CONGRESS - Restraint, Not Radicalism, on Education

By Matthew Morrissey, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Saturday, Feb. 27, 1999

	      For their opening education initiative of the new 
Congress, House Republicans are downplaying conservative staples 
such as block granting, school vouchers, and sweeping regulatory 
reforms. Instead, their agenda appears to be, of all things, 
Democratic--Democratic in small, incremental steps. 
	     House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., decided early 
this year that Republicans need to move a bipartisan education 
bill to improve the party's standing with voters concerned about 
the issue--even if the bill contains only minor provisions co- 
opted from Senate Democrats and ignores elements of the 
conservative agenda, according to congressional aides. ''We want 
an education bill passed, and the provisions in this bill, while 
they may not be our primary agenda, are important,'' said a 
Republican aide. ''And these are items that can move quickly, 
with bipartisan support.'' 
	     Rather than the revolutionary education ideas that 
Republicans touted during previous Congresses, the legislation-- 
which GOP leaders have designated with a low bill number, HR 2, 
to indicate that it is a top priority--contains three minor 
provisions. It includes a nonbinding resolution stating that 
school districts should spend 95 percent of federal dollars in 
the classroom; expansion of an existing 12-state pilot program, 
commonly referred to as Ed-Flex and supported by the Clinton 
Administration, that waives some federal education spending 
regulations; and a minor tax arbitrage change affecting school 
construction bonds, which was proposed last year by Sen. Robert 
Graham, D-Fla. 
	     The latter provision, which would cost less than $ 300 
million a year, would increase from two to four years the time 
that school-bond issuers have to spend bond proceeds on school 
construction. While this arcane tax law change would free up more 
money for school construction, even its proponents acknowledge 
that it pales in comparison to the potential impact of President 
Clinton's multibillion dollar plan to have the federal government 
pay the interest on school construction bonds. 
	     Separate from HR 2, House Majority Leader Richard K. 
Armey, R-Texas, at a press conference on Feb. 12, touted tax 
breaks for families that enroll their young children in prepaid 
college tuition plans. But that idea was proposed early last year 
by Sens. John B. Breaux, D-La., and Graham on behalf of future 
college students in their states. Senate Republicans reluctantly 
accepted the provision as part of their education bill last year, 
in exchange for Breaux's and Graham's votes for education savings 
accounts, which never became law. 
	     So, has the House Republican education ''revolution'' 
come down to co-opting ideas from Senate Democrats, extending 
existing pilot programs supported by the Clinton Administration, 
and passing nonbinding resolutions? ''John Breaux has some very 
good ideas,'' Armey responded, while dismissing the larger 
question of whether the GOP education agenda now rests on 
Democratic ideas. 
	     Republican aides contend that HR 2 is intended to be a 
bipartisan education bill that will fly through the House with 
wide support, and add that they will pursue sweeping changes 
through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act. House and Senate committees plan to unveil their 
proposals to reauthorize the ESEA this summer, but few aides 
expect all of the legislative work to be completed by the time 
the law expires on Oct. 1, meaning an extension of the current 
law is a distinct possibility. 
	     House Republicans earlier this year had planned to give 
the HR 2 designation to a bill sponsored by Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, 
R-Pa., that would turn 31 federal education programs into block 
grants. But support was lacking for that controversial proposal. 
''It was a very tough bill to move last year,'' a GOP aide 
conceded. ''There was no way to go forward with a block grant 
bill on a bipartisan basis, and a lot of our moderates didn't 
want it either.'' 
	     Conservative interest groups are holding their fire on HR 
2 and on Armey's prepaid college tuition tax break. They said 
Republican leaders have promised that the activists' main goal-- 
moving the federal government out of local education decision- 
making through policies like block granting--will be addressed in 
the ESEA reauthorization. ''Our constituents aren't jumping up 
and down over what's in HR 2,'' said Sheila Maloney, executive 
director of the Eagle Forum. ''Our central focus will be ESEA.'' 
	     Likewise, Jennifer A. Marshall, an education policy 
analyst for the Family Research Council, said HR 2's expansion of 
the Ed-Flex pilot program to all 50 states is ''symbolically 
significant because these are the ideas of flexibility we will 
pursue in ESEA.'' And Jeff Taylor, director of government 
relations for the Christian Coalition, said, ''I'm not really 
concerned about HR 2. We're at the PR stage right now on 
education. The brass tacks will come later on ESEA.'' 
	     In the Senate, Republicans are also looking for a quick, 
easy victory on a minimalist education proposal. They scheduled 
Senate debate for next week on legislation (similar to the 
House's) to expand the Ed-Flex program. It is expected to pass 
with overwhelming bipartisan support. Senate Republicans have 
already set aside their S 2 bill for the ESEA reauthorization, 
once it is written this summer. 
	     When they do turn to the thorny ESEA measure, Republicans 
in the House are planning a public relations strategy that builds 
on their game plan for HR 2. In previous years, Democrats passed 
the ESEA reauthorization legislation as one monstrous bill that 
contained all federal funding and policies for K-12 education. 
This year, House Republicans plan to break up the ESEA 
reauthorization into smaller sections--school safety, charter 
schools, school accountability, teacher training, funding for 
poor students--that they believe can move quickly and receive 
support from Democrats who may like some individual Republican 
ideas, but not the whole agenda. 
	     The movement of many different bills also keeps the 
process-oriented media interested. Instead of the House passing 
one large bill that produces one day of headlines, Republicans 
could move as many as seven K-12 education bills to produce at 
least seven days of headlines. As Jay Diskey, a spokesman for 
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman William F. 
Goodling, R-Pa., put it, ''You (reporters) don't call when things 
aren't moving.'' 
	     Matthew Morrissey is a reporter for National Journal's 
CongressDaily.