Statement by Sandra Feldman
President, American Federation of Teachers
on President Bush's Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2003

The AFT is alarmed and disappointed that the administration's budget proposal includes tuition tax credits. While we will continue to support many of the President's education policies and welcome the increases for Title I and for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, we part company on the issue of school vouchers. Whether called tax credits or vouchers, they would undermine President Bush's goal of improving public schools that was the heart of the recently passed Leave No Child Behind Act. That law allows parents to transfer their children from consistently low-performing public schools to other public schools. This proposal would divert public dollars from these public schools for private school tuition -- the same as a voucher.

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