Violence... The story so far

Editorial

Community Colleges

On the campaign trail, Mr Bush talked up a $500 million job training/education proposal announced in his State of the Union address. By recent sleight of hand, Mr Bush proposed to cut almost $700 million out of the very job training and education programs he said he wanted to boost.

Mr Bush said: "I propose increasing our support for America's fine community colleges." But in 2003, the president sought to cut $230 million out of vocational/community college education, along with "eliminating funding for technical education." When Congress wanted to restore the cuts in April, Bush would not move. His buddies in the Senate voted down the funding. The president also recently eliminated $225 million from job training grants. Is this the way to move our nation forward?

In a curious switch before the bait, the president also announced: "I propose larger Pell grants for students," but failed to mention his earlier decision to "cut the Pell Grant program by $270 million." The Education Department says 84,000 students will be cut off while grants for "an additional one million students" will be reduced. And this is what is happening. It is hitting students from the poorer classes, not the elite, in true Plutocratic form.

See:

BattleofBlog
No Child Left Behind
Committee on Education