Democrats call appearance at college ironic after cuts (to education)

[papau]

http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040721/NEWS09/407210350/1001

Democrats call appearance at college ironic after cuts

By JANE NORMAN
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
July 21, 2004
Democrats criticized President Bush's visit to Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, saying he was using it as a backdrop while at the same time proposing reductions in his budget for community colleges and student aid.

"We Iowans always welcome a president's visit to our great state," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa. "With this administration, we learn to watch what they do, not what they say."

Harkin said that while the president proposed an additional $250 million for community colleges in his State of the Union address, the budget he sent to Congress "includes more than $500 million in cuts vital to employment training and vocational education programs at community colleges."<snip>

(But But But Bush has )... proposed an $823 million increase in Pell grants for college student aid and had requested $1 billion for new coordinated high school and technical education improvement programs that would include community colleges.