Bill Bradley in The Associated Press


On Education: Measure performance; close lowest-performing schools

Q: Should federal money be linked to how well students perform on national or statewide tests? A: We shouldn’t send billions to the states without making sure that there are qualified teachers in every classroom and that federal dollars are actually helping children to learn. I would require that schools receiving Title I funds (aid to disadvantaged students) make measurable yearly progress towards raising student achievement in reading and math on statewide tests so that all children are performing at grade level within 10 years. Extra funds would go to schools that fail to make such progress, and persistently low-performing schools would be given new leadership or closed down and re-opened as charter schools. Parents of children in non-performing schools could send their ids to higher performing public schools.
Source: Associated Press Feb 23, 2000

On Jobs: Family farms have no safety net; need foreign markets

“I would simply ask the family farmers of Iowa today, are you better off than you were seven years ago, or do we need a change?,” Bradley said. The agriculture sector is suffering through an economic downturn. Bradley said family farmers have no real help, “no safety net whatsoever,” from the current administration. Bradley demanded that foreign markets be opened to genetically modified commodities. “The most important thing we can do is use our authority to petition to get access to markets.”
Source: Associated Press in the Brockton (MA) Enterprise, p. A7 Jan 9, 2000

On Families & Children: Global economy ignores the 6:30 dinner hour

Prosperity that fails to bolster families is hollow and unsustainable. We must make work and family work together and not against each other. The new global economy just doesn’t care about the 6:30 dinner hour. And it doesn’t care that you have aging parents as well as small children to look after. It doesn’t care that you’re too tired or have too little time to help with the kids’ homework. It doesn’t care that you don’t know how to use a computer. The global economy isn’t worrying about you at all.
Source: Associated Press, speech excerpts Oct 7, 1999

On Families & Children: Create a nationwide system for childcare

Today, child care in America is not a system at all, but a hodgepodge of underfunded, uncoordinated efforts. I propose to convert that hodgepodge into a sensible system that will allow working parents to breathe a little easier when it comes to child care. [I propose] finding a common-sense balance between family and work. Work and family are the twin sides of the American Dream. They are the keys to our happiness as individuals and to our success as a nation and as a family.
Source: Associated Press, speech excerpts Oct 7, 1999

On Families & Children: $2.6B for preschool, childcare, colleges, and volunteers

Painting an American portrait of stressed-out parents and deserted kitchen tables, Bill Bradley proposed $2.6 billion in annual help to families everything from preschool and child care, to community colleges and a new army of senior-citizen volunteers. “What individual families cannot build on their own, we can all build together,” Bradley said. He also echoed a proposal to expand the popular 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to workers in smaller businesses than are currently covered.
Source: By Sandra Sobieraj, Associated Press Oct 7, 1999

On Families & Children: Proposed senior Americorps for mentoring kids

Bradley called for an older-person’s version of President Clinton’s “Americorps” that would offer tax-free stipends of $200 a month to senior citizens who volunteer at least 15 hours per week at approved nonprofit youth programs such as the YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, school tutoring, or faith-based mentoring. Bradley said [his full proposal package] would be paid for out of the federal budget surplus, like his $65 billion-per-year universal health plan.
Source: By Sandra Sobieraj, Associated Press Oct 7, 1999

The above quotations are from Columns and news articles distributed by the Associated Press.
Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles distributed by the Associated Press.
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Page last updated: Feb 15, 2019