With costs on the rise, Nevadans depend on student aid and grants to pay for college. Yet, President Bush has done nothing to help families pay for rising tuition costs-- cutting or freezing funds for Pell grants, work-study programs, LEAP grants, and Perkins loans in his budgets. Under the Bush Administration, the Education Department proposed to change a financial aid formula that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars nationally in cuts to federal financial aid.

Democrats have a better idea and are ready to fulfill President Bush’s empty promises. We believe the keys to modernizing our schools are accountability and our unflinching support for teachers in the classroom – not bureaucracy and cost-shifting. Accountability should not begin when a school has already failed. Together, Nevadans can achieve rigorous standards for academic performance and financial management. Tough accounting and performance standards can be achieved by empowering parents and encouraging feedback from our front-line teachers and administrators; not through new bureaucrats or handing over tax dollars to private organizations.

That’s why Nevada Democrats have worked to increase education funding to reduce class sizes, to pay for textbooks, to boost teachers’ pay and have demanded increased accountability for those funds. US Senator Harry Reid and Congresswoman Shelley Berkley have fought to end overcrowding in schools by bringing back federal funds to hire hundreds of new public school teachers and have secured millions to build needed classrooms in Nevada. In addition, they have delivered millions of dollars for teacher training and incentives to ensure we’re attracting and keeping the best and most qualified teachers.

Here at home, Democrats in the state legislature pushed for performance audits of K-12 and higher education, strengthened school discipline accountability and fought for more funding for smaller classes, teacher pay and textbooks.

Democrats are committed to the values of responsible and active citizenship. We believe that government leaders and our state’s educators must invigorate school programs that give Nevada’s youth the tools necessary to be responsible citizens. We believe it is our government’s responsibility to implement courses that emphasize the history of the United States' government and the principles upon which it was founded. We believe that generating an active interest in current affairs and community service is a necessary step in ensuring the future health of American democracy.