In a letter to the White House on March 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) called on President Bush to increase spending for education by $10 billion over last year’s level. The letter was in response to a budget that Sen. Kennedy and Rep. Miller believed shortchanged education, especially after the higher standards mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act signed into law just two months ago:
“Mr. President, we have just stood side-by-side to demand that our schools ensure that every single child reaches challenging academic standards. If we fail to provide greater resources, we will send a very discouraging message about the importance of these reforms and severely diminish their chances of success.”
In the letter, Sen. Kennedy and Rep. Miller note that the President’s budget falls $4 billion short for Title I, cuts federal resources for teachers, and “includes only a $1.4 billion increase for all of education-the smallest increase in seven years-while proposing more than 50 times that amount in additional tax cuts for the top 1 percent of taxpayers.”