Bush's test message for students

Mr Bush meets pupils at Clarke Elementary, Milwaukee

US President George W Bush has been telling children they might not like doing tests but they are necessary if their schools are to be more accountable.

Joining Education Secretary Rod Paige on a tour to promote his education reforms, Mr Bush visited a number of schools in Wisconsin, a state he narrowly lost to the Democrat candidate Al Gore in the 2000 election.

The president told students at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee: "Look, I know you don't like to take tests. When I went to high school, I didn't like to take tests."

But he added: "How can you possibly tell whether standards are being met or whether expectations are being met if you don't test, if you don't hold people accountable?"

Critics say his push for more standardised testing causes problems very familiar in the uniform testing regime in much of the UK - particularly "teaching to the test" at the expense of the wider curriculum.

'Turn off the TV'

Mr Bush also visited Clarke Street Elementary School, in one of the most disadvantaged parts of Milwaukee, which has above-average results for reading.

He told parents there: "You've got a responsibility to make sure your children come to school polite, prepared, ready to learn.

"Make sure you encourage them to read more than they watch TV. I know that's a monumental task, but it's important."

Mr Bush is proposing a $2.13 trillion budget that would give billions of dollars to the armed forces but cut government spending to keep down the deficit.

Education would get $80.9bn, an increase of 1.6% - although in America federal funding accounts for only about 7% of what schools get.

States use a variety of taxes and fees to find about 49% of school budgets, while local districts put in another 44% or so.

Targets

But education unions and Bush's political opponents say the practical effect of his planned budget would be to freeze or even cut many education schemes.

Democrats say he is not giving schools the means to carry out what he asks of them.

His new education law requires states to develop annual reading and maths tests for students in the third to eighth grades - aged eight to 13.

There are also ambitious targets for literacy, after-school activities and raising teaching quality.

"I am happy to see the president talking about education and reading to school children, but the fact is that his rhetoric is not matched by resources," said Wisconsin Congressman Dave Obey, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations committee.

"While he's going around the country talking about the recently passed education reform bill, his education budget for next year falls more than $7bn below what that new bill said we ought to be doing."

The Bush administration is also planning to change the enforcement of a 30-year-old federal law outlawing gender discrimination, to encourage more single-sex classes and schools.