Governor Tom Vilsack visited a Des Moines elementary school this morning to send a message to the Bush Administration. The U.S. Education Secretary will visit the same school tomorrow. Vilsack says he welcomes Secretary Rod Paige, but the Bush Administration has failed to provide enough money to Iowa schools to meet the new requirements in the “No Child Left Behind” law, nor have the feds provided their share of money for special education classes. Vilsack says if those commitments were kept, Iowa schools would have received 300-million dollars more from the feds than they have this school year. Vilsack says that 300-million dollars would go a long way to adequately compensating teachers, making sure class sizes were smaller, and schools had adequate supplies, textbooks and computers. Vilsack says if the U.S. has resources to provide tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and rebuild schools in Iraq, there should certainly be resources to adequately fund our own schools in America. Vilsack says he hopes Paige acknowledges that when he’s here tomorrow. Vilsack is not invited to meet or appear with Paige during his visit Tuesday.
