At Inside Higher Ed, Andy Guess
takes a peak at Mike Huckabee and his love for the college
days:
His rise, some political analysts have observed,
mirrors in more ways than one the trajectory of another "education
governor" from Hope, Ark., who was catapaulted to the presidency:
Bill Clinton.
How?
"...Under the governor, the Academic Challenge Scholarship -
the target of criticism during the campaign because of the lack of
an immigration test - expanded from 2,500 students in 1997 to 5,700
in 2000 thanks mostly to a concerted awareness campaign."
"...Eighty-eight percent of students from the state who scored
32 or above on the ACT attended Arkansas colleges in 2002, compared
with 38 percent five years earlier. Huckabee added some $15 million
of funding to cover that expansion as well as the Academic
Challenge Scholarships."
"...Even when it wasn't possible, Huckabee sought [higher
education funding] increases in his yearly budgets. In his last
years in office, he sought funding increases of $54 million for
fiscal year 2006 and $49 million for fiscal year 2007."
Isn't that fantastic? It's just peachy that Huck was such a fan of
higher ed! Frugality be damned, especially considering that there
was a "...court mandate that left Huckabee's administration
searching for ways to funnel more money into public primary and
secondary schools."
In other words, rather than spend what revenues were available
on improving secondary schools, the Man From Hope, The Sequel just
raised taxes. And rather than
support vouchers as a way to ameliorate the problem, he just
shoveled more money into a failing system. No wonder the NEA is so
smitten.