RECORD OF BIPARTISANSHIP WILL HELP ACHIEVE REFORMS IN EDUCATION

Governor Bush is a strong leader who will focus as president on better schools, secure retirement, prescription drugs for seniors, and a stronger and more prosperous America. These great goals deserve bipartisan leadership that brings Americans together.

Education will be one of his top priorities. He will renew the promise of America's schools by insisting on accountability, giving states more flexibility in exchange for results, and reinforce the importance of teaching every child to read.

Governor Bush has made education his number one priority in Texas. He increased education spending by $8.3 billion, a 37 percent increase as Governor (per-pupil increase), including an across the board $3,000 teacher pay raise.

As Governor, he ended social promotion, created tough, new accountability standards, empowered local school boards, ensured that every Texas child read on at least grade level by the end of third grade, and created charter schools.

Governor Bush has introduced sweeping education reforms to improve America's public schools by increasing local control, requiring accountability, funding an intensive elementary reading initiative and giving parents greater options when schools fail to improve. Governor Bush has proven these reforms work. In Texas, test scores are up among all students in all grades, especially among Hispanic and African-American students as a result of the reforms he implemented.

The contrasts are clear...

After eight years of Clinton-Gore, student test scores and the achievement gap have failed to improve. Despite promising during the 1992 campaign to reduce the education gap between rich and poor students, Clinton-Gore failed to boost student test scores. In 1996 alone, 68 percent of African-American fourth-graders scored below basic minimum standards on national math assessments. The achievement gap for poor and minority students remains wide, and the achievement gap for Hispanic 4th graders in reading has grown wider under Clinton-Gore.

Governor Bush will is bringing America together to get results for Americans.