"This report is about more than education. The information in this document is an economic forecast. Education is the single most important economic investment this country can make, and that is why the cuts in education proposed by the President and Republican leadership are so devastating.
This report is filled with photographs of the President surrounded by school children. These pictures are designed to convey the image that President Bush truly intends to 'leave no child behind.' The reality is that with weeks of signing the 'No Child Left Behind' education act, the President submitted a budget that leaves millions of children behind. The President’s budget stops six years of steady progress in federal support to local schools dead in its tracks.
If enacted, the annual growth of real federal per-student support will drop from an average of 12 percent per year to one-half of 1 percent. In real numbers, the president’s budget falls $7.2 billion short of what is necessary to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act. Achieving the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act with this budget would make the miracle of loaves and fishes look like the minor leagues.
An investment in education is the single best investment we can make in our
economy. We cannot turn our back on the millions of children who just last year
we were promising to rescue. And we cannot turn our backs on the economic future
of our great nation."
