Problem Is Education Department
Not Armstrong Williams

To: National Desk

PASADENA, Md., Jan. 19 /Covenant News Wire Service/ -- By now, the whole world knows that conservative newspaper columnist Armstrong Williams has been exposed as having gotten $240,000 from the Department of Education to promote what he says he already believed in, President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program. Several congressmen have called for an investigation of this payoff to Williams. The FCC is investigating; Williams’ syndicate has cancelled his column.

And, of all people, President Bush has even criticized Williams. In an interview in “USA Today” (1/4/05), Mr. Bush says he appreciates the way Williams has made it clear that he “made a mistake.” Noting that there must be a “clear distinction” between journalism and advocacy, the President says, about the $240,000 paid to Williams: “All of us, the Cabinet, need to take a good look and make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”

But, with all due respect, what President Bush should have been doing all along is taking a good look at the U.S. Constitution, and obeying it. Had he done this when he first took office, there would be no un-Constitutional Federal Department of Education from which Williams received $240,000.

The 2000 Republican Party Platform said, in part, about education: “We recognize that under the American Constitutional system, education is a state, local, and family responsibility, not a Federal obligation... the role of the Federal government must be progressively limited as we return control to parents, teachers, and local school boards…The Republican Congress rightly opposed attempts by the Department of Education to establish Federal testing that would set the stage for a national curriculum.”

But, Mr. Bush has ignored all this. He has steadily increased Federal-funding for the Department Of Education whose annual budget is now over $60 billion. And he is now pushing to require high school students to take the math and reading tests now required of younger students under his “No Child Left Behind” law. He wants to require states to test students annually in reading and math in grades 3 through 11. The law now requires those tests in grades 3 through 8, and at least once during grades 10 to 12.

If all goes according to schedule, President Bush will, this Thursday, put his hand on a Bible and solemnly swear to God that he will, to the best of his ability, “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." But, Mr. Bush has already made a mockery of, and broken, this promise to God by continuing to approve funding for the un-Constitutional Federal Department Of Education. And there is no “big mistake” bigger than this.

For God, Family and the Republic,

Michael A. Peroutka


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