Who Killed Teach For America?

Interesting Joe Klein article in this week's Time. Yet more evidence of duplicity and mendacity on the part of Bush--both Dubya and Laura.

Monday, Aug. 25, 2003
In the midst of the 2000 Presidential campaign, George W. Bush had a private breakfast in Los Angeles with members of Teach for America (TFA), the exemplary national-service program that sends recent college graduates to teach for two years in the poorest urban and rural school districts. "Everyone came out of that room glowing," said Wendy Kopp, the founder of TFA. "He really understood education and cared about what we did. He sounds like us, one of our teachers told me."

Kopp was optimistic that TFA, one of the flagship AmeriCorps programs, would have a future in a Bush Administration. Indeed, Kopp was invited to sit in the First Lady's box at Bush's first budget message to Congress in February 2001. At the same time, Teach for America was designated as one of five education and literacy programs that would receive special attention and support from Laura Bush. In 2002, the President in his State of the Union address called for increased national service and then illustrated what he meant by visiting a Teach for America school in Atlanta. "I am proud to stand up and talk about the best of America and Wendy Kopp," the President said. "I hope young Americans all across the country think about joining Teach for America."

In Atlanta, several Bush aides approached Kopp and encouraged her to quadruple the size of the Teach for America infantry, from 1,000 to 4,000 per year. <....> She says she was assured by John Bridgeland, the Bush voluntarism czar, that Teach for America's annual grant from AmeriCorps — about $12.5 million in scholarship money and $1.5 million for operating expenses — was safe. On July 11, however, a form letter arrived in the Teach for America offices from the Corporation for National and Community Service. "We regret to inform you," it said, "that your application was not selected for funding."

"We were shocked," Kopp told me. "There had been no warning."

<....>

Just before the summer recess, the Senate passed a $100 million appropriation to restore these cuts, but House majority leader Tom DeLay — who has made no secret of his desire to kill AmeriCorps — blocked the money. The President says he wants these funds restored, but he doesn't seem to have much control over the powerful DeLay. Even if Bush means what he says, Teach for America has been axed for 2003. I called the First Lady's office to see what she thought about that. She was unavailable for comment.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030825-476433,00.html

Naaaah. DeLay would still be an idiot. What we need is for him to go back to Texas and redistrict a brand-new set of Tinkertoys.