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NewsSeptember 9, 2003

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- President Bush, back on the political money trail, highlighted his education agenda Monday and urged states to embrace an accountability program intended to identify poorly performing schools and provide help for poor students. Bush was boosting his re-election campaign fund with a $2,000-a-person fund-raiser. ...

By Terence Hunt, The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- President Bush, back on the political money trail, highlighted his education agenda Monday and urged states to embrace an accountability program intended to identify poorly performing schools and provide help for poor students.

Bush was boosting his re-election campaign fund with a $2,000-a-person fund-raiser. It was the first of three days of raising money this week and three days of education speeches. His campaign war chest already is bulging with $58 million, more than all the money collected by the nine Democrats trying to win his job.

Before his political event, Bush dropped by Kirkpatrick Elementary School, which has failed to make adequate progress toward state goals for several years and is required to offer special assistance to pupils. Bush praised school officials for owning up to the problem and making improvements, and he urged others to do the same.

"The statistics are loud and clear," Bush said. "Too many of our fourth-graders cannot read at grade level. The federal government decided to do its part by not only providing the resources but by insisting upon results." The law calls for increased testing to measure results.

Books borrowed from the school's library served as props in front of Bush's lectern. The president visited a tutorial class with youngsters before his speech and encouraged them to practice reading. "I saw you on TV last night," piped up third-grader Tameron Clark, referring to Bush's address about Iraq and his request for $87 billion to fight terrorism.

'I've heard every excuse'

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Bush's visit came just days after Tennessee officials released the results of public school performance tests under the "No Child Left Behind" accountability law pushed by the president. Only 53 percent of the state's 1,650 schools met guidelines of the new law, and some educators blamed unreasonably high federal standards for the disappointing report.

"I've heard every excuse in the book why not to measure," the president said. "My attitude is that in order to know, in order to diagnose a problem, you have to measure it in the first place. You cannot solve a problem until you measure it in the first place."

Bush has asked Congress for $53 billion for elementary and secondary education, a 26 percent increase since he took office. "We understand that resources need to flow to help solve the problem," Bush said.

Under the law, students attending schools that need improvement must be given the opportunity to transfer to better-performing public schools in the school district or to high-quality charter schools in the area.

In addition, supplemental educational services, such as after-school tutoring or academic summer camps, must be made available to students from low-income families who attend schools that have been in need of improvement for more than a year.

Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, said Bush's education initiative puts children in a "one-size-fits-all" category and creates more paperwork.

"We know that all children learn differently," Weaver said. "We know they learn at different rates. This particular law does not take that into consideration. And we believe that a test is not the only way that you determine success. It might be one way, but it might not be the way."

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