"Some of the boldest reforms in America today are coming from mayors and other local officials. In a national movement crossing old lines of region and party, you are solving problems once thought hopeless. Mayors are also at the helm of "metro economies" that are driving our nation's economic growth."--Governor George W. Bush

Education

To close the achievement gap in schools, increase local control and make schools safer, Governor Bush:

• Require schools to measure student performance; guarantee that students in schools that are failing for three years can transfer to another public school, or use federal funds to pay for another option.
• Establish a $500 million fund to reward states an d schools that improve student performance.

• Establish the "Reading First" program to invest $5 billion over five years to conquer illiteracy among disadvantaged children through early reading initiatives. Reform Head Start by making school readiness - pre-reading and numeracy - its top priority.
• Combine 60 federal programs into five grants to give sates and districts flexibility.
• Double the number of charter schools in two years by establishing a "Charter School Homest3ed Fund" to provide $3 billion of loan guarantees.
• Allow student in persistently dangerous schools to transfer to a sage school.
• Enact a Teacher Protection Act to shield teachers from meritless lawsuits arising out of their efforts to enforce discipline.
• Establish a teacher tax deduction to help defray out-9f-pocket classroom expenses to allow all teachers to deduct up to $400, recouping a portion of their expenses.
• Increase character education funding; expand the role of faith-based/community organizations in after-school programs; and provide $2 billion in after school funding to low-income families.

To Expand Homeownership and Build Personal Wealth, Governor Bush would:

• Reform HUD’s Section 8 rental voucher program to permit recipients to use up to a year’s worth of vouchers to finance the down payment on a home.
• Establish the "American Dream Down Payment Fund" to provide $1 billion of matching grants to lenders over five years to help as many as 650,000 low-income families, who are not entrolled in Section 8, to become homeowners.
• Provide $1.7 billion over the next five years in investor-based tax credits to encourage distressed communities.
• Support the creation of more than 1 million Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) by providing a tax credit to banks that match the savings of low-income earners, who can withdraw the matched funds tax free to finance a home, a business, or education

To Make our Streets and Communities Safer and to Reduce Drub Abuse, Governor Bush would:

• Support stronger enforcement of existing guns laws, and provide more funding for aggressive law enforcement programs such as Project Exile in Richmond, Virginia.
• Establish "Project Sentry" to prosecute kids who carry or use guns and the adults who provide them.
• Support automatic detention for kids who commit crimes with guns and a lifetime ban for serious juvenile offenders from every purchasing or carrying a gun.
• Support requiring instant background checks at gun shows by allowing gun show promoters to access the instant check system on behalf of vendors.
• Support increasing the minimum age for possession of a handgun from 18 to 21.
• Sign legislation on mandatory trigger locks.
• Establish Project Childsafe, a federal-state-local partnership to provide safety locks for the 65 million handguns in America.
• Make performance based drug treats grant available.
• Appoint a southwest Boarder Coordinator to lead a joint federal-sate-local partnership to coordinates drug enforcement and prosecution efforts along the Southwest Boarder, direct U.S. Attorneys on the Southwest Border to prosecute large drug case in federal court, and provide $50 million in federal funds annually to reimburse border counties for prosecuting federal drug referrals.

To Address Urban Sprawl and Cleanup and Redevelop the Nation’s 450,000 Brownfields, Governor Bush would:

• Direct the EPA to establish high standards for brownfield cleanups that will provide more flexibility than the current Superfund standards.
• Provide redevelopers with protection from federal liability at brownfields cleaned up under state programs that meet high federal standards.
• Focus the efforts of the federal government on developing cleanup techniques and new cleaup technologies.
• Reform the Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund by cutting red tape and block granting funds to the states.
• Extend permanently the Brownfield cleanup tax incentive that is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2001.

To Encourage more Local and Private Conservation, Governor Bush would:

• Fully fund the $900 million Land and Water Conservation Fund and provide 50 percent for state and local conservation efforts.
• Establish the Private Stewardship Grant Program to provide $10 million of the federal portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to individuals and groups engaged in local, private conservation.
• Support excluding from tax, 50 percent of any gain realized from private, voluntary sales of land or interest in land for conservation purposes.
• Eliminate the death tax to make it easier for private landowners to pass their land, intact, from one generation to the next.