Bob Casey on Education Democratic Challenger for PA Senate

Fight for more funding for public education

Intelligent Design in religion class, not science class

Supports teaching “abstinence plus” in schools

A: I think that’s a good approach. Kids need to know about birth control, but not from Washington. I believe that local school districts must have the flexibility to implement sex education programs that are appropriate for their communities.

Posting Ten Commandments in government buildings ok

Opposes school vouchers

A: Oppose

Q: What is your position on increasing funding for the Educational Improvement Tax Credit, which encourages businesses to donate to Pre-K- 12 scholarship programs?

A: Due to budgetary constraints, I would want to evaluate the effectiveness of this program before endorsing an increase in funding.

Q: What is your position on the establishment of a state-funded preschool (ages 3-4) program available to all students, regardless of family income, administered exclusively by public school districts?

A: Oppose. I support using state funds to increase the availability of safe, quality and affordable early care and education for families that choose to use these programs.

Voted YES on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects.

Proponents support voting YES because:

Rep. OBEY: This bill, more than any other, determines how willing we are to make the investment necessary to assure the future strength of this country and its working families. The President has chosen to cut the investments in this bill by more than $7.5 billion in real terms. This bill rejects most of those cuts.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

Rep. LEWIS: This bill reflects a fundamental difference in opinion on the level of funding necessary to support the Federal Government's role in education, health and workforce programs. The bill is $10.2 billion over the President's budget request. While many of these programs are popular on both sides of the aisle, this bill contains what can rightly be considered lower priority and duplicative programs. For example, this legislation continues three different programs that deal with violence prevention. An omnibus bill is absolutely the wrong and fiscally reckless approach to completing this year's work. It would negate any semblance of fiscal discipline demonstrated by this body in recent years.

Veto message from President Bush:

This bill spends too much. It exceeds [by $10.2 billion] the reasonable and responsible levels for discretionary spending that I proposed to balance the budget by 2012. This bill continues to fund 56 programs that I proposed to terminate because they are duplicative, narrowly focused, or not producing results. This bill does not sufficiently fund programs that are delivering positive outcomes. This bill has too many earmarks--more than 2,200 earmarks totaling nearly $1 billion. I urge the Congress to send me a fiscally responsible bill that sets priorities.

Professional development grants for elementary principals.

A bill to provide professional development for elementary school principals in early childhood education and development. Authorize the Secretary of Education to award competitive grants to partnerships to:
1. provide high quality professional development to elementary school principals in early childhood education and development;
2. gain a knowledge base and capacity to provide high quality early childhood education; and
3. collaborate with early childhood education providers, services providers, and families in creating a continuum of high quality development and learning for children in the community and school settings.

Directs the Secretary to establish a panel of leading experts in elementary and early childhood education to:
1. identify the best practices in professional development for elementary school principals in early childhood education;
2. review the effective coordination of such training among this Act's grantees; and
3. disseminate the latest research and findings regarding such training.

Don't count combat pay against free school lunch.

A bill to amend the National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the exclusion of combat pay from income for purposes of determining eligibility for child nutrition programs and the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children.