Education: Failing Marks.'The president has made bipartisan education reform the cornerstone of his administration." So reads one of the talking points the White House released at the end of its first 100 days. As the education bill heads through committee markup (text) markup - In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, or instructions for layout of the text on the page or other information which can be interpreted by some automatic system. toward the floor of Congress, we are beginning to see what comes of making a fetish fetish (fĕt`ĭsh), inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artificial, such as carvings in wood. of bipartisanship In a two-party system (such as in the United States or Australia), bipartisan refers to any bill, act, resolution, or any other action of a political body in which both of the major political parties are in agreement. : a Democratic bill. President Bush's education proposal was at best a mixed bag. He promised to increase federal spending, even though there is not much evidence that the money already spent has done anything to improve education. He wanted, in addition, to increase the federal role in education by creating a national "accountability system" of tests. On the other hand, Bush had some good ideas: consolidating education programs, giving states more flexibility in spending federal grant money, and taking some tiny steps toward school choice. For the sake of these policies, many conservatives were willing to swallow swallow, common name for small perching birds of almost worldwide distribution. There are about 100 species of swallows, including the martins, which belong to the same family. Swallows have long, narrow wings, forked tails, and weak feet. their objections. One by one, the conservative components of the bill are quietly dying. The first to go was school choice, which administration officials made clear would not be allowed to be an obstacle to bipartisanship. State flexibility is likely to be a casualty of the committee room. The number of programs being consolidated is shrinking weekly. Still the Democrats are unappeased. They want a $250 billion increase in education spending over the next ten years-ten times what the president wants. One gets the sense that if the president had proposed $250 billion, the Democrats would be asking for $750 billion. In his speech to Congress in February, Bush adduced the fact that education would get the largest funding increase in his budget as proof of his commitment to the issue. He is in no position to dispute the Democrats' rejoinder The answer made by a defendant in the second stage of Common-Law Pleading that rebuts or denies the assertions made in the plaintiff's replication. The rejoinder allows a defendant to present a more responsive and specific statement challenging the allegations made that we can show even more commitment by multiplying mul·ti·ply 1 v. mul·ti·plied, mul·ti·ply·ing, mul·ti·plies v.tr. 1. To increase the amount, number, or degree of. 2. Mathematics To perform multiplication on. that spending by ten. The White House is desperate to score legislative "successes"-bills passed by Congress and signed by Bush. But a bill that offers more to the teachers unions than to schoolchildren schoolchildren school npl → écoliers mpl; (at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school is not a success. The education bill emerging in Congress is such a bill, and it does not deserve to pass-or to be enacted. |
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