George W. Bush Promotes Education Policy
Sept. 26 -- Adopting a tough tone on the campaign trail Monday, Republican candidate George W. Bush assailed presidential rival Al Gore’s record on education while touting his own plan for America’s schools.
“America today is in the midst of an education recession that can threaten our very future,” Bush told a town hall audience at an elementary school in Portland, Ore.
Campaigning in Oregon and Washington — two states usually considered reliable for the Democratic Party — the Republican nominee outlined his 10-year, $47 billion education plan, which is intended to make schools accountable for student performance and improve reading scores.
The Texas governor also ripped Gore’s 10-year, $115 billion education proposal, saying the plan was devoted to trendy but unproven education theories.
Citing what Bush called Gore’s idea of the “three R’s — relationships, resilience, and readiness — Bush added, “Now that sounds nice. But what happened to reading?”
Weeklong Swing
Bush’s events Monday launched a weeklong campaign swing, focused almost entirely on education, that will bring the GOP contender to a handful of states considered to be up for grabs, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Washington.
The trip comes as the Bush campaign has regained confidence and is enjoying a bounce in the polls.
The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup national poll gives Bush a slight edge over Gore among likely voters, 47 percent to 46 percent, with one percent each for Green Party nominee Ralph Nader and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.
And Bush’s offensive on education, an issue thought to be especially important to women voters, comes as the CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey also shows Bush gaining 10 points among women in the last week, now trailing Gore in this group by four points.
The Bush campaign also released a new TV ad today, in support of his theme this week, which will be shown nationwide. It claims that 58 percent of fourth-grade students in “low income schools” can’t read.
