IT TAKES A UNION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US DOWN:

Bush school field trips appear to reflect a bid for minorities in cities (Mary Leonard, 1/11/2004, Boston Globe)

President Bush's visits last week to urban schools in two 2004 battleground states was no coincidence. The White House intends to make education a winning campaign issue and a reason for minority voters to support Bush, despite a gathering storm of criticism for his policies from many educators, teachers, and Democratic candidates.

"When it comes to the No Child Left Behind Act, the president will be speaking from the heart in a number of different venues and attempt to address a broader audience of families," said Eugene W. Hickok, acting deputy secretary of Education, who oversees enforcement of the law, which Bush signed in January 2002. [...]

Polls have found that most Americans support high standards, mandatory testing, and accountability in public schools, the principles Bush campaigned on in 2000 and incorporated in the No Child Left Behind Act.

"The danger for the Democratic candidates in attacking the law is that they will appear to be weak on standards or look like apologists for the public-education system," said Dewayne Matthews, a senior adviser at the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan policy clearinghouse for state governments.

Education Secretary Rod Paige previewed how the administration will try to cast education as a rights issue and put Democrats on the defensive with traditional constituencies.

"I find it staggering that the very critics and organizations that fought so hard for civil rights could leave our African-American, Hispanic-American, and special-needs children behind," Paige said of "unions, teachers, civil libertarians, liberal politicians, and education advocates" in a speech Wednesday. "Their opposition is about power, politics, and pride, not the best interests of children."

In November, superintendents from minority school districts sent letters to Congress and the Democratic candidates, urging them not to relax the law's mandates for accountability and achievement.

"As a Democrat, I am very worried," said Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that sponsored the letter. "Are the Democratic candidates backing off from their historic commitment and saying we ought not to be responsible for educating black, Latino, and poor kids?"

The weakness of the opposition affords the President the historic opportunity to contest this election on their turf and make a serious bid to peel away a few layers of the core Democrat constituencies. He's going to carry Hispanics but also stands to boost his vote considerablyamong blacks and Jews.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 11, 2004 01:22 PM