Bush Pitches Education Initiative, Raises Funds In Tenn

Bush Pitches Education Initiative, Raises Funds In Tenn

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)--President George W. Bush boosted his education initiatives and his campaign fund in a visit to Knoxville on Thursday.

In his first trip to this Republican-leaning city since October 2002, Bush marked the second anniversary of his No Child Left Behind Act at an inner-city elementary school and attended a $1,000-a-ticket benefit for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign.

Bush said West View Elementary was selected for his visit because it was an example of a school "willing to challenge mediocrity."

West View has 180 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Most qualify for free lunches under the Title I program. Yet the school is recognized "as one of the most improved schools in the county based on its achievement tests," said Russ Oaks, spokesman for the 52,000-student Knox County school system.

Teachers said students at West View Elementary School saw the president's visit to the school as a reward.

In reading, language, math, science and social studies, West View's students have made strong gains in the past year, he said. Forty-seven percent of Tennessee's schools failed to meet the No Child Left Behind achievement standards, but West View met every one.

Principal Melvenia Smith said teachers drilled the students on test materials each morning, community volunteers tutored them in the afternoons and pep rallies were held to challenge them.

"I told the children that the test scores had gone down and we were better than that," Smith said. "I said it doesn't matter what your location is in the city, we really have no excuse to fail."

Smith credits No Child Left Behind.

"We have always taught children at their instruction level and worked with them where they are and where they ought to be," said Smith, a 57-year-old education veteran.

"We still do that. But I think with this initiative it is expected that all children will achieve. All children will be at their grade level. I think what that does is, it raises the bar," she said.

Kim Karesh, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education, said the problem with No Child Left Behind is its inflexibility, particularly in standards affecting special education students and English-as-a-second-language students.

"We absolutely embrace the spirit of the act," she said. "But there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution for every child...and there is a lot that comes with it that has an expense."

Tennessee received $186.9 million under the program in fiscal 2003 - some $69 million less than originally authorized, she said. Most of the shortfall was for Title I schools, like West View Elementary.

After holding a panel discussion with educators at West View, Bush left to attend a fund-raising luncheon at the Knoxville Convention Center.

About 100 environmental activists and opponents of the war in Iraq were on the sidewalk across from the convention center. They carried signs that said, "We can't afford four more years of Bush," "Bush lied, people died," and "No CEO left behind."

Updated January 8, 2004 1:21 p.m.