Secretary Spellings' Priority Should Be No Child Left Behind, Not Promoting Intolerance, Says Miller
Secretary Spellings' Priority Should Be No Child Left Behind, Not Promoting Intolerance, Says Miller
Friday, January 28, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC -- Representative George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House education committee, today issued this statement in response to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' letter to PBS about an episode from its "Postcards from Buster" series that showed a same-sex couple:
"Margaret Spellings' appointment to be Secretary of Education had Democratic support because she was a fair broker on education issues in the first Bush term. But I was extremely disappointed that Secretary Spellings' first official act after taking office was to rebuke PBS for producing a children's television program that showed a healthy, loving family headed by a same-sex couple.
"As domestic policy advisor, Secretary Spellings was the Bush Administration's point person on the No Child Left Behind law in 2001 and 2002. She and I share a common interest in seeing that law succeed. But right now, in school districts across the country, educators are struggling with the law because the President and Congress refuse to fully fund or properly implement it. Secretary Spellings knows that the stakes for our children could not be higher, and that the No Child Left Behind act's success should be her top priority.
"Instead, she has launched her latest career by catering to the extreme and intolerant far right wing, hoping to win ideological points from the President's base and distract the public from the mediocre job the Department of Education has done to improve our public schools. Using such cultural issues to distract the public from the Administration's failure on important public policy is an old political tactic, and it is disturbing that the Secretary has used it.
"Instead of attacking cartoons and intimidating PBS, Secretary Spellings should direct her staff to recoup the $240,000 the Department covertly and improperly paid Armstrong Williams, a conservative media commentator, to espouse Administration policy without revealing his contract to the public."
http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/releases/rel12805.html