Time to Start Revising History

[kalm]

"The Bush Institute has a special focus on education policy -- along with economic growth, global health, human freedom and a women's initative "

Important issues to be sure, too bad he didn't focus on these things while in office. I suppose he's now going to become a regular Jimmy Carter.

Published on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Huffington Post
Where Have You Gone Bill Moyers? Bush Institute to Have PBS Show
George W. Bush Institute To Co-Produce Public Television Show "Ideas In Action"
by Danny Shae

The George W. Bush Institute -- the "action- oriented think tank" that is part of Bush's Presidential Center -- will co-produce a public television show hosted by its executive director, Ambassador James Glassman, in a rare convergence of public broadcasting and a partisan research organization.

The George W. Bush Institute -- the "action- oriented think tank" that is part of Bush's Presidential Center -- will co-produce a public television show hosted by its executive director, Ambassador James Glassman, in a rare convergence of public broadcasting and a partisan research organization. (AP File)"Ideas in Action" will premiere in February and will be co-produced by Andrew Walworth, who produces PBS's "Think Tank." Glassman, the former Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy under President Bush and one-time moderator of CNN's "Capital Gang Sunday," will lead a discussion on public policy issues in front of a live audience at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He will remain executive director of the Institute.

The show will be distributed by Executive Program Services (EPS) to public television stations nationwide, including many PBS affiliates. Beginning in January, EPS will also begin distributing repeats of "Think Tank," currently distributed by PBS.

PBS confirmed that host Ben Wattenberg is leaving "Think Tank" and Walworth said an announcement will be made in the new year regarding the future of that program.

Glassman told the Huffington Post that they've filmed two episodes of the new show, "Ideas in Action," thus far.

The first episode, a discussion on pay for performance in education, includes one panelist from the George W. Bush Institute and panelists from the Economic Policy Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute.

"The idea is to discuss a difficult issue with a balanced panel," Glassman said.

The Bush Institute has a special focus on education policy -- along with economic growth, global health, human freedom and a women's initative -- but Glassman said the shows will tackle other topics as well. The second episode, for instance, highlights the use of online tools by dissident groups, such as those active in Iran.

It is questionable to say the least for a public television station to air a show produced and moderated by the George W. Bush Institute; one could easily imagine a conservative uproar if a similar show were produced by, say, the Clinton Foundation.

But Walworth cautioned not to jump to conclusions about the show based on the Institute's involvement.

"The Hoover Institution had a show on," Walworth said, citing the conservative think tank's "Uncommon Knowledge," which aired from 1997 to 2005.

"The proof will be in the pudding," he said. "When you see the shows, they're balanced, they're fair and Jim's got a long track record on TV. I've been in this business for 25 years, I've had many talk shows on PBS. I think the proof will be in the pudding."

© 2009 Huffington Post

[dbackjon]

You sure he didn't think this was april fools day instead of Christmas?

[CID1990]

I had a discussion several months ago about the No Child Left Behind program with a friend who is also an educator. She ran on and on about how the program had serious flaws and how, of course, it was all Bush's fault.

What many people don't know about the program is that it is essentially Ted Kennedy's program. I don't give Bush a bye on it, however, because the buck stops at the President's desk. That being said, NCLB was one of many instances where Bush reached across the aisle to Democrats and gave them the green light on programs like this. This is one of the reasons that Bush will go down in history as a free spender. He gave the fiscal liberals a lot during his eight years. Part of this was an effort to grease the wheels for his foreign policies.

I also have several friends on the Hill who work as staffers for both Republicans and Democrats. Most of them are House staffers, but there's a couple Senate staffers in there, as well. Any one of them will tell you that if you were a Democrat, Bush was one of the easiest Presidents to get your pet projects past. When things are political, they will tell you that Bush was a terrible President. In private they will tell you that he was very cooperative and made great efforts to be politically inclusive.

The left got a lot of legislative mileage out of Bush during the last 8 years. I wonder how much political mileage they are going to get out of Bush over the next few years?

[Pwns]

I had a discussion several months ago about the No Child Left Behind program with a friend who is also an educator. She ran on and on about how the program had serious flaws and how, of course, it was all Bush's fault.

What many people don't know about the program is that it is essentially Ted Kennedy's program. I don't give Bush a bye on it, however, because the buck stops at the President's desk. That being said, NCLB was one of many instances where Bush reached across the aisle to Democrats and gave them the green light on programs like this. This is one of the reasons that Bush will go down in history as a free spender. He gave the fiscal liberals a lot during his eight years. Part of this was an effort to grease the wheels for his foreign policies.

Correct, and not only that, not one major democrat that was seeking the democratic nomination for 2004 and 2008 campaigned against scaling it down or getting rid of it altogether. In fact, they have all been complaining that Bush underfunded the program and that there needed to be more stuff added to the policy.

The federal government should be issuing a challenge to states to drastically cut education budgets while making schools more effective. If European schools can do a much better job in education with less per-pupil spending so should we. I'm more confidant that prostitution will become than I am we will get any real common sense reforms in education, though.

[kalm]

I had a discussion several months ago about the No Child Left Behind program with a friend who is also an educator. She ran on and on about how the program had serious flaws and how, of course, it was all Bush's fault.

What many people don't know about the program is that it is essentially Ted Kennedy's program. I don't give Bush a bye on it, however, because the buck stops at the President's desk. That being said, NCLB was one of many instances where Bush reached across the aisle to Democrats and gave them the green light on programs like this. This is one of the reasons that Bush will go down in history as a free spender. He gave the fiscal liberals a lot during his eight years. Part of this was an effort to grease the wheels for his foreign policies.

Correct, and not only that, not one major democrat that was seeking the democratic nomination for 2004 and 2008 campaigned against scaling it down or getting rid of it altogether. In fact, they have all been complaining that Bush underfunded the program and that there needed to be more stuff added to the policy.

The federal government should be issuing a challenge to states to drastically cut education budgets while making schools more effective. If European schools can do a much better job in education with less per-pupil spending so should we. I'm more confidant that prostitution will become than I am we will get any real common sense reforms in education, though.

That's intersting since a number of european countries provide free edcuation through college. So where are we wasting the excess money?

[SeattleGriz]

Correct, and not only that, not one major democrat that was seeking the democratic nomination for 2004 and 2008 campaigned against scaling it down or getting rid of it altogether. In fact, they have all been complaining that Bush underfunded the program and that there needed to be more stuff added to the policy.

The federal government should be issuing a challenge to states to drastically cut education budgets while making schools more effective. If European schools can do a much better job in education with less per-pupil spending so should we. I'm more confidant that prostitution will become than I am we will get any real common sense reforms in education, though.

That's intersting since a number of european countries provide free edcuation through college. So where are we wasting the excess money?

Not speaking specifically to NCLB, but where aren't we wasting money on education? When my Liberal mother in law has become borderline Conservative by watching how, where and why money is being spent on kids, there most definitely is a waste problem.

Part of her issue, is that she works in special needs and sees how many parents come in and claim their lazy ass kid has a learning disability and needs to go to a special school that is outside the districts normal avenues and ends up costing the taxpayers in the area of 50k per year, versus 7k if the student stayed in they system. You DARE say the kid is normal and you get sued. Parents are lazy asses that don't want to raise their kids or be responsible.

I might add that the sort of kids my step mom sees in these programs, are very similar to the ones that were smart enough to scour the internet and find out when celebrities were not in their homes and robbed them. Seems like they had no issue with problem solving.