If I don't die by Thursday, I'll be roaring Friday night.

Even as First Lady Laura Bush celebrated the importance of literacy on the Washington Mall last weekend, her husband was targeting education funding for its lowest increase in seven years.

The President's budget for overall education funding calls for an meager 0.3 % increase, well below his 4% ceiling for domestic spending or the level of inflation. Placing education toward the bottom of his budget requests breaks the promise of his first address to a joint session of Congress in 2001 when he claimed education would be "my top priority."

The President, who has unabashedly promoted his "No Child Left Behind" philosophy, is particularly shortchanging Title I funding, the primary program for economically disadvantaged students. His budget request for Title I falls 33% short of what Congress considers full funding under the law.