THE RAW DEAL: John Kerry's Empty Promises On Education

George W. Bush ^ | May 6, 2004

[RWR8189]

"John Kerry's empty rhetoric on education reform is an obvious election year stunt designed to obscure his decades-long record of doing nothing to make schools accountable to children and parents."

- Steve Schmidt, Bush-Cheney '04 Spokesman

This Time He Means It

John Kerry Is Promising To Follow Through On Proposals. "'No more empty rhetoric on reform,' Kerry said. 'We're going to get this done right because we know that empty rhetoric leads to empty dreams-and we won't let that happen in our America.'" (Kerry Press Release, "Kerry Offers A New Bargain for America's Children and Teachers," 5/6/04)

But Kerry Will Often Propose "Controversial Ideas" And Then "Almost Never Follows Up." "In 1998, John Kerry took on the teachers' unions. … If you look back over the span of John Kerry's career, you find that every few months or years he takes a hard look at some thorny public issue. … The problem is that he almost never follows up. When [Kerry] makes these speeches he habitually asserts that he will mount a long public crusade. But then he takes his controversial ideas, jams them into a jar and buries them in the backyard." (David Brooks, Op-Ed, "Kerry's Good Intentions," The New York Times, 1/24/04)

Kerry Has Played "Education Reformer" Before By Attacking Teacher Tenure

In 1998, Kerry Challenged Teacher Unions When He Said "We Must End Teacher Tenure As We Know It." "[W]e must end teacher tenure as we know it and replace it as in Massachusetts with a fair dismissal policy. … [N]o teacher should have a lock on any job and it should not take tens of thousands of dollars and years in the court to let go a teacher who will not or can not help our kids succeed." (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Northeastern University, 6/16/98)

Kerry Called For Teachers To Be Held Accountable. "I want a system where every principal and every teacher in every school can be held accountable. So does every parent. We can only do it if we change teacher tenure as we know it …" (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Northeastern University, 6/16/98)

Kerry Pledged To Push His Proposal Then, Too. "And we should all be held accountable if we are unwilling to make those changes." (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Northeastern University, 6/16/98)

Teacher Unions Were Not Happy With Kerry's 1998 Speech

After 1998 Northeastern Speech, Union Officials Described Kerry As "More Elitist Than Populist" And Wondered What Happened To "His Convictions." "In a speech, Kerry attacked the school bureaucracy and 'stultifying collective bargaining agreements' with teachers' unions. 'This is how he paid us back,' says a teachers' union official. 'He leans more elitist than populist, and he tries to be ever-enigmatic. He defies people to clarify him as a traditional liberal. Makes you wonder where his convictions are.'" (David Corn, "Defining John Kerry: To Make An Effective White House Run, He's First Got To Clarify Where He Stands," The Nation, 7/16/01)

[Ruth A.]

I love the teacher tenure shift. First, teachers must be accountable. Then teachers and parents must be accountable. Finally, everyone needs to be held accountable. In so saying, no one is accountable anymore.