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 resident Bush
just can't win. Yesterday he hosted an event
celebrating reading in Houston. The First Lady, a former librarian,
and the former First Lady, his mother, were on hand.
You would think it would be a bit of a challenge to question the
Bush family's dedication to literacy.
Think again.
In reporting on the Houston event, the Associated Press said, mid-story:
Here
was a hint of irony at the event.
Barbara Bush is on the national advisory council of Reading Is
Fundamental, a program that distributes millions of books to children
but is slated to lose all of its federal money in 2002. Bush's
education budget cuts all funding for ''inexpensive book distribution,''
consolidating the funding into state-level reading grants.
This wasn't the first time the AP went to bat for RIF.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press blasted the Bush administration
for eliminating federal funding for Reading is Fundamental.
RIF, too, of course, is up in arms. On its website,
the group encourages supporters of reading to e-mail Congress and
the White House.
RIF
children need your help. They need you to contact your members of
Congress and show your support of RIF programs, including your own,
and the nearly 5 million children we expect to serve in the coming
year.
Perhaps they should have addressed that to the press, too. Where
else does government-dependency activism get its biggest push?
As it turns out, in FY 2001, Reading Is Fundamental will receive
$23 million from the federal government for the Inexpensive Book
Distribution Program, which represents approximately 70 percent
of the RIF budget at the national level.
But one wonders: Why does a program with corporate CEOs, company
heads, NCAA stars on hand, presidential support, and major grants
from the likes of Prudential need funds from the federal government?
While RIF claims that the federal money is well spent and local
branches are responsible for content, it is unclear why the government
has to pay the freight. As education analyst Denis Doyle has written,
the "Inexpensive Book Distribution Program, although a worthy concept,
could be funded easily at the state level or by private foundations."
Reading may be fundamental (um, are we forgetting phonics?), but
that doesn't mean an ancient program should live on federal money.
After 35 years, it's well past time to time to cut off the federal
life support. RIF, like other needlessly parasitic programs, can
stand on its own. (And it's not like the president's budget eliminated
reading spending — it actually triples spending on early-reading
initiatives.) Hopefully Congress understands that. Unfortunately,
as with many other programs the president is seeking to consolidate
or eliminate from the federal dole, a little press push may be all
the encouragement Dems and their GOP fellow-travelers need to close
the door on progress.
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