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September 19, 2004For More Information Contact:
Iona Bigga Yacht
National Director of Field Operations
917.406.3945
iona@billionairesforbush.com
Mona Polist
Campus Outreach Coordinator
646.623.7998
mona.polist@billionairesforbush.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National Day of Action Set for Monday, September 20, 2004
New York, NY, September 19, 2004 —Billionaires for Bush (B4B)— activists for the corporate elite — will celebrate “Education is Not for Everyone Day” this Monday with a rich smorgasbord of events. All across the country, Billionaires for Bush and their pampered blue-blooded progeny will set down their silver spoons, raise their martini glasses, and toast President Bush’s efforts to transform education from a public “right” into an exclusive privilege for the wealthy.
“Our ‘W’ spent his formative years at Phillips Academy Andover,” explained Kiki Baxx, one of the many Billionaires planning on celebrating the event. “And he has no intention of extending that quality of education to anyone who can’t afford a private school. He knows that education isn’t for everyone.”
Billionaires for Bush is against all public funding of education, and will celebrate “Education is Not for Everyone Day” with events that celebrate the triumph of privilege over meritocracy. Events include tea parties and croquet matches on campuses from Kutztown University (PA) to the University of Northern Colorado and “Free Until November 3” proclamations at public schools in places from Burlington, VT to Seattle, WA.
Dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns, Billionaires for Bush will denounce John Kerry’s proposed reductions in tuition and baseline funding for public education, and celebrate the changes that have taken place under President Bush. Over the last four years, public university tuition has increased dramatically – up 14% in the last year alone – and according to a New York Times estimate, public university education is now inaccessible to half of all college eligible high school seniors. President Bush has also helped make quality public education a thing of the past by under-funding his own “No Child Left Behind” education reform program by $27 billion over his last four budgets, requiring students to meet higher standards even while refusing to support schools and teachers in improving the quality of education.
Tex Shelter, of the New York Billionaires for Bush chapter, asks, “Public Education? Why throw good money at bad people?”
Billionaires will also be celebrating the rapid growth of state-funded charter schools, despite the recent bankruptcy of the 60-school California Charter Academy. A group “Huzzah!” will be given in support of Bush’s cuts to Pell Grant funding, and his 40% cuts to after school programs that have left 500,000 children and working families without free after school enrichment.
Earlier this month, Billionaires for Bush celebrated “Cheap Labor Day” with actions in over a dozen cities nationwide, including a warm welcome for Dick Cheney at the Minnesota State Fair. “Education is Not for Everyone Day” is expected to be even larger, with dozens of actions planned in cities and on college campuses nationwide, from the University of Hawaii to Indiana University to Dartmouth College.
“In the Nineties,” said Iva Fortune, of the Seattle B4B chapter, “trust-fund kids with bad high school grades were constantly being edged out of college admissions by better qualified middle and working-class kids. But higher tuition has put an end to this grade-based discrimination and leveled the playing field for those who can pay for special privilege.”
About Billionaires for Bush
Billionaires for Bush is a do-it-yourself street theater and media campaign using humor to show how the Bush administration has favored the corporate elite at the expense of everyday Americans. B4B is an independent 527 committee, with headquarters in NYC and over 85 chapters nationwide. For more information, please visit www.BillionairesforBush.com
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