Great article by Gerald Coles on education and health care coverage for kids

[Maestro]

As an administrator in Texas public schools I, along with many others, have been fighting an uphill battle since AWOL became our governor. I have always worked in schools where the students come from low-income, primarily minority households, many of whom are learning English as their second language. To teach these children and to meet the insane Texas and now federal standards of NCLB is quite a challenge especially when AWOL and Gov. Goodhair just can't understand why all children do not learn at the same rate as their stereotypical ideal.

Now another challenge:

While governor of Texas and initiator of the so-called "Texas education miracle" aimed at helping poor and minority children succeed academically, George W. Bush had an opportunity to use a large budget surplus to provide affordable health care for 250,000 poor children. Instead, he called a special legislative session. Declaring "people are hurting out there," Bush pushed through a $45 million tax break for oil well owners.

Fast-forward to 2007 and we find the No Child Left Behind president responding similarly to poor children's needs by threatening to veto a bipartisan bill, the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP), that would extend health insurance to millions of uninsured children. Bush worries that the program would be too expensive and (worry of worries!) that it would "encourage more people to go on government health care." Instead, he proposes a federal plan that would remove about one million children currently receiving health insurance and increase the number of uninsured children from nine to ten million. While proclaiming to be making education policy that keeps "a historic commitment to our children," the president apparently sees no connection between children's academic achievement and their health.

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I love it when freepers and neocons ask us, "Why do ya hate 'merica?" Seriously, though, I think it is clear who really hates America.