By: Byron York

Chief Political Correspondent

09/08/09 7:11 AM EDT

The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.

Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.

With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."

Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."

That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."

Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.

"Smoke and mirrors, what the reality is behind the facade',

is what you actually end up getting. And it is very Un-American.

Just ask Israel. " Me

Now, how the hell do you get that I said the Obama admin is Un-American because he said nice words to American schoolchildren?

Or, are you just here to start trouble?

************************************************************

EXACTLY ! It isn't that Obama wanted to give a speech to the nation's schoolchildren.

It's that he left PARENTS OUT IN THE COLD.

It isn't that Obama wanted to give a speech to the nation's schoolchildren.

It's the FREAKIN TEACHING MATERIALS AVAILABLE ONLINE, that the Obama admin had modified to quell disgust.

It isn't that Obama wanted to give a speech to the nation's schoolchildren.

It's that this president is a liar. He says one thing, does another.

He ridicules those parents who disagree with him, then he "reaches out" to their children during the day, when most of the parents can't be involved.

Like I SAID:

Plain local said the speech would play. That superintendent is a Democrat,

no big deal.

But even that DEMOCRAT FORBADE THE USE OF THOSE QUESTIONABLE MATERIALS IN THE CLASSROOM.

Address that, and please stop taking what we are saying, distorting it,

and replying to what was not said.

I said the Obama admin is corrupt, and UN-AMERICAN.

I didn't say they are UNAMERICAN because Obama wanted to talk to little

children.

I said the Obama admin was corrupt and UNAMERICAN because that is

what I THINK. The reasons are:

Obama disses our Constitution. Holder doesn't agree with the 2nd Amendment. Obama doesn't agree with our 1st Amendment.

Obama attacks Israel for not unilaterally stopping all that construction, but

he bows to that Arabian leader, sends almost a BILLION DOLLARS TO HAMAS,

and openly celebrates the contributions of Muslims, to the idea that Jewish peoples never contributed to our country.

Obama openly supports Chavez, and took away aid to Honduras, because they kicked the leftist Selaya because he wanted to stay permanent president in violation of their Constitution.

Obama wants that leftist dictator back in office for life.

That sends a message to a lot of folks.

And, so does reaching out to children behind parents' backs.

Like I said way, way back - I joked that at least Obama hadn't nominated

Angela Davis to a post in his admin.

Then, after all these months, he put Jones, the COMMUNIST, in his admin.

I was right about him sneaking in a communist to his admin, after all, basically.

'

Van Jones never even filled out their "questionaire". Obama wanted him

in there regardless.

In other news:

mz. said:

I just can't believe seemingly intelligent people are getting all up in arms over something so darn silly.

No its Obummly reading

I just can't believe seemingly intelligent people are getting all up in arms over something so darn silly.

mz. said:

Cal, you and the rest of this crew who complain to school boards are truly sick, misguided bastards. I mean bigtime. This stuff has really started to infect your brains and I cannot help but feel some modicum of sympathy. ANY kid would be supremely lucky to have ANY president come to his/her school to talk, in person. Kids don't care about politics or ideology, they just think seeing the president is really really cool.

Even this one.

So are you only going to reply to the polarizing figures that you complain so much about or do you have a response to the problem that a lot of us had which was the Dept of Education lesson plan to accompany the speech?

Or should parents just hand over their children to the state and let them raise them?

russia?

@calfoxwc said:

I am just popping in to say how truly low this has actually gotten. The President speaking to schoolchildren is Un-American? I was listening to the TV in the airport this morning and heard the story of the Retarded parents calling their school boards fearing the Socialist Indoctrination and wanting to ban their kids from hearing the President speak. Are they serious? Really??

Cal, you and the rest of this crew who complain to school boards are truly sick, misguided bastards. I mean bigtime. This stuff has really started to infect your brains and I cannot help but feel some modicum of sympathy. ANY kid would be supremely lucky to have ANY president come to his/her school to talk, in person. Kids don't care about politics or ideology, they just think seeing the president is really really cool.

Even this one.

good grief...... it was mostly about personal responsibility....

Listen I dont think Obama is handling the middle east well or really is doing anything different than Bush Jr would have done at this point... I dont think Obama is leading on Health care but letting the political infighting happen in congress which again is just being a politician, there are a myriad of things I dont agree with but this fear mongering using terms like brainwashing children is the same garbage about death panels coming from the right side.

IF you and the right would have waited to criticize AFTER you knew the content of his speech it would be one thing but this proliferating of hate and fear based criticisms is insane and irresponsible.

Just like all of this venom about health care WHEN NOTHING has even come out of both houses regarding a bill to be voted on yet..... wait and see first before you get up in arms....

Plain Local Schools allowed the pres' speech.

But they forbid the use of the suggested education materials

online from the OEA.

Obama said it himself, he learned how to say the "right" things...

to get power.

Smoke and mirrors, what the reality is behind the facade',

is what you actually end up getting. And it is very Un-American.

Just ask Israel.

@osusev said:

their role in governance and the community........ WOW scary.....

That is actually scary to me; especially when the original question wasn't, what's my role in governance and community? The original question was How Can I Help the President? How is the President inspiring Me? Now if you're honestly telling me that you see no political overtone there than maybe it's a lost discussion. But even the Dept of Education saw enough concern to pull those questions from its' "lesson plan" that was sent out in preparation for the speech.

yea here is the speech you right wingers are so afraid of.....

like I said politicizing everything thru your narrow political party telescope is insane.

couple Alinski's "Rules for Radicals", which he taught in college,

and working to get the personal favor of young children WITHOUT THEIR

PARENTS EVEN KNOWING ABOUT IT,

and you have dangerious territory.

You guys are welcome, like HiwayGal said, to voice your own opinions, instead of

complaining that others' voiced opinions are not to your liking.

And your Joe Biden dreamie exaggerations and bogus uplifting claims are not helping

getting to the real issue here.

It's Obama, who had an Anti-white people, Anti-American, vicious lying communist hate monger

in his administration.

Kinda makes way for my months ago joke about Obama appointing Angela Davis. Do you see

that I was right back then? Instincts, Sev. More and more Americans are having the hair on the

back of their necks, ie, "instincts", kick in and they are speaking out.

Unemployment just nationally INCREASED again. Some experts are saying we are facing

an economic crash in the worst way since the depression.

You won't be able to bleme THAT on Bush with a straight face, either.

Sev, get real. You are trying to put lipstick on the Nobama admin, while the Obama admin is:

"...reversing our long-term commintment to Israel-and instead giving almost a billion dollars to Hama"

(page xii of the introduction of Dick Morris's new book "Catastrophe").

Sev, you and Heck and Dan should consider reading Dick Morris's book, and also Mark Levin's

book "Liberty and Tyranny".

Then you might see what the rest of us are seeing. And we are very, very concerned.

replace the name Barack Obama with PRESIDENT and than think about student interacting with wait a minute TEACHERS... and the subject matter is

their role in governance and the community........ WOW scary.....

its been what 8 months? the recession seems to have stabilized.... banks are not collapsing (as they were last year) Dodge is coming out of BK and operating... GM is reformed and coming out also..... the Markets are stable.... Congress is fighting about things that are actually important for once...

Health care and financial reforms..... The military is focused on a destabilized nuclear border with Pakistan.... yuk... no win situation really but still important on how we leave.

No stupid neocon overeaction about North korea... seems like they are coming around... Iran is well worried about their own internal problems.... no crazy statments about axis of evil.....

It seems like well we are progressing and you and other right wingers are screaming in town halls and now about this? Really?

Come on you could scream about a military escalation in a no win scenario in Afghanistan..... or Gauntanamo or Iraq occupation costs..... hell what about private contractor spending in military theatres? or what about the mexican border violence/immigration(this one is coming)? wait actually we are responsible for the mexican border violence.... criminilizing drugs has empowered criminal elements by increasing profits for them destabilizing their regions by money like we did with alcohol prohibition.

get over your politics they are shading your basic reasoning centers. Sev

************************

Oh, Come ON, Sev. Go look at the online materials provided for teacher's use.

One question to stimulate discussion, was about "how can children in school

help Barack Obama?

That is political, Sev. That is the POINT. He is using this presentation

to STUDENTS, as YOUNG as 4 and 5 in pre-K, to "community organize" them...

ie, to manipulate them into his own politics.

I think most of America is now -alarmed- at his politics.

AND, Sev, this was getting at kids, to talk with their TEACHERS, per those materials,

and said NOTHING about talking to their parents.

Get the idea?

Its nice to see parents stand up, to many times they just go with all the media hype and jump on the feel good band wagon.

@hiwaygal said:

You mean "Please Jack, don't make me take all these pills!!!!"

WSS

get over your politics they are shading your basic reasoning centers.

******************************************************************

To PRE-K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc grade kids? THEY are in charge of their education?

NOT the PARENTS?

Like WPB said - the collective evidence is very, very troubling.

The presidential library noted that the president spoke at 12:15 p.m. and that his remarks were "broadcast live by the Cable News Network, the Public Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and the NBC radio network."

You may have guessed this already, but news reports from the time indicate that Democrats criticized Bush for giving the speech.

"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Rep. Richard Gephardt, then the Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives."And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

Patricia Schroeder, then a Democratic member of Congress from Colorado, said the speech showed "the arrogance of power," and that the White House should not be "using precious dollars for campaigns" when "we are struggling for every silly dime we can get" for education.

Also, the major sticking point isn't so much the message, but the before and after materials...and the direct call for the kids to ask 'what should you do to help the president'. Talk about ego-maniacal and an 'arrogance of power'.

Direct address to children WITH instructions on how to help the Pres (not the country...which includes people who don't like the Pres and what he stands for)

The conversations about creating a militia

Then you look at the control over the banks...the control over the car industry (yes, I know we were 'helping' them...but control is still the end product)

Then you add in the connections with people and organizations that have more than their share of questionable reputations (ACORN, Apollo, etc).

I don't know what to believe or chalk up to partisan sniping...but where there is smoke there is usually fire...and my eyes are burning.

On racial, economic, political, and now, domestic grounds.

The latter referring to the idea that school children, as young as 4 and 5, would be

instructed on how to idolize Obama, whatever, WITHOUT PARENTS KNOWING ABOUT IT,

.... ???

Anyways, I called the superintendent's office of my neices school system, and a really

great fellow graduate of Stow and I had a great fun conversation. She did graduated 3 years before I did..

She said they certainly have been getting calls, some of them libs who want ALL SCHOOL

CHILDREN to HAVE TO SEE OBAMA's presentation.

And, mostly, parents who are upset at the subterfuge of the idea that indoctrinating

young and older school children without the parent's permission, or awareness.

The information on how to construct the days' agenda on discussions of Obama

reeks of Mao in China.

Anyways, she said they left it up to the individual buildings' supers, to show it or not,

and if it IS shown, all Stow school children can be exempted with a note from their parents,

and teachers WILL honor those notes, as they have been instructed to do so.

The gal I talked to was fun, upbeat, and laughed at a few jokes we shared...

It was a great relatively short conversation, but a very nice one.

Anyways, this Obama worship message is to take place this coming Tuesday for

anyone wanting to get involved.

I am shocked that parents are being left out in the cold. That, to me, sends

an even more ominous signal that we are in for big, big trouble in this country.

*****************************************************************

Sep 4, 7:04 AM (ET)

By LIBBY QUAID and LINDA STEWART BALL

DALLAS (AP) - When kids all across the country return to school Tuesday, some will see a welcoming message from President Barack Obama and some won't.

Obama's planned address to students has touched off yet another confrontation with Republican critics, who have battered the White House over health care and now accuse the president of foisting a political agenda on children.

The president will speak directly to students Tuesday about the need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.

Schools don't have to show it. But districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are struggling to address the controversy that broke out after Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging schools to tune in.

Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are letting parents have their kids opt out.

Some conservatives, driven by radio pundits and bloggers, are urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.

"As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education - it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

Arizona state schools superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican, said lesson plans for teachers created by Obama's Education Department "call for a worshipful rather than critical approach."

The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. The president will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.

"I think it's really unfortunate that politics has been brought into this," White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously."

She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.

Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.

In the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, the 54,000-student school district is not showing the 15- to 20-minute address but will make the video available later.

PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is "cutting out the parent" by speaking to kids during school hours.

"Why can't a parent be watching this with their kid in the evening?" Mendelsohn said. "Because that's what makes a powerful statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, 'This is what I dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.'"

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with the AP that he's "certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day."

"Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment," he said.

But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming from.

"Nobody seems to know what he's going to be talking about," Perry said. "Why didn't he spend more time talking to the local districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about it?"

Several other Texas districts have decided not to show the speech, although the district in Houston is leaving the decision up to individual school principals. In suburban Houston, the Cypress-Fairbanks district planned to show the address and has had its social studies teachers assemble a curriculum and activities for students.

In Wisconsin, the Green Bay school district decided not to show the speech live and to let teachers decide individually whether to show it later.

Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer said in a statement he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." Despite his rhetoric, two of the larger Florida districts, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, plan to have classes watch the speech. Students whose parents object will not have to watch.

The Minnesota Association of School Administrators is recommending against disrupting the first day of school to show the speech, but Minnesota's biggest teachers' union is urging schools to show it.

Quincy, Ill., schools decided Thursday not to show the speech. Superintendent Lonny Lemon said phone calls "hit like a load of bricks" on Wednesday.

One Idaho school superintendent, Murray Dalgleish of Council, urged people not to rush to judgment.

"Is the president dictating to these kids? I don't think so," Dalgleish said. "He's trying to get out the same message we're trying to get out, which is, 'You are in charge of your education.'"

--- Libby Quaid reported from Washington. Associated Press writers April Castro, Monica Rhor, Zinie Chen Sampson, Christine Armario, Jessie Bonner, Scott Bauer, Tim Talley, Martiga Lohn, Tammy Webber and Alan Zagier contributed to this report.