Texas Gov. George W. Bush proposed a series of education reforms Tuesday designed to make America's schools safer, including allowing teachers to banish persistently disruptive children from the classroom and providing federal funds to enforce existing gun laws.
Saying "clear instruction in right and wrong" must be a priority, Bush said he would triple the $8 million currently spent by the federal government each year on character education. He also said he would require federal youth and juvenile justice programs to incorporate character-building elements.
Bush stopped short of proposing stiffer gun-control measures in his third education speech as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination. But he did suggest that "any juvenile found guilty of a serious gun offense" should be banned for life from carrying or purchasing a gun.
"We must do everything in our power to ensure the safety of our children," Bush told the Northern White Mountain Chamber of Commerce in Gorham, N.H., stressing what he called "moral education."
"When children and teenagers go to school afraid of being bullied or beaten or worse, it is the ultimate betrayal of adult responsibility," he said.
Joe Andrew, national chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was quick to criticize Bush's proposals and the school safety record of the governor's home state, arguing that Texas has not enforced its own Safe Schools Act, according to a 1999 audit by the Texas Education Agency.
"It's ironic that George W. Bush is preaching to New Hampshire voters about how to create safer schools when his own record in Texas is more in line with the National Rifle Assn. than the National Education Assn.," Andrew said in a written statement.
In fact, a juvenile crime control measure approved by the U.S. Senate last spring after the shooting at Columbine High School included a provision that would prohibit juveniles from owning guns if they are convicted of a serious crime.
But the measure has been bottled up for months in a House-Senate conference committee because of opposition--mostly from conservative House Republicans. They object to a provision in the Senate bill that would allow up to three days for background checks on people who purchase weapons at gun shows.
"The governor's speech on school safety was bush league," said Chris Lehane, a spokesman for Vice President Al Gore's campaign. "Time and time again, he's had the opportunity to choose between the gun lobby and children, and he's always sided with the gun lobby."
