Progress Report: Mis-Spellings

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Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:30:14 -0800

Progress Report: Mis-Spellings

" American Progress Action Fund "

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The Progress Report

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

November 19, 2004

EDUCATION Mis-Spellings

HEALTH CARE The Feckless FDA

CLINTON LIBRARY Sunshine and Rain

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

EDUCATION

Mis-Spellings

 

This week, President Bush tapped longtime friend and close adviser

Margaret Spellings to take the reigns as the new Secretary of

Education. Analysts expect " no major change in direction in education

policy with Spellings at the helm of the department. " The Christian

Science Monitor points out that " Spellings has no experience managing

a big organization, and the Education Department has been a challenge

for anyone taking it on. " What she does have: deep, unquestioning

loyalty to the president. One of the major challenges Spellings faces

now is inadequate federal funding for the nation's schools. As the

Boston Globe writes, " As Bush has spent more than $1 trillion on tax

cuts and two wars, funding for No Child Left Behind has been horribly

paltry. " In his new term, President Bush is already pushing for

greater accountability standards by pushing for two more years of

testing in high school grades. Accountability minus resources,

however, equals failure; one of Spellings's first goals must be to get

schools the money they need to comply with the mandate already set.

 

NEEDED: QUALIFIED TEACHERS: Inadequate funding has had one major

consequence in the nation's schools: disadvantaged schools are having

an increasingly difficult time holding on to qualified teachers. A new

report by the Center for American Progress, together with the

Institute for America's Future, shows poor schools have a " revolving

door, " losing large numbers of qualified teachers well before they are

due to retire. The reasons? Low compensation, inadequate support from

administration, intrusions on classroom teaching time, and limited

faculty input into school decision making. (For more on these

challenges, read the American Progress report.) American Progress is

taking steps to bring attention to this national problem, co-hosting a

major forum with Gov. Janet Napolitano in Phoenix today to come up

with effective strategies for addressing teacher quality issues.

 

OHIO CLOSING SCHOOLS: Ohio schools, faced with drastic budget cuts,

are struggling to stay afloat. Cash-strapped Cincinnati is planning to

completely eliminate seven schools next year, cramming their students

into other existing schools by raising class sizes and using mobile

classrooms. This will also eliminate as many as 600 teachers and

staff, or more than 10 percent of the district's 5,800 employees. The

National Priorities Project estimates underfunding for the

administration's No Child Left Behind Act directly affected these

budgets with a $225.7 million shortfall in grants to the Buckeye State

for Title I (the program designed to improve educational outcomes for

disadvantaged students) and an $8.8 million shortfall for programs to

improve teacher quality.

 

GOODBYE TO AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS: A lack of money is squeezing Indiana

schools. The Indianapolis Star reports class sizes are on the rise at

the same time after school extracurricular activities are being cut to

the bone. In the growing Hamilton Southeastern district, for example,

long-standing programs like school newspapers and swim teams were cut

this year. In Minnesota, students are tearfully petitioning school

boards to avoid making planned cuts to music programs. Schools in

Cleveland face serious cuts: two schools, Independence and West

Geaugua, recently cut all funding for athletic teams, forcing students

to raise cash on their own to pay for coaches, buses, and referees; a

third school is considering eliminating its athletic teams altogether.

 

COMPOUNDING WOES: The public school system in Detroit, MI, is facing a

$150 million shortfall in educational money. Faced with the prospect

of slashing spending, firing teachers and eliminating schools, the

district is considering taking out floating bonds to cover its budget

deficit. The Detroit News writes that borrowing money is a bad idea:

There's no evidence the budget situation will be any sunnier next

year, and " every dollar paid in interest is one less dollar that goes

into the classrooms of the future. "

 

HEALTH CARE

The Feckless FDA

 

Yesterday, additional evidence emerged that, in the Bush

administration, the Food and Drug Administration is more concerned

about its relationship with the drug industry than the safety of the

American people. Dr. David Graham, who has worked at the FDA for more

than 20 years, told the Senate Finance Committee that the agency had

become " feckless and far too likely to surrender to demands of drug

makers. " The hearing's primary focus was the recent withdrawal of the

pain reliever Vioxx, produced by Merck. Graham estimated that – based

on Merck's own studies – 139,000 Americans suffered from a heart

attack or stroke as a result of taking the drug. Of that group, " 30

percent to 40 percent probably died. For the survivors, their lives

were changed forever, " according to Graham. He called the Vioxx

scandal " the single greatest drug safety catastrophe in the history of

this country or the history of the world. " (For more details on the

Vioxx scandal, see last week's Progress Report.)

 

TOP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ATTACK THE MESSENGER: Not surprisingly,

the Bush administration attacked Dr. Graham for speaking honestly.

Before his testimony yesterday, FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford

called Dr. Graham " a maverick who did not follow Agency protocols. "

But Graham's supervisor at the FDA said the paper that formed the

basis of his testimony was " an excellent study and analysis of a

complex topic. " Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said Crawford's comments

were " intended [to] intimidate a witness on the eve of a hearing. "

Grassley recommended Crawford spend time " on the problem rather than

going after congressional witnesses who helped identify the problem in

the first place. "

 

MERCK CEO'S DISHONEST DEFENSE: Raymond V. Gilmartin, the CEO of Merck,

also appeared before the Finance Committee. Gilmartin adamantly

defended the company's conduct. He claimed that " Merck has promptly

disclosed the results of Merck-sponsored studies of Vioxx to the FDA,

physicians, the scientific community and the media. " Gilmartin cited

the fact that, after a study it conducted in March 2000, the company

" immediately issued a press release providing its conclusions. " But

that press release didn't include the conclusions of Merck doctors who

believed the data indicated that an increased risk of cardiovascular

events among those taking the drug was " clearly there. " The following

month, Merck issued another release titled, " Merck confirms favorable

cardiovascular safety profile of Vioxx " and claiming the data shows

" NO DIFFERENCE in the incidence of cardiovascular events. " Merck

didn't release the data to the FDA until June 2000.

 

MERCK'S SHAMEFUL ADVERTISING BLITZ: Long after it was aware of the

dangers associated with the drug, Merck continued one of the largest

direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns ever, spending $160 million

dollars. Millions more was spent marketing Vioxx to doctors. Last

year, Vioxx sales totaled $2.5 billion.

 

VIOXX IS A SYMPTOM OF A LARGER PROBLEM: According to Graham, " it is

important...the American people understand that what happened with

Vioxx is really a symptom of something far more dangerous to the

safety of the American people. " Graham named five major medications

already on the market – " the anti-cholesterol drug Crestor, the pain

pill Bextra, the obesity pill Meridia, the asthma drug Serevent and

the acne drug Accutane " – whose safety needs to be " seriously looked at. "

 

BEXTRA – THE NEXT VIOXX?: Bextra, produced by Pfizer, is a painkiller

similar to Vioxx that is still on the market. Studies have shown that

Bextra " increase the risks of heart attacking patients undergoing

cardiac surgery [and] in rare cases...can also cause a fatal skin

reaction. " Moreover, it " has never proved to be any more effective at

reducing pain or protecting the stomach than older medicines like

ibuprofen that are a fraction of the price and pose none of these

suggested or proven risks. "

 

THE PRICE OF SAFETY: How can the pharmaceutical companies get away

with it? Over the past four years the industry has contributed over

$68 million to federal candidates – including almost $1.5 million to

President Bush. Pfizer, the manufacturer of Bextra – a drug still on

the market but singled out by Graham as potentially unsafe –

contributed over $120,000 to President Bush.

 

CLINTON LIBRARY

Sunshine and Rain

 

Bill Clinton opened the doors of his presidential library yesterday,

pledging to use the new 27-acre complex to build political and

diplomatic bridges. He was joined by three fellow presidents " on a

rain-pelted stage by the Arkansas River " for the dedication. " What it

is to me is a symbol of not only what I tried to do but what I want to

do with the rest of my life, building bridges from yesterday to

tomorrow, building bridges across racial and religious and ethnic and

income and political divides,'' said the former president. In an

important contribution to government transparency, Bill Clinton is

asking that 100,000 previously unreleased presidential documents be

made public immediately, long before the law requires. In contrast,

the New York Times noted on 5/25/02, shortly after taking office

President Bush signed an executive order that " grants both the sitting

president and the former president whose records are being sought the

right to indefinitely postpone public release just by withholding

their permission. " The order " essentially repealed the presumption of

public access at the heart of a proud post-Watergate reform – the

Presidential Records Act of 1978. The bipartisan act established that

a president's White House records are not his personal property but

rather belong to the American people. "

 

 

Under the Radar

 

INTELLIGENCE – GOSS MOVES TO DIRECTORATE: Fresh off his politically

motivated purge of the CIA's spying division, evidence indicates

incoming Director Porter Goss is moving on to the Directorate of

Intelligence, the division that was pressured by Vice President Cheney

and his staff to inflate claims of weapons of mass destruction before

the war in Iraq. Slate's Fred Kaplan points out that the analytical

branch is " where integrity and independence are vital. That's where

the Bush administration's prime movers – Vice President Dick Cheney

and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld – stuck their fingers in the

run-up to the war in Iraq, pressuring analysts to drop the maybes and

on-the-other-hands from their reports about…weapons of mass

destruction and connections to al-Qaida. " If Goss demands the same

compliance from the Directorate that he has demanded from other

agents, it could severely compromise the CIA's intelligence-gathering

abilities.

 

AFGHANISTAN – DRUG BUSINESS BOOMING: Despite political progress

epitomized by the country's first national elections last month, a new

U.N. report fingers a major ongoing problem in Afghanistan: " Heroin

production is booming…undermining democracy and putting money in the

coffers of terrorists. " The report " called on U.S. and NATO-led forces

get more involved in fighting drug traffickers. " Antonio Maria Costa,

executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said,

" Fighting narcotics is equivalent to fighting terrorism. It would be

an historical error to abandon Afghanistan to opium, right after we

reclaimed it from the Taliban and al-Qaida. " The U.N. agency

responsible for the report " said cultivation of opium…has spread to

all of Afghanistan, with 10 percent of the population benefiting from

the trade. "

 

GAY MARRIAGE – PRESIDENT'S BROTHER SAYS BALLOT INITIATIVE " NOT

NECESSARY " : Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday he " would not support " a

campaign by Florida's Southern Baptists to amend the state

constitution to ban same-sex marriages, adding such a ban was " not

necessary, " given existing laws already prohibiting gay marriage. Bush

said the effort, led by Florida Baptists who voted last week to lead a

campaign to place a constitutional same-sex marriage ban on the 2006

ballot, seeks to remedy " a problem that doesn't exist " in Florida. The

same could be said for most of the eleven states which banned same-sex

marriage with ballot measures on Nov. 2.

 

HEALTH – WARNER FIGHTS OBESITY IN SCHOOLS: Yesterday, Virginia Gov.

Mark Warner (D) kicked off the second phase of his three-part Healthy

Virginians initiative, focused on health in schools. " The schools part

has two components: a nutrition and physical activity scorecard that

will reward schools for voluntarily encouraging exercise and good

nutrition, and a proposal for a 5-cent subsidy on school breakfasts, "

particularly targeted toward low-income kids who often skip breakfast,

then " load up on french fries " at lunch. In the past 20 years, Warner

noted, the number of overweight children in the United States has

doubled, and the number of overweight adolescents has tripled. Warner

is trying to reduce the cost of poor health in his state, which spends

" almost $400 million a year on employee health benefits and Medicaid

payments related to diseases arising from 'unhealthy lifestyles.' "

 

CULTURE – TEXAS FEARS ROLE REVERSALS: A tiny Texas school district is

scrapping a homecoming tradition in which boys dress like girls and

vice versa after a parent " complained about what she regarded as the

event's homosexual overtones. " As a substitute, the school has decided

on " Camo Day, " with " black boots and Army camouflage to be worn by

everyone who wants to participate. " Mother Delana Davies explained the

danger behind the seemingly innocuous tradition: " It's like

experimenting with drugs, " she said. " You just keep playing with it

and it becomes customary…If it's OK to dress like a girl today, then

why is it not OK in the future? "