Bush Legacy Tour

In his “compassionate conservative” campaign rhetoric, Bush promised to support an education system that would “leave no child behind.”

Then came the reneging on No Child Left Behind. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress set high standards for schools to raise testing scores, but refused to provide the money to achieve those standards. Schools have struggled to develop appropriate tests and provide the extra help students need to make the government-mandated test score improvements.

Conservatives also turned their back on Head Start, a program to help disadvantaged preschoolers develop early math and reading skills. Research shows that Head Start Works. In fact, every $1 spent on Head Start creates a $9 return on investment.

Despite this record of success, Bush’s fiscal year 2009 budget cuts 14,065 Head Start child slots – making it the first enrollment reduction for Head Start to be included in the formal budget proposal of a U.S. president since the launch of Head Start in 1965.

And it’s not just young children who have been hurt by conservatives’ education policy failures. In 2000, George W. Bush told voters he would raise the maximum college Pell Grant to $5,100. But during the four years conservatives controled the White House and Congress, Pell grants were frozen at $4,050 – and were not raised until the Democratic Congress took control in 2007. In the meantime, tuition at public universities rose 46% since President Bush took office.