More Presidential Leadership

[tw]

Education reform was one of George Jr's most prominent campaign promises. More examples of an intelligent president at work - from The Economist of 12 May 2001:

""... the Boston bruiser is crushing the life out of the faux Texan preppie. Mr Kennedy, the senior Democrat on the Senate committee that supervises education, has delivered an impressive triple. He has ripped every radical idea out of Mr Bush's education bill. He has changed the focus of the education debate from reform to resources. And he has done all this in the cuddly name of bipartisanship. Mr Kennedy has not done it alone. The education bill has been mauled by the House as well as the Senate, and by some Republican as well as by Democrats. But Mr Kennedy has led the assault so effectively that he is already being treated as the de facto leader of the opposition. ...
Not content with turning a Republican bill into a Democratic one, Mr Kennedy is now accusing the White House of trying to "nickel and dime children's ecuation". Never mind that America spends significantly more per head on education than other advanced countries while producing mediocre results. Never mind Mr Bush plans to increase spending on schools. Let's stop nickel-and-diming children's education.
Why has Mr Bush let himself be outmanoeuvred? Wan't education suppose to be his signature issue? And didn't he get plenty of experience dealing with wily Democrats in Texas?
The simple answer lies in the delicate balance of power in the Senate. It has hardly helped that the Republican chairman of the relevant Senate committee, James Jeffores, is more interested in his pet spending project - handicapped children - than in the general structure of education. Mr Bush is also hampered by the fact that most Republicans are privately uneasy about his willingness to extend the federal government's role in education. ...
... The harsh truth is that most Republican parents are fairly content with their local schools.""