FReegards...MUD
"During his 2000 campaign, George Bush spoke often and eloquently about the need to improve education, particularly for minorities, who he said too often suffer from the soft bigotry of low expectations. The day after his inauguration, President Bush brought together a renowned group of education experts who began to craft the No Child Left Behind Act, which Congress passed a few months later with overwhelming bipartisan support. This landmark legislation, which increased federal education funding by nearly 50 percent, has brought elements of accountability and competition into the equation for the first time. President Bush has also strongly supported school choice programs aimed at helping to liberate African-American children from dysfunctional urban public schoolsthe last civil-rights battle. This year he joined forces with Washington D.C.s black Democratic mayor, Anthony Williams, to win passage of the first federally funded voucher program, which will provide $7,500 each to poor minority children in the nations capital, giving them some of the same educational options that their wealthier neighbors enjoy.
In January 2001, President Bush, surrounded by two dozen black ministers, fulfilled another compassionate conservative campaign promise by creating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, making it easier for inner-city black churches to receive public support for providing social services. By all accounts, this initiative is particularly close to the presidents heart: he knows from personal experience how faith and compassion can empower individuals to turn their lives around. The Bush administration has also tried hard to help lift Africa out of its deepening misery. Last year, the president pledged $15 billiona twenty-fold increase from Clinton-era funding levelsto help stem the AIDS pandemic sweeping the continent, and he has sent troops and diplomatic envoys to try to quell violence in Liberia and Sudan. The administration has also launched the Millennial Challenge program, which seeks to make sure that our foreign aid is not misused and that governments that receive it abide by certain human rights standards. Musician and longtime African-relief activist Bob Geldof recently acknowledged, The Bush administration is the most radicalin a positive sensein its approach to Africa since Kennedy.
It's high time Black Americans realized there are two parties vying fer their support, and the GOP's got better prescriptions fer the futures of all Americans, regardless of skin color!!
FReegards...MUD