On Friday, September 22, 2006 on PBS (check local listings for times), NOW will be covering items of critical importance to the upcoming elections. In the voting booth this fall, voters in states across the country will find ballot initiatives with titles like "Taxpayers' Bill of Rights" and "SOS - Stop Over Spending."

The aim is to slash state spending, including deep cuts in health care, education, and other social services. But are these local initiatives really "home" grown? NOW investigates how one wealthy New Yorker is secretly providing major funding for these and other ballot measures way outside his neighborhood, in states across the country. NOW also takes a look at the questionable tactics used to put these issues on your ballot.

Starting this Friday, the NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will feature a state-by-state tool that will allow users to see the ballot initiatives they'll be facing in November and check how their states score on a campaign finance report card.

The Boston Globe examines The Administration's Education policy. Please read the full article:

A broken promise to children

By Robert Kuttner | September 22, 2004

ONE OF the many lamentable things about this presidential campaign is how the real issues have been obscured in a sea of mud and deception. Exhibit A is education.

For half the cost of the Iraq War or for less than half the cost of the Bush tax cuts, we could keep faith with America's schools and educate the next generation of at-risk kids. We could provide high-quality early education -- or paid parental leave -- so mothers (as well as fathers) forced to work full time would know that their children were safe and learning.

Even if you don't have children, you must know that the productivity of the next generation will determine whether the United States will have a competitive economy that can cover the costs of Medicare and Social Security.

Isn't this the sort of thing Americans should be debating? Shouldn't Bush be held accountable for the chasms between his rhetoric and his program (with far deeper cuts expected in a second term)? Who is the real flip-flopper here? Who is the flop as president?