Bush's education initiative

PHILADELPHIA -- President Bush unveiled a new initiative to expand the nation's early childhood education system Tuesday, saying teachers of pre-kindergarten youngsters need more training and higher salaries. \n"Every child must have an equal place at the starting line," Bush told an audience of educators, parents and students. \nBush's program would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to launch a new project to train all the nearly 50,000 teachers in Head Start, the federally run preschool program, in the reading teaching techniques. \n"To close the achievement gap (in) our schools we must close the early childhood education gap in our society," the president said. He said he would like to spend $45 million to research "early literacy programs and practices." \n"Every Head Start center in the nation must teach these skills," Bush said. \nBush and lawmakers offered separate proposals to reach the same basic goals. \nSen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he and a bipartisan group of colleagues would propose legislation to give incentive grants to states to coordinate existing early childhood programs of all kinds, including Head Start, preschool programs in public schools, in daycare centers and at home. \nKennedy proposed giving states $5 billion over five years. The money would be available to preschool programs that care for and teach children as young as newborns. \n"To make a real difference for our youngest children, we must add flesh to the bones of the president's commitment," Kennedy said. \nLike Bush's K-12 education plan, which Kennedy helped develop, the congressional early childhood proposal would subject local programs to "rigorous evaluation" by state departments of education. \nThe legislation, cosponsored by Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, would tie teachers' training to their salaries and give parents information "in a way that is understandable," Kennedy said in a statement. Bush proposed a similar public awareness campaign. \nThe president was attempting to shift some attention from the war on terrorism and Mideast violence to his domestic agenda. "One way to fight evil is to do some good," Bush said. \n"I'm going to be relentless and tireless…to make sure our homeland is secure," the president said. At the same time, he said, "The new civil right in America is reading." \n"My administration will not be distracted from these goals," he added. \nBarbara Willer, deputy executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, said teacher turnover due to low salaries is among the biggest problems of early childhood programs. She said preschools and day care centers lose about one-third of their teachers each year to turnover. \n"Unless strategies to improve teaching and learning are accompanied by strategies to ensure a trained, qualified and stable work force, they will fall short of their mark," Willer said.