Speaking on the radio, President Bush said that students from low-income families show catastrophically low levels of knowledge in testing compared to their peers from families with relatively high incomes. Targeted assistance will be allocated under the national education reform initiated by the president (recall that the reform act was signed by Bush last year).
The reform involves increasing education spending and annual student performance testing. Parents of students from schools with chronic overall underachievement have the right to transfer their child to another public educational institution or receive compensation for additional educational programs.
Some critics believe that Bush's program places too much emphasis on testing, which will negatively affect the learning process itself. Others note that the reform will cause unjustified financial damage to educational institutions with troublesome student populations.
Democrats, for their part, find Bush's proposal to increase education funding by only one billion dollars "inadequate." According to Edward Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts, education investment should be increased by at least $6.2 billion a year. More than five million young Americans need financial assistance to obtain an education, he said. "The president's program includes money for testing students, but not for their education," Kennedy believes. "It is unreasonable to try to make schools work better by giving them pocket money," the Democratic senator said.
Nevertheless, during Bush's tenure as president, more and more funds have been allocated for U.S. educational needs. In 2002 alone, funding for schools and universities grew by 17%, or $1.6 billion. And in 2003, it is planned to increase spending by another billion dollars.