Bill Clinton: Fix Bush Education Law

TEMPE, Ariz. — Former President Clinton said that if his wife is elected president she would radically change the "No Child Left Behind Act," which he described as an education disaster initially supported not only by President Bush, but liberal icon Ted Kennedy.

Clinton's association of Kennedy with the No Child Left Behind Act _ a federal education law unpopular with public school teachers, a key Democratic party constituency _ came just days after the Massachusetts senator passed over Hillary Rodham Clinton to endorse her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama.

"I want you to think about this, and I have to say, this was a train wreck that was not intended. No Child Left Behind was supported by George Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy and everybody in between. Why? Because they didn't talk to enough teachers before they did that," Clinton told more than 2,400 people in a speech Thursday night at Arizona State University.

Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, also initially supported the No Child Left Behind law but has since said it has not been properly financed or run, and should be replaced. She has proposed $10 billion for universal preschool, more money for special education, and incentives for teachers who work in places and on subjects where shortages exist.

Obama, an Illinois senator, has said he also would change No Child Left Behind "so that we're not just teaching to a test and crowding out programs like art and music." He has also said he would encourage but not require universal pre-kindergarten programs, expand teacher mentoring programs and reward teachers with higher pay not tied to standardized test scores in an $18 billion plan to be paid for in part by delaying elements of moon and Mars missions.

Bush modeled the federal No Child Left Behind Act on a Texas education law adopted while he was governor. It aims to prod low-performing schools to improve by tying government aid to performance standards.

"The idea was we will increase funding to the schools _ which they did once but they didn't continue it, so they made it an unfunded mandate," Bill Clinton said, adding that the law also did away with programs from his administration that were helping to modernize old schools, build new schools to alleviate overcrowding and provide after school care.

Instead, the Bush law requires "our kids take five tests five years in a row," but allows school districts to "pick the test and the passing score, so you wound up with the worst of all worlds ... You could wind up lowering the quality of education," Clinton said.

Comments

[NYDamien]

Someone's asleep at the Tavis Smiley Post, "My conversation with Hiilary Clinton." Pending comments are backing up and no posts for over two hours.

[democraticjack]

How does this match up with the ads and the rhetoric?:
Can we say spin.

After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years.[22] He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations.­[23] Obama received his B.A. degree in 1983, then worked at Business International Corporation and NYPIRG before moving to Chicago to take a job as a community organizer.­[24] As Director of the Developing Communities Project, he worked with low-income residents in Chicago's Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing developmen­t.[25] He entered Harvard Law School in 1988.[26] In 1990, The New York Times reported his election as the Harvard Law Review's "first black president in its 104-year history".[­27] He completed his J.D. degree magna cum laude in 1991.[28] On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter registration drive.[28] As an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases.[29] He was a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.[30]

[trailrunner9]

Why are people here absolutely trashing the Clintons better than Republicans do? It's craziness. Yes, there were things not to like, but there were a lot of things to like, and I wish Edwards had been the nominee, but Obama and Clinton are the two choices and I will support whoever the nominee is. They are both a hell of a lot better than what we have had and though I am greatly disappointed in Hillary Clinton's war vote - at one time I swore I would never forgive her for selling out, but she has done a lot of good things in other areas, I think she cast that vote convinced she needed to do it politically, which was wrong, but I don't think at all she will be a war monger as a president and I think it will be the highest of priorities of her administration and Barck Obama's administration to restore peace and reputation to this country. Europe loves the Clintons. They never understood why we allowed the Rebpuclican to take down Clinton over "sex." I mean, we have war criminals running the country and they are off limits for impeachment, but we take a guy down for a sexual indiscretion? Crazy. I think people should just stop the tearing up of this party, support your candidate - may the best man/woman win, and then SUPPORT the nominee, or we really will have a war monger in the White House and we will have countless unfair practices and policies that will hurt us all.

[Coyote2]

5 Shot Dead at Suburban Chicago Store

HumeSkeptic posted: "Does anyone know if there has been an independent verification of this claim? As a minimum, has anyone in the press asked (the police) how they reached this conclusion?"

Is it possible that this is just PROPAGANDA to make gun owners look bad? The same as using mentally deficient women and crippled children as suicide bombers (detonated by remote control) is just propaganda to make extremists look bad?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/01/mentally-disabled-women-u_n_84427.html?refresh_comments=1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/02/5-shot-dead-at-suburban-c_n_84599.html?refresh_comments=1

sarcasm off

[Tellmethetruth]

The Point of Bill Clinton's comments - I listened to them on C-Span, is there are many promises that were never kept.

Bill didn't say this about Ted Kennedy, but I will. In 1980, Ted Kennedy promised nationalized health care. We are waiting for Ted Kennedy, the most powerful Senator in the Congress to even introduce a bill on this. Ted Kennedy could have helped Hillary Clinton in 1993, but didn't. Why?

Because Ted Kennedy wants national health care to be his legacy. Ted Kennedy would introduce a bill for this with an Obama Presidency and take total claim for giving Americans nationalized health care, but if Ted Kennedy were to do this will Hillary Clinton as President, then Hillary Clinton would do down in history as being the one who got the job done for the American people on National Health Care.

Does the public care if Ted Kennedy's egotistical needs are met? Why can't Ted Kennedy share the fame and glory on this for the benefit of millions of children who go uninsured? What price is ego worth to Ted Kennedy? Isn't nationalized health care about the citizens of the United States and not Ted Kennedy's ego?

Broken promises are symptomatic of an alchoholic personality - which Ted Kennedy has. He may share that with Obama, the former drug addict, and GW Bush.

As a nation let us repeat: "surrender to a higher power to restore us to Sanity!"

Ted Kennedy's egotistical needs are insane.

[chrismathewsgreatestfan]

I don't understand Bill putting Kennedy down about the "no child left behind" bill when Hillary supported it.

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

There are too many comments here for me to read: Am I the only one who thought "The Bill and Ted Show!" when I saw the headline?

Anyone who is paying attention knows Hillary Clinton is The Establishment. A tool of corporate elites, etc. She is owned, so a bunch of y'all have turned to Barak Obama thinking this will be the "change" the country needs.

I hate to break it to the die-hard liberals out there (of which I am one). The Democratic Party HAS BETRAYED YOU. On so many levels. It was all over when Kucinich dropped out.

OBAMA is OWNED. I wish he weren't, but look who's on his team: Obama has taken on Zbigniew Brzezinski as his chief foreign policy advisor. Obama could not have taken on a more brazen spokesman for the super rich if he had hired Henry Kissinger, or even David Rockefeller himself.

Brzezinski was the architect of the current situation in the Middle East: He brags about his role in destroying the socialist government in Afghanistan, by secretly arming and training the Taliban to take power; by secretly recruiting, arming and training Osama Bin Laden. He virtually invented armed Islamic extremism.

Brzezinski is THE MOST prominent of Rockefeller servants, not merely a member, but a founder and director of the Rockefeller's Tri-Lateral commission, where the world's elite meet to plot, plan, and conspire against democratic movements and ideals on worldwide basis.

Until recently, full pages on Obama's website bragged about the relationship between Obama and Brzezinski. Most of these pages have been scrubbed from the website, but this information is still widely available on the web. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/vote_for_change_atrocity_linked_us

Obama also brought on board two individuals, Anthony Lake and Richard Clarke, who ought to be tried as war criminals for their roles in the Rwanda genocide. Furthermore, Lake's activities led directly to the deaths of 4 million more in Congo.

“HERE IS THE NEW BOSS SAME AS THE OLD BOSS WE WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN.”

[ALMAL]

what Kennedy and Kerry doing is probably,taking under consideration the fact,that in thear state now they have new gavernor,who is cochair of Boraks campain,and he is very scilled in community organizing,so may be they are afraid to loose next elections for senate

[mommadona]

Ok, I'll go for the 'cheap shot':

BILL AND TED'S NOT SO EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

OR

"HOW WE LEARNED TO CONTROL THE PARTY AND NOBODY CAME - THEY ALL WENT ALL INDEPENDENT ON US..."

[dindependent]

Education is a very important issue. If a candidate can't see that the education system may need improvement, then, it may be evidence enough that the candidate doesn't have the experience enough to lead our country. Also, education is what prepares our children for the future. It's about the issues. Education is one of the important issues that faces America. The president shouldn't need on the job training.

[foreffectivegovernment]

In a "battle of wits" with Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy is unarmed.

[OldBlueDog]

I wish Senator Obama would have spent his first term as a US Senator demonstrating his much talked about skills of bringing people together instead of spending it running for the Presidency. He could have broken all of the gridlock in congress, and passed all kinds of legislation, and the change would already be well underway. Then we would all totally agree he is the man, no question because he had demonstrated it, not just talked about it.

[avraamjack]

""CLINTON SLEEZE FATIGUE WILL INVIGORATE GOP, DISPIRIT DEMOCRATS AND SINK DEMOCRATIC TICKET""

""OBAMA/EDWARDS TO WIN""

It is possible that Senator Clinton is the best candidate. However, even though many may like the policies that Senator Clinton proposes, they should also consider her record, just as Senator Clinton insists.
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The last Clinton Administration, when faced with the fact that protection rackets where assaulting, torturing and murdering people with poison and radiation, chose to avoid its responsibilities to incarcerate the criminals and to protect the citizenry.
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Instead, they made a deal with the criminal gang stalker protection rackets to leave them alone and to consequently abandon the citizenry.
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Do we want a President who sells out the citizenry for votes?
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Do we want a President who sends a "crime does pay" message to society?
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Would you vote for a President who signed nonaggression deals with the KKKlan or the Nazi party? Gangs that torture with poison and radiation are much like the KKKlan and Nazi Party.
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We do not need a sellout President. We need a principled leader President.
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If you are one of the few who do not know what the above refers to, do a web search for "gang stalking" to see the tip of the dirtberg. Please do it before you decide to reply to my post. Here let me make it easy for you :

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22gang+stalking%22

[IndependentMeans]

McCAIN IS TOO OLD, 72, WAKE UP AMERICA. HE IS JUST TOO DAMN OLD FOR THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT!!

[unclejim]

as
usual ,
it seems the people that come on this site are
snipes
nothing substantial to say
just a stream of vulgarities bashing this person or the other , usually people that are directly benifited by the collective hard work of the democratic party and the democratic process are the ones that don't even vote ,have never invested their time in a political race, and now that the advent of the computer age is on us can't even appreciate how difficult it was during bill clintons administration to keep this 'forum' ,this 'tool' FREE !
al gore didn't invent the internet and never said he did (rush and hannity and fox say that)
he just steared the discussion on how it's implementation would affect us all
and was the tie breaking vote on all contentious issues involved
those were all democrats fighting for all of us little people (even republicans) and idiots like on this site that seem never to remember exactly correct the true history involved
there's always a fight
rich and powerful (republicans) against the poor and many ie; the people (democrats)
do you know who beefed up our deleted military ? if you like what reagan,bus­h,clinton,­and then bush again did with our military and the equiptment thank jimmy carter
if you like the way rich people get free mexican labour and generally walk all over the middle class thank ronald ray-gun
war criminal (making deals with a iran for hostage release )
if you like all the nuclear weapons grade uranium we'll be lucky to find if we find it thanks again ronny ray-gun
.
.
.
.VOTE DEMOCRAT BABY !