'Reaching Out' to the Black Community With a Wagging Finger, a Closed Fist, and an Empty Hand

[bigtree]

6. well, just on the money invested on PE on the initiative of this admin alone he deserves support

And, after all, we're talking about a comparison to republicans who have opposed most of those funds in favor of the all-privatization/all-the-time approach of Romney and the republican party. He's not some maverick or something. He's as determined to gut public education as the rest of today's conservatives. It's just not supported by any fact that the president isn't committed to fully investing in public schools.

Now, you do have some very real differences with the President and teachers unions, as you say. But, that doesn't mean that there isn't a real and substantial investment initiated and implemented as a result of this Democratic presidency.

I know that many folks want to ignore the investments made in the Recovery Act for one political motive or the other, but it provided important investments in early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and programs for children with special needs. It also helped keep teachers on the job in many struggling communities around the nation.

President Obama signed into law student loan reform, a historic measure to make college more affordable for students and families and save American taxpayers roughly $68 billion over 10 years. Would Romney have initiated and implemented that measure? It certainly took this Democratic administration to make it happen.

The Obama administration has invested $40 billion into Pell Grant scholarships, more than doubling the size of the program since he took office. Meanwhile, republicans proposed cutting Pell Grants by over 15 percent. You think Romney wouldn't go along with them?

Just take a look at conservative complaints about the President's spending and it becomes clear how ridiculous it is to compare Democratic efforts and aspirations in education with the republicans' historically hostile attitude to public school spending.

from the Heritage Foundation:

Obama’s budget request increases the Department of Education budget to $69.8 billion. That’s a 2.5 percent boost over 2012 levels and the largest increase proposed for any domestic government agency.

And that’s not all. Tack on another $13.3 billion in mandatory spending for Pell Grants and the total request is $83 billion. Add to that $60 billion more from Obama’s supplemental “blueprint” — covering school construction, teacher pay and compensation — and you get the picture of just how much this administration has expanded the federal government’s role in education.

The Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke takes Education Secretary Arne Duncan to task for suggesting he doesn’t have enough to make do:

If enacted, these proposals would mean that in one term, President Obama has spent almost as much on education as President George W. Bush spent in two terms—even considering the fact that Bush nearly doubled the size of the DOE. …