DNC: Where is Armstrong Williams When You Need Him?

[MaineDem]

For Immediate Release
October 20, 2005
Contact: Damien LaVera, 202-863-8148

Where is Armstrong Williams When You Need Him?

Washington, DC - While the Bush Administration and its apologists use isolated
statistics to argue that their No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is working, a
complete assessment of the Department of Education's national report card on
NCLB shows that millions of children continue to be left behind. In fact, "By
some measures, students were making greater gains before the law was put into
effect."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following
statement:

"Since the Bush Administration can no longer buy positive news coverage on
education from Armstrong Williams, the Bush Administration is spinning harder
than ever to hide the disastrous impact of its failure to fully fund No Child
Left Behind. But no matter how hard the Bush Administration and its apologists
try, they cannot hide the fact that President Bush's chronic underfunding of No
Child Left Behind has denied millions of American schoolchildren the
opportunity to succeed.

"The parents, students, and teachers of America deserve better than President
Bush's failed leadership and broken promises on education. They deserve
leadership in Washington that makes good on the promises they make to American
schoolchildren, and they deserve leadership that provides all American children
the educational opportunities they need to live the American dream. "

"Democrats are committed to providing that leadership. That is why we are
fighting to reverse cuts in critical programs that could accelerate efforts to
close the achievement gap. And, by fighting to reverse cuts in Head Start and
Even Start, protect preschool programs, recruit and train skilled teachers, and
improve our nation's schools, Democrats are working to make sure that every
American child has equal access to a quality education from trained teachers in
a modern schools."

Test Scores Raising Slower Than Before NCLB. From 2000 to 2003, before NCLB
took full effect, the percentage of fourth graders scoring proficient in math
rose eight percentage points, compared with four points this year. The
percentage of eighth graders proficient in math rose three points before the
law, compared with one point this year. The trend holds true with reading
scores as well. This year's fourth-grade reading scores were flat, with 31
percent of students scoring proficient this year, the same percentage as in
2003. Eighth grade reading scores actually declined, with 31 percent scoring as
proficient, compared with 32 percent in 2003.

Gaps Between Minority and Non-Minority Students Closing Too Slowly. According
to Gage Kingsbury of the Northwest Educational Evaluation Association, if the
results from the 2005 education report card are extrapolated, it will take 28
years for black and white students to perform at equal proficiency levels on
fourth grade math testing. It would take 200 years or more for the gap to close
on eighth-grade reading scores.

President Bush Has Repeatedly Broken His Promise to Provide Federal Support for
Education. President Bush's last four budgets (FY2002-2005) have cumulatively
provided $27 billion less than what was pledged under NCLB. Even with the
additional funds that Congress appropriated over Bush's budgets, American
schools have received $17.2 billion less than what they were promised over the
past three years. www.ed.gov]

###

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.
org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's
committee.

[NorCalDem]

1. Good message, however...

"They deserve leadership in Washington that makes good on the promises they make to American schoolchildren, and they deserve leadership that provides all American children the educational opportunities they need to live the American dream. "

What American Dream? At this point in our history can we stop selling the "American Dream" to our children. It does not exist anymore, and hasn't for quite some time! We're not all going to be millionaires! Hell, most of us aren't even going to be thousandaires with the way things are going in our economy right now. The "American Dream" is a lie, and always has been (for black people, women, people of latino and chicano descent, poor white people, and a whole host of other groups). Can we stop the perpetuation of this lie now, and start working towards building an America that is safe enough to sleep in so that we CAN start dreaming again!

:rant:

[madfloridian]

5. Are you even aware of the hispanic and minority outreaches...

they are doing? You can find it if you want to do so. That is what they are trying to do, rebuild the American dream.

[Cha]

2. Keep after him, Dean..maybe

some day he'll be held accountable.

I was looking at the DNC site today and who says the Dems don't have an agenda?

http://www.dnc.org/agenda.html

They have an Excellent agenda.

http://www.dnc.org

[madfloridian]

3. They have an agenda, they are organizing.

I get tired of folks who say they aren't doing anything.

[Cha]

4. When pundits ask Dean

what the Dems are doing he should give them this list and give a shout out of the website. I bet a lot of people would think this sounds so wonderful after 5 bush nightmares.

[Rose Siding]

6. Ha! : bush can't BUY positive news coverage

Since the Bush Administration can no longer buy positive news coverage on education from Armstrong Williams...

[gratuitous]

7. Good stuff

See, there are indeed alternatives being proposed by the Democrats, and Dean did a good job harking back to the Armstrong Williams payola thing. Keep catapulting the truth of Bush administration corruption, and we'll see if truth is stronger than propaganda.

I have every confidence, however, that the presstitutes will simply stare off into space, oblivious to Democratic proposals, and unaware of who this "Armstrong Williams" person might be: A character in a Somerset Maugham novella?

[progressoid]

8. At some point, Democrats are going to have to give up the "underfunded"

theme. It's true that it was never fully funded (like so many bush screw ups). But it is also a colossal cluster-fuck of a program. It's doubtful if enough funding would ever rescue us from this fateful program.

I think Democrats are going to have to do more than bitch about bush's incompetence and lack of funding. We need a comprehensive alternative to NCLB. Of course, simply ending NCLB and returning to the old system would a huge improvement.