BUSH TIES SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TO BETTER VALUE, NOT MORE MONEY

President Bush said last week that his desire to be known as the education president does not mean massive infusions of money to improve schools. ``What we need is better value for what we spend,'' Bush said in remarks at an education conference at Union High School. Just two weeks after unveiling a $441 million education plan that was widely criticized as paltry, Bush countered that ``education reform suggests something much more fundamental than money.''

Bush said state, local and federal education spending already totaled $330 billion a year, ``more than we spend on defense'' and more than is spent by any other industrialized country.