Think Progress reports that a College Sophomore Stumps President Bush. Bush was taking questions as Kansas State. Tiffany Cooper, a sophmore, asked "Recently 12.7 billion dollars was cut from education. I was just wondering how is that supposed to help our futures?". Slam. Bush's response should be read to be believed.
After asking her to repeat herself and being dismayed at the thought, he basically said no we didn't, we just cut inefficiencies and the same number of people will get loans and more will get Pell Grants. Of course Think Progress points to reports that this is just false. Fewer people get loans, get less, and get fewer grants. Todays Boston Globe has an article that says Researchers in nearly every field are finding it harder to win competitive grants from the NIH, the NSF, and other research agencies. The article cites some raises in budgets but say they don't keep up with inflation, call that a cut if you want, I will.
But here's my favorite part of Bush's answer. He ends by saying: "But I think i’m right on this. I will check when I get back to Washington, but thank you for your question." He didn't say he'd have someone get back to her. So I really want someone in Scott McClellan's press briefing to followup and see if Bush did check and what he found. Think it will happen? Nah, me neither.
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