“Stateline.org, a research organization administered by the University of Richmond, reported that teachers in Claremore, Oklahoma, doubled as janitors while principals in Putnam City and Enid, Oklahoma, served as substitutes. A school in Springfield, Massachusetts, laid off 12 nurses, left 100 teaching and 80 paraprofessional slots open, eliminated its hot breakfast program and closed all school pools. And teachers in Twin Falls, Idaho, gave up a day’s pay to help cover the audiologist’s salary.”

Read the story and you’ll see that tax cuts for the rich aren’t the whole problem. Part of it is Bush’s misconceived No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Let me say again that I have never heard a teacher — and I know plenty — say a kind word for this centerpiece of Bush’s plan to make himself known as the Education President. It has already turned out to be a fraud on parents and taxpayers in Texas. Now the rest of us are getting our turn.