Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
May 6, 2000, Saturday, Home Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 500 words
HEADLINE:
Moderate Democrats defy odds, seek compromise on school aid
BYLINE: Andrew Mollison, Cox Washington Bureau
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
Washington --- After a week of partisan sparring, the Senate will make one
last stab at bridging the broad divide between Republicans and Democrats over
how to reshape school aid.
But the most likely result still appears to
be a stalemate next week in which Democrats who favor an array of targeted aid
programs give up their losing efforts to amend the Republican bill, which favors
lumping programs into large block grants controlled by the states.
If
the Republican majority continues to block all major changes proposed by
Democrats, the minority party is expected to introduce a gun control amendment.
Because GOP leaders aren't sure they have the votes to defeat a gun control
amendment, they are likely to end the debate by pulling the bill from the floor.
That would delay efforts to to modernize the current six-year-old
version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for at
least one more year.
''We're narrowing the (partisan) gap, but at this
point it's still a long shot about reaching an agreement,'' said Dan Gerstein,
press aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), who has led efforts to find a
compromise. ''That's not to say it would be impossible, but in this compressed
time frame and political environment, it's really hard.''
Lieberman and
Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana formed the New Democrats, a caucus of nine Democratic
senators who will introduce their ''third way'' alternative on Tuesday. They
would like to fold the five dozen aid programs favored by the Democrats into six
''performance grants,'' but would not follow the GOP plan of giving governors
control of those grants.
The nine spent the week shuttling back and
forth between Republican and Democratic leaders, trying to negotiate language to
satisfy both sides.
The other New Democrats are Sens. Bob Graham of
Florida, John Breaux and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Charles Robb of Virginia,
Blanche Lambert Lincoln of Arkansas, Richard Bryan of Nevada and Herbert Kohl of
Wisconsin.
They have received some concessions from their fellow
Democrats and praise from Republicans, who have met with them privately at least
three times. But so far, the Republicans have not promised them a chance for a
vote on their amendment.
''For 35 years, we have functioned under a
system developed by a Democratic Congress, and it has delivered 35 years of kids
unable to read or write,'' said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), an ex-governor, urging
the federal government to hand control of federal education aid to the states.
Replied Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.): ''It is always interesting to me
to listen to former Republican governors, who control 93 cents out of every
dollar (spent on elementary and secondary education) coming up
and lecturing others about how we ought to spend the seven cents'' that comes
from the federal government.
> ON THE WEB: For information about the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act:
www.ed.gov/legislation/ESEA/
Senate debate proceedings: thomas.loc.gov
LOAD-DATE: May 6, 2000 
