Last week I heard in the news that President Bush is coming to Des Moines to support one of his candidates. He will be here to raise money for the candidate’s campaign. I wonder how much of his visit is going to be a financial burden on our budget. When I heard this news one thing came to my mind – why couldn’t our president come to Iowa to raise money, with the help of both parties, to save our educational system, which is falling apart? Education was one of the issues on his platform. So what happened?

On one hand, we hear that they are going to cut teachers and counselors in our school systems. And on top of that, our eighth graders are reading at the level of second graders in some parts of the state. And on the other hand, we hear that our president is coming to raise campaign money. I think it would be awesome if he would come to Iowa and raise money to get us going with our K-12 graders. These kids are our future, and if they have a good educational foundation, they will do anything to get themselves a higher education.

I know this will not solve the problem in the long run, but at least it will give us a chance to get us through this year. And it will show us that our president can talk the talk and walk the walk.

Elham Springer

Ames