Bush Links More Rigorous Schooling to Getting Jobs

President Bush on Tuesday proposed new requirements for vocational training and for science and math education that he said would help Americans acquire needed skills for jobs in the fast-changing economy.

“We want every citizen in this country to be able to get the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. There are new jobs being created,” the president said at South Arkansas Community College.

Bush’s appearance was part of a recent drive to highlight his efforts on job creation -- an issue that looms large in his reelection bid.

During an hourlong event that the White House billed as a “conversation” on job training and the economy, Bush pronounced the economy to be in solid recovery, citing in part Friday’s Labor Department report that 308,000 jobs were created in March.

“This economy is strong and it is getting stronger,” the president said. “And I intend to keep it that way through good policy.”

Bush proposed that Congress revamp the major federal vocational education program, directing $1 billion of its annual funding into a new program that would require participating schools to offer four years of English, three years of math and science, and 3 1/2 years of social studies. Some states have adopted requirements less rigorous than Bush is proposing.

Bush also said he wanted to include high school seniors in the National Assessment of Education Progress examinations, which require participating states to test fourth- and eighth-graders every two years in reading and math. Testing 12th-graders would allow educators to identify areas where students were not succeeding so that they could strengthen the curricula, the White House said.

A third prong of Bush’s initiative would create a $100-million private-public partnership to provide $5,000 grants to about 20,000 low-income students to study math and science. The proposal requires approval by Congress.

Bush’s call for tougher vocational education requirements would alter the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, which distributes federal funds, mostly as grants, to state education agencies that are helping youth and adults move into fields that do not always require a baccalaureate or advanced degree.

Lee Murdock, who administers Perkins funds under the California Department of Education, worried that Bush’s proposal would allow principals to spend money outside of vocational programs.

“Now it could go toward anything to serve economically disadvantaged kids,” he said. “It’s a particular concern with us.”

In a statement posted on its website, the National Assn. of Secondary School Principals said it was “gravely concerned about how the plan would affect secondary schools.”

“The intent is to provide increased flexibility; however, there is no guarantee that school districts will direct those funds to secondary schools, especially in light of No Child Left Behind mandates that primarily target grades 3-8,” the association stated.

Edward Haertel, a professor of education at Stanford, said expanding the National Assessment of Education Progress examinations to include 12th-grade students would help the government identify trends and gaps over time.

Eva Baker, co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA, noted that 12th-graders were already assessed constantly, with exams tied to state standards, high school exit exams and SATs.

“It just seems right now that everybody is feeling there is a test glut around,” she said. “The important thing is to make sure whatever test we have is hooked up to the kinds of learning we want to generate.”

El Dorado, a town of 21,000, is in a region where plant closings and near-double-digit unemployment persist in energy, timber and manufacturing fields. The community’s jobless rate was 9.1% in February, well above the current national rate of 5.7%.

“It’s very slow. There are not a lot of jobs here,” El Dorado Mayor Bobby Beard told Associated Press. “We’re lucky that we’ve got plenty of high-end paying petrochemical jobs that are helping us get by.”

The campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said that Bush’s rhetoric did not match his record.

“George Bush spent the last three years cutting job training and vocational education programs as millions of U.S. jobs disappeared overseas,” a Kerry campaign statement said.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan disputed the claims, saying that “funding for job training and employment programs have increased from approximately $20.4 billion when we took office to approximately $23 billion.”

Chen reported from El Dorado and Hayasaki from Los Angeles.