Word: reformer
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IMPACT: More children would be insured through the CHIP program, but only if states improve their record of implementing the plan. The prescription benefit would reach all seniors, but nothing is done to reform Medicare and trim its long-term costs, which could eventually bankrupt the program...
...then there is Bush himself: he promises that what you see is what you get, but then look at what you get: in Texas he tried for huge, sweeping tax reform, but when only half of it passed, he said he was fine with that. So which part of his current tax plan is he willing to compromise over, the part his party donors expect or the part that the $22,000 mom is counting on? Who's winking at whom? Whose fingers are crossed...
Sadly, no. They've dithered and ducked, coasted and claimed. They squandered their opportunities to create a coherent American agenda in the world. They failed to make us safer from nuclear, chemical or biological attack. Domestically their attitude came down to this: Reform the entitlements? We'd rather go to a fund raiser. Bring new life to dead schools? Rather go to Hollywood. Our children are poisoned by a sour, searing culture? Let them eat something else. Let them eat cake. Clinton and Gore have been unserious in their stewardship. What most characterized their two terms was summed...
...Bush would tell failing schools that enough is enough: If you can't do the job, we'll give your federal dollars to parents to help them send their kids to a better school. A President Gore would keep trying: bring in a team of specialists, pump money into reform, and if all else fails, shut the place down and start over with a new principal and new teachers...
...second half of Gore's plan, reconstitution, has been called the neutron bomb of school reform, and most states, including North Carolina, have been too skittish to try it. The only real success stories have come in New York City, which has "redesigned" about 65 schools in the past five years. One example: three years ago, the Bronx's P.S. 3 ranked 672nd among New York City schools--fourth from the bottom. The city fired the principal, replaced two-thirds of the teachers, extended the school day and switched from a touchy-feely "real life" curriculum to one emphasizing basic...