John Kline has consistently voted to cut resources from education and disinvest in Minnesota’s future.

His record on education is so poor that he received an “F” from the National Education Association for his 2005-2006 record. (By contrast, GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad received an “A”, as did DFL Rep. Betty McCollum.) (http://www.nea.org/lac/house.html#mn)

In 2003-2004, he was tied for the second-worst education record in the Minnesota delegation.

Kline Supported Drastic Cuts to Education and Sought to Punish Under-funded Schools for Failing to Meet Federal Mandates. In 2003, John Kline voted for $38 billion in cuts related to children and public education over ten years. Also in 2003, despite claiming to be a supporter of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), John Kline voted to under-fund the program by $7.8 billion. In 2005, he did it again, voting to cut $784 million from NCLB programs. Yet while refusing to provide necessary resources to schools trying to comply with NCLB, Kline voted to penalize schools for failing to meet standards. (H Con Res 95, Vote #82, 21 Mar 2003; HR 2660, Vote #353, 7/10/2003; HR 3010, Vote #598, 11/17/2005; HR 2660, Vote #350, 7/10/2003)

Kline Voted to Cut Resources to Head Start, a Proven Success Story. In 2003, John Kline voted to impose spending limits on Head Start that would not keep pace with inflation and would force thousands of children to be cut from the rolls. In 2005, he voted to cut Head Start funding by $69 million as part of an indiscriminate proposed cut to federal spending. Given an opportunity to restore the proposed cut, Kline again voted against Head Start. Kline also voted to allow private providers to take unused Head Start administrative funds as profits rather than put them back into classroom costs. ([HR 2210, Vote #444, 7/25/2003; HR 2863, Vote #668, 12/19/2005; HR 2123, Vote #491, 9/22/2005)