On Schools, Bush Gets an ‘F,’ Democrats Say

President Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress scored a failing grade on their first “education report card,” Rep. Nita M. Lowey of New York said in the weekly Democratic radio talk Saturday.

“In order to accommodate his massive tax plan, President Bush has simply wiped the chalkboard clean of critical programs that our children need,” she said.

Democrats accuse Bush of not committing enough money to education, his stated top legislative priority. The president is pushing what supporters call the most sweeping blueprint for classroom reform in decades.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan disputed Lowey’s claims, noting that Bush proposed an 11.5 percent increase in funds for the Department of Education in his 2002 budget.

“The president’s budget provides the largest increase in any department to the Department of Education, reflecting the fact that education is one of his top priorities,” Buchan said. “In his first week in office he proposed significant education reforms and has been working closely with Congress to get them passed.”

Lowey said Bush’s budget undermined Democrats’ “strong commitment” to after-school programs and school modernization, two examples of what she called flawed tax-cut priorities.

Even under current funding levels, the Education Department meets a mere one-third of its requests for supplementary programs that keep kids off the street after school, she said. One in four New York City schools held classes in hallways, gymnasiums, bathrooms, janitors’ closets and “other inappropriate areas,” a nationwide problem, Lowey said. Two-thirds of these schools had substandard building features such as roofs, walls and floors, she added.