Very quietly, a national revolt may be brewing over President Bush’s refusal to fully fund his signature education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act. Today, the Washington Post reports the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, joined school districts in Michigan, Texas and Vermont in filing a federal lawsuit against the Department of Education for failing to provide adequate funding for the No Child Left Behind initiative.

That news comes just one day after the ultra conservative Utah State Legislature passed a measure giving state education standards priority over federal ones imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Legislators from both houses voted in favor of the law despite warnings from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings “that they ran the risk of losing $76 million in federal funding.” “I’d just as soon they take the stinking money and go back to Washington with it,” said Republican house member Steve Mascaro.

These are far from isolated problems. While the Bush administration meekly repeats the claim it has raised funding for education, a study completed in March by the Center on Education Policy found “only 11 states felt NCLB allocations were adequate for them to provide technical assistance to all schools identified for improvement”:

Around 80 percent of local districts surveyed, said they had costs associated with implementing NCLB that were not covered by federal funds, such as the costs of training teachers to meet NCLB qualifications, providing remedial services to students performing below grade level, and carrying out mandatory data collection and analysis.

New Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has been promoting a new, “common sense” approach to No Child Left Behind. But the only “common sense” the states appear to be interested in is proper funding for the new requirements that the law has thrust upon them.

George W. Bush, 4/20/05:

If someone doesn’t pay his or her debts the rest of society is left paying for them.

Amount added to the federal debt during the George W. Bush presidency:

2.2 trillion

President Bush today claimed there was nothing he could do to ease the pain Americans are feeling at the pump, saying, “I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow.”

Perhaps instead of shrugging his shoulders and wishing for a magic wand, the president would be better served using the tools he does have, like the power of the presidency.

As a presidential candidate in 2000, for example, then-Gov. George W. Bush promised that, if elected, he would use the full weight of the White House to pressure oil-producing countries to increase production if there was a gas-price crisis. He charged, “The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price” and promised that as president he would “convince them to open up the spigot to increase the supply.”

Flash forward to April 2004. Saudi Arabia led the fight within OPEC to cut production to keep prices high. But President Bush kept mum. He “refused to lean on the oil cartel” and refused to even “personally lobby OPEC leaders to change their minds.”

It doesn’t take mysterious powers of the supernatural to fight this battle. It just takes keeping your word.

DropTheHammer.org has already put pressure on some of the nation’s biggest companies to stop supporting the unethical behavior of Tom DeLay.

There has been coverage in the Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News, CNN, NPR’s MarketPlace. American Airlines was forced to issue a tortured justification.

Now we are ready to take it to the next level. We’ve produced three radio advertisements to tell the nation about Tom DeLay’s corporate enablers. We want to know which one you think we should run. You can listen to ads and vote here.

And you can make a donation that helps get these ads on the air here.

In May of 2004, officials at the Air Force Academy conducted a student survey that gave them an “inkling of a problem” concerning disrespect and intolerance for students who were not Christians. Less than a year after the warning brought by the survey, the Air Force Academy “is facing charges that some Christian cadets have bullied and berated Jews and students of other religious backgrounds.” After fielding over 50 complaints through a period of only a few months, the Academy created the “Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People” program and decided to require students and employees to attend a religious tolerance course. Parents of students still feel not enough is being done to address what they see as a systemic problem.

But Colorado Springs is not just home to the Air Force Academy. Its neighbors include “more than 100 evangelical Christian organizations, including Focus on the Family.” So how is Focus on the Family reacting to the allegations? Though they are publicly “[denouncing] any acts of bigotry,” Focus on the Family gave an interesting response to the accusations:

If 90% of cadets identify themselves as Christian, it is common sense that Christianity will be in evidence on the campus. Christianity is deeply felt and very important to people … and to suggest that it should be bottled up is nonsense. I think a witch hunt is underway to root out Christian beliefs. To root out what is pervasive in 90% of the group is ridiculous.

The people do have a right to know:

“The time has come that the American people know exactly what their representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special-interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know. I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure.”

– Rep. Tom DeLay, delivered on the House floor, November 1995

A very serious allegation buried in a story in today’s Washington Post:

On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told her senior staff she was disappointed about the stream of allegations [about John Bolton] and said she did not want any information coming out of the department that could adversely affect the nomination, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.

18 U.S.C. Section 1505:

Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede…the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress–

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

This is serious enough that a reporter covering the State Department should inquire about Rice’s conduct. What, exactly, did Rice tell her subordinates? How is this consistent with their full cooperation with a Congressional inquiry.