Less than a week into his presidential term, President Bush is getting busy.
On Tuesday, Bush sent a package of education proposals to Congress for approval, including one designed to encourage families to save money for college.
Bush asked Congress to raise the annual cap on contributions to tax-free education-savings accounts that families use to pay for college, from $500 to $5,000.
Bush also is asking to expand the savings plans, which now can be used only to pay higher education expenses, so that families can spend money from the accounts on private secondary school tuition.
Bush also called on Congress to provide funds to states and local school districts to form partnerships with colleges to strengthen math and science instruction in public schools.
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Not included in this education package was increased spending on Pell Grants, which White House aides say can be expected when the president presents his 2002 fiscal-year budget proposals to Congress in February.
Adam Hatcher, vice president of the Jefferson Leadership Foundation, a conservative roundtable at the University, said he is in favor of the Bush plan.
"I'm excited to see that [Bush] is sticking to the conservative ideas that he has campaigned on and [that] even in his education policy, he's taking power out of Washington and putting it into local and state governments," Hatcher said. "Though his education program won't fix all the problems in the schools, this is a good start for his next eight years."
Some University officials, however, are skeptical of the Bush plan. Curry School Dean David W. Breneman said he would prefer to see Bush increase support for Pell Grants. He thinks Bush's plan "is not attacking the most significant problem" - low-income families. The education package is "part and parcel of the great drive to help upper income students," Breneman said.
Yvonne Hubbard, the University's director of financial aid, said it is important to keep in mind that "anything that helps families save and encourages savings is a good and serious thing." However, she also was disappointed that Bush may not ask for an increase in Pell Grants.
Hubbard pointed out that many students leave school to start their lives in thousands of dollars worth of debt. "Needy students may be getting grants, but they are shouldering the debt," she said.
In response to proposals for college-secondary school partnerships for math and science education, Breneman thought they were "philosophically sound." However, he cautioned that they would be hard to implement. "The devil is in the details," he said.
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