the year the Red Sox win the World Series.' The No Child Left Behind Act would 'reinvigorate one of America's great assets, our public education system,' said Gregg before introducing the President, to minutes of standing ovation.
Bush began his remarks with caustic comments for the terrorists and the Taliban. 'They're paying a dear price for messing with America,' the President said of the targets of America's War on Terrorism. 'I long for peace,' said Bush, but solemnly intoned to the crowd: 'I will not relent, I will not tire,' in the pursuit of justice.
He turned to the domestic front and education. 'While we're waging war overseas,' said the President, 'we're after illiteracy here at home.' The No Child Left Behind Act will ensure that 'every child receives a first class education' by setting 'high standards and higher expectations' for America's worst schools and the students who attend those schools. Components of the Act include testing in reading and math for students in the third through eighth grades, options for the parents of students in failing schools, such as school choice, charter schools, and private tutoring for their children, and local control. 'You've got to trust local people,' said the President, 'to run the schools.' The Act will champion early reading initiatives to bring all students' literacy up to level by the third grade.
The Act alters the dynamics of federal funding of public schools, holding schools 'accountable for results.' Bemoaning the practice of students being passed along through grades with out being able to read, the President declared, 'That day is going to end in America. Every child matters.'
Still, many conservatives felt the Bill did not go far enough towards establishing the amount of accountability necessary to strengthen the American public school system. Efforts to add provisions to the Bill that would have tested voucher programs for private schools in several cities failed to garner enough votes for success because of lobbying from teachers' unions. Bush worked closely with liberal Democrats George Miller and Ted Kennedy to create a bill that could be passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Whether this compromise will truly strengthen American schools remains to be seen.
Bush's speech was briefly interrupted by a man who yelled out several minutes into the speech, 'What about the Afghani children?' President Bush paused briefly while several attendees subdued the man. A woman then yelled, 'We love you President Bush,' and scattered applause broke out across the auditorium.