Bush Announces Plans for More School Funds

President Bush said Thursday that his fiscal 2005 budget would include a $1-billion increase in education aid for low-income children and another $1-billion hike for special education, but Democrats continued to criticize what they said was his inadequate commitment to improving public schooling.

Speaking at an elementary school here on the second anniversary of his No Child Left Behind Act, Bush said that “record amounts” of federal dollars were being spent on education.

The White House said the president would ask for 48% more in annual spending for elementary and secondary education in the budget he will send to Congress next month than was appropriated in fiscal 2001. That would be an increase from $24.8 billion to $36.7 billion.

However, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) responded that the president’s proposal still would leave Title I -- the government’s chief program for public schools serving low-income children -- with nearly $7.2 billion less than the roughly $20.5 billion Congress had authorized in earlier, multiyear legislation.

From West View Elementary School, Bush rode in his presidential limousine across town to this city’s convention center, where he collected $1 million at a fundraising luncheon for his reelection campaign.

Bush, who already has raised $130 million and still has $99 million of that in his campaign war chest, then flew to Palm Beach, Fla., and collected another $1 million at an evening fundraiser before returning to the White House. He is scheduled today to leave Washington for a weekend at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, before attending a summit of the Americas early next week in Monterey, Mexico.