ASHINGTON - Texas Governor George W. Bush yesterday proposed a five-year, $5 billion plan designed to improve the reading skills of low-income children, arguing there is a ''national emergency'' in education.
Bush's ''Reading First'' proposal, intended as one of the major initiatives of his campaign, would seek to ensure that all children read by the third grade by providing reading instruction for about 900,000 kindergarten and first-grade students in low-performing schools as well as by mandating testing and additional teacher training.
''Too many of our children cannot read. Reading is the building block, and it must be the foundation for education reform,'' Bush said. ''Others have proposed throwing money at the problem. I'll spend more on schools, and I'll expect more from our schools.''
The Texas governor has repeatedly promised to make education the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. In a speech yesterday at Sallie Mae headquarters in Reston, Va., he rejected what he called the traditional liberal approach of spending money without demanding accountability and the call of many conservatives to minimize or eliminate the federal government's role in education.
Bush's speech renewed a debate that is likely to continue until the November election, as he and Vice President Al Gore set out competing visions of how to improve the nation's schools.
Advisers to Gore immediately dismissed Bush's reading proposal as an echo of a program already enacted during the Clinton administration, while the vice president charged in an Associated Press interview that Bush's tax cut plan would leave no new money to invest in education.
Gore has proposed an education plan that would use $115 billion of the federal budget surplus over 10 years to fund universal preschool, hiring and testing of new teachers, reducing class sizes, building schools, and repairing crumbling ones. He also wants to triple the number of charter schools, make preschool available to every 4-year-old, and expand Head Start.
Also yesterday, Bush telephoned Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona from his car after arriving in Virginia. Bush told reporters it was a friendly conversation, lasting just a few minutes. They did not talk about a McCain endorsement or lingering differences, but agreed to meet in the near future. ''I think John and I both understand that the past is the past and it's time to move forward,'' Bush said.
