Word: programing
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Last year Bush pushed for a controversial program to end social promotion, the practice of passing students who aren't academically qualified. His initiative would have required third-graders to pass a single standardized reading test in order to earn a ticket to fourth grade. That bothered Sadler, whose support Bush needed. At a meeting last year, Bush challenged him: "Sadler, you gonna pass my social-promotion bill?" Sadler replied, "Nah, I don't like it." "What's the problem?" Bush asked. Sadler told him that holding back students because they failed a single test wasn't fair...
...with no opportunity to reapply. In 1995 and 1997 he wanted so-called family caps, in which those with two or more children would not receive additional assistance if they had another child. And in 1999 he opposed a large expansion of the federally funded Children's Health Insurance Program--even though 1 in 4 Texas children is without insurance--and called for two more hard-line welfare proposals. The first, known as "one strike and you're out," would have required anyone committing a felony or getting caught with drugs to be kicked off welfare permanently. The second, "full...
Instead, the lege passed welfare-reform measures that were strict but somewhat more forgiving, with three-year time limits and provisions that the able-bodied must work. It also extended the child-health-insurance program to 200,000 more children. "In my experience, when given a choice between compassion and noncompassion, Bush invariably takes the noncompassionate path," says Elliott Naishtat, a Democrat who chairs the powerful house committee on human services, which handled the welfare bills. "Punishing the kids to get the mom to cooperate is not acceptable and not compassionate. You don't have to do it that...
...insistence on a voluntary approach--an attitude shared by Marquez, a former executive at Monsanto--quashed that idea. In early 1997, Bush's team held a series of private meetings with oil-, gas- and chemical-industry leaders and invited them to draft a plan for a voluntary emission-reduction program. The secret meetings came to light last summer, when an Austin activist named Peter Altman filed an open-records request. Despite cries from environmentalists, the plan passed the legislature, in only slightly tougher form, last year. Bush says he is proud he got the grandfathered plants to the table...
Sometimes skepticism is justified. Bush insists the program is a success, and the corporations that dodged regulation seem to agree. So far, lobbyists, lawyers and executives for companies operating the 100 worst grandfathered plants have contributed more than $1 million to his presidential campaign, according to an analysis by Public Research Works, an Austin watchdog group. "They're hoping Bush will be making environmental policy at the national level next year," says the group's executive director, Robin Schneider...