While Democrats and Republicans heralded their joint work on the No Child Left Behind Act, the reality as Democrats and Republicans are beginning to acknowledge is that the funding is inadequate to accomplish the task. In Boston, the School Department had to limit the number of students who could receive the supplemental education to which they were entitled because the Department had not received enough money through the Act to provide education to all who were entitled. In Utah, a Republican stronghold, the legislature is considering legislation, which would require the state to only comply with the provisions that the federal government funds would pay for.

A second example of the inadequacy of the $50 billion for education is that a joint Congressional Committee in 1998 announced after a study that $112 billion was necessary to finance the rehabilitation necessary to bring all school buildings in the country into good condition. Last year's Department of Education budget provided no money for school renovation or building. However, Congress gave the President $187 billion dollars beyond the Defense Department's $350 billion in order to finance the government's incursion into Iraq.

Another example of the budget inadequacy is the fact that the federal section eight program which is key to fighting homelessness throughout the country is fighting for its life as the administration keeps cutting the money available in the name of fiscal responsibility. City services are cut and infrastructure improvements are put on hold as cities receive less money from their state governments and find that the Washington cupboard has nothing in it to help them with their plight. Yet, money surges into Homeland Defense and the financing of bioterror labs to deal with the terrorism engendered by our militaristic foreign policy.

Obviously, the projected saving of $100 billion dollars by following the CBC and PC recommendation will neither end militarism nor finance all the investments needed. However, it would begin to move the Defense Budget funding in the right direction and force Congress and the country to begin to rethink our defense strategy in a changing world. Only through demilitarization and curbing corporate power can the healing necessary for this country begin.