Free Republic

A special task force of the National Conference of State Legislatures today released the results of a 10-month study that identified specific areas of the act that need to be changed if states are to guarantee that young people will learn at their full potential. Key recommendations of the report include: -Remove obstacles that stifle state innovations and undermine state programs that were proving to work before passage of the act. Federal waivers should be granted and publicized for innovative programs; -Fully fund the act and provide states the financial flexibility to meet its goals. The federal government funds less...

Members of Maine's congressional delegation offered a mix of reactions to President Bush's press conference Tuesday night, with Democratic Rep. Tom Allen critical and the state's two Republican senators generally supportive. "This president is incapable of admitting a mistake," Allen, who represents Maine's 1st Congressional District, said in an interview after the press conference. "He simply avoids the question when it's asked. And therefore it's hard to have confidence that he has learned anything from this experience." Allen also said the president "has a shallow understanding of the enemy, which is violent anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism - not an exploding bomb,...