By
The Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - President Bush proposed yesterday to boost spending on elementary and secondary education by $1.6 billion in the coming year, part of an Education Department budget increase he said will surpass expansions at any other Cabinet-level agency.
Bush announced his plan during remarks at a rural school in the Smoky Mountains, moving to deliver on a campaign promise to increase federal education spending by $47.5 billion over 10 years.
"There is no more important subject than public education. We must get it right to make sure no child is left behind," Bush said, announcing the spending at a visit to Townsend Elementary School in Townsend, a winding, 40-minute drive from Knoxville.
The administration will seek a total of $44.5 billion for the Education Department next year, an 11 percent increase over this year's $39.9 billion, according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. The administration did not say precisely how the new $1.6 billion for elementary and secondary education would be spent.
But by granting education the biggest percentage budget increase of any department, Bush was demonstrating public schools remain his top priority, his aides said.
After his speech in Townsend, Bush stopped his motorcade at Heritage High School near Maryville and was greeted by hundreds of cheering students. He moved down a line of students shaking hands as they strained against yellow police tape. "Bush! Bush! Bush!" they chanted.
Bush's plans to expand the budget of the Education Department are likely to cause concern among some conservatives who have called for abolition of the agency and return of its functions to state and local officials.
Among those who once urged shuttering the department was former Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, a former Tennessee governor. Bush defeated Alexander for the GOP presidential nomination last year; the president's entourage traveled down a boulevard named for Alexander yesterday, and Alexander joined Bush at the school.
Seeking to build public support for his tax-cut and education plans, Bush embarked on a new campaign this week, stumping through the heartland in hopes that wavering members of Congress will take notice.
Yesterday, Bush returned to a tried-and-true formula from his presidential campaign: He toured an elementary school in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood as a stage for pitching his education proposals. Townsend Elementary School also has programs that have accelerated students' reading.
"This is a plan that's going to require the people to speak up," Bush said in St. Louis Tuesday, referring to his proposed tax cut. "It's the beginning of a series of trips around our great nation where I'm going to make my case, not to the folks in Congress or in Washington, D.C., but to the American people."
On his first trip to promote his domestic agenda, Bush's path traced a diamond shape in the nation's midsection.
On Tuesday, he hopscotched from Washington to Columbus, Ohio, to Missouri; Then it was off to Tennessee yesterday. He carried all three states in November.
Critics have said his tax plan favors the wealthy, and that a voucher provision in his schools proposal would drain money away from struggling public schools.
Bush took pains to visit heavily black neighborhoods Tuesday, casting his proposals as a boon to working-class families.
"I think it makes sense to understand who fills the coffers of the United States, and it's the working people," Bush said in St. Louis. "And so I'm going to ask Congress to pass a tax-relief package, recognizing that we can meet priorities, but also to help families meet their own priorities."
In Columbus, he defended the voucher proposal, saying: "I believe the best program is that which empowers local districts and parents to make different choices, if the children are mired in mediocrity in failure."
Bush emphasized throughout the day that it was up to Congress to pass his proposals. He traveled with delegations of lawmakers from Ohio and Missouri, playfully leaning on them to back him.
"Are you with me, Pat?" Bush asked of Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio.
