Speaking at Columbia University's Center for Urban Research and Policy, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) chastised President Bush's education plan, charging it does little to improve education, and said she would not support it unless additional funds are incorporated, reported NEWSDAY, THE DAILY NEWS And The NEW YORK POST 4/24 and THE NEW YORK TIMES 4/25.

As the keynote speaker at an April 23rd conference on New York City Schools, Clinton said the plan "orders more [achievement] tests while providing only half the funds needed to design and implement them."

The budget proposals from the federal government would force the state to meet the funding gap by eliminating funds necessary for class reduction and school modernizations, argued Clinton.

Clinton said the era of federal budget surpluses makes it the right time to spend more money on education. She plans to propose an amendment to provide scholarships and bonuses to recruit as many as 75,000 teachers a year nationwide at a cost of about $500 million.

Clinton praised Bush for advocating new tests but likened his plan to "passing out thermometers in the midst of a plague," without adequate funding Clinton said, "you can find out people are sick but then where do you go?"

Clinton said, Bush's plan, "falls short of the investments many of us believe are necessary to have genuine accountability and improved student achievement," and would not support the education legislation unless it "truly, truly, truly leaves no child behind."