September 2, 1992 BUSH VERSUS CLINTON ON EDUCATION: EMPOWERING PARENTS VERSUS EMPOWERING BUREAUCRATS President Bush believes that parents should have the power to hold schools accountable for how well they teach. Unlike Bill Clinton who favors limited school choice, President Bush supports choice for public, private, and religious schools, believing that competition among all schools will make all schools excel. He believes that parents, not bureaucrats, are best equipped to choose what's best for their children. o Bush supports parental school choice: Four decades ago, veterans were given new opportunities and choices to afford a college education. The President's G.I. Bill for Children will replicate the success of the first G.I. Bill, helping elementary and secondary schools achieve excellence. The President will give parents the power to choose the best school for their child, and will make that choice real and affordable by giving $1,000 scholarships directly to parents. -- Bill Clinton claims that assistance to parents to help them afford private schools hurts the public educational system. The truth is, unfettered by teachers' union endorsements that have tied Clinton's hands, President Bush's reform program rewards public schools that work and helps parents send their children to private schools if public ones do not work. o Glad-handling the "Educrats": The teachers' unions and education bureaucrats (a.k.a. "educrats") could not be happier that Bill Clinton has latched on to their philosophies and programs. With Clinton, the educrats will get what they've paid for -- no real education reform. -- Since 1988, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), have contributed $7.4 million to Democrats, $644,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other Democratic party committees. -- Since 1988, Democratic congressmen have carried the NEA's and the AFT's water, blocking the President's education reforms to empower parents to force school reforms, and to break the stranglehold of education bureaucrats. o A Competitive Workforce Without More Bureaucracy: President Bush's recently-announced job training initiative continues his commitment to life-long learning and adult education. The President's plan would give dislocated workers vouchers worth up to $3,000 towards job training. The voucher system empowers workers to choose the training program that best meets their needs. The President's plan would almost triple resources being devoted to skill training and worker adjustment, and could be paid for out of specific spending cuts the President has already proposed. -- Bill Clinton's idea of job training is a tax on every worker and his or her wages. His plan to require businesses to set aside 1.5% of their payroll for job training would cost 300,000 jobs. -- Clinton questions how President Bush would pay for his expanded worker retraining. The fact is, President Bush has already proposed over $130 billion in specific spending cuts for mandatory programs that Congress has failed to enact. The President has also proposed the outright elimination of 246 specific discretionary programs and over 4,000 projects. -- Looking at Clinton's economic plan, it is easy to see why Clinton does not understand that new spending can be paid for by cutting outdated government programs. Clinton has proposed the elimination of just one government program -- a program his running-mate has previously voted to preserve. Furthermore, to finance his proposed $219 billion increase in federal spending, Clinton will impose the largest tax increase in American history -- at least $150 billion over four years. o Arkansas education -- Bill Clinton's Bleak House: Despite Clinton's self-proclaimed status as an education expert, Arkansas' students have little to cheer about. Out of 28 states that primarily use the ACT achievement test, in 1989 Arkansas ranked 25th, a steady decline since the state ranked 20th in 1986. The only thing that has gone up significantly under Clinton is the state's education bureaucracy -- administrative costs have jumped 15 percent at the same time that the number of school districts has declined by 14 percent. -- Seventy-seven percent of Arkansas high school graduates require remedial classes once they get to college -- twice the national average. -- While Clinton blames Arkansas' low national standing on cuts in federal funding, federal spending for Arkansas education actually jumped 34.5 percent from 1983 to 1992. -- Arkansas ranks 49th out of 50 states in teacher pay, 48th in per pupil expenditures. Arkansas still ranks 50th in percentage of adults with a college degree. o Committed to Education Programs that Work: Under President Bush, funding for the Department of Education has reached historic levels, up 41 percent since 1989, from $23 billion to a proposed $32.3 billion for 1993. Funding for Head Start, which prepares low-income children to learn, has virtually doubled; this year, the President proposed the largest funding increase in Head Start's history. o Improving Literacy: President and Mrs. Bush have shown their commitment to making all Americans functionally literate by the year 2000. The President's FY 1993 budget will quadruple family literacy programs, while funding for adult literacy programs will have increased 90 percent, from $155 million in FY 1989 to $294 million in FY 1993. Unfortunately, Clinton's Arkansas is still fifth in the nation for the number of adults considered illiterate. # # #