EDUCATION - A Chairman Under Close Watch

By David Baumann, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Saturday, July 03, 1999

	      To political friends and foes alike, Republican Rep. 
William F. Goodling is a changed man. For much of his 24 years in 
the House, the former public school teacher and principal from 
York County, Pa., was known for his moderate-leaning views and 
mild-mannered ways. But in 1995, upon becoming chairman of the 
House panel with jurisdiction over education, Goodling took what 
many observers viewed as a sharp rightward turn. 
	     Now, with Goodling, 71, having said that this House term 
will be his last, conservatives will be watching him closely as 
he leads congressional efforts to reauthorize the massive 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Will the chairman 
of the Education and the Workforce Committee continue to work 
with conservatives on their education agenda? Or will he cut 
deals with Democrats to get the bill passed--and carry one final 
bipartisan accomplishment with him into retirement? 
	     During the Reagan Administration, Goodling, as a senior 
minority member of the then-Education and Labor Committee, often 
found himself defending public education and federal education 
programs in the face of criticism from conservative Republicans. 
Reaganites ''didn't think I was very cooperative,'' Goodling 
recalled during a recent interview. ''I used to get in trouble 
with the Reagan Administration because he had people down there 
(at the White House) who would constantly criticize public 
education.'' 
	     Goodling did not push for abolishing the Education 
Department, a favorite target of the Reaganites. And although 
Goodling was a strong supporter of President Bush (he chaired 
Bush's campaign in Pennsylvania), he joined with Democrats in 
rewriting Bush's education reform plan in 1991, to place less 
emphasis on parental choice. 
	     When Republicans took over the House in January 1995, 
Goodling was among the prospective new committee chairmen whom 
conservatives eyed with some suspicion because of their histories 
of cooperating with the Democrats. On the House Appropriations 
Committee, for instance, GOP leaders leapfrogged over several 
veteran Republicans to select as chairman then-Rep. Bob 
Livingston, R-La., who they believed had the proper conservative 
credentials. 
	     Conservatives admit that they thought they were taking a 
chance with Goodling. ''He was very moderate,'' recalled a former 
aide to a key conservative House Republican. ''He worked very 
closely with the Democrats on the committee. He was one of the 
chairmen that everyone was pretty concerned about.'' 
	     Goodling says today that the conservatives' suspicion of 
him was ''tough to overcome.'' But, he said, he had felt obliged 
to counter some of the Right's aims. For many years, Goodling 
said, the conservative education agenda was simply to push for 
block grants to the states, vouchers for students to attend 
public or private schools, and the elimination of the Education 
Department--an agenda he found too limited and too radical. 
	     Just months after becoming chairman in 1995, Goodling was 
faced with his first ideological test when House Republicans 
tried to reshape the federal school lunch program into a block 
grant and to limit the program's growth. In the face of repeated 
attacks from Democratic lawmakers and President Clinton, Goodling 
led a high-profile defense of the GOP proposal, a defense that 
displayed uncharacteristic vehemence. 
	     Democrats charged that the school lunch proposal, which 
ultimately was shelved, would hinder efforts to end child hunger 
and would decimate the program; Goodling and other Republicans 
contended they simply wanted to limit the bureaucracy. The 
problem, Goodling said recently, was that the House Budget 
Committee was demanding across-the-board cuts in federal 
programs. ''They were looking for ways to save,'' he said. ''I 
was looking for ways to make the programs better. None of the 
things people talked about happened.'' 
	     In 1997, the Education panel chairman again proved his 
mettle to conservatives with his livid opposition to the Clinton 
Administration's national education testing program. Goodling 
insisted that the development of a national test for students be 
banned as part of the 1998 appropriations bill covering the 
Education Department. He led a conservative coalition that held 
the bill up, which irked Republican appropriators. He eventually 
got what he wanted. 
	     ''That was a turning point for him,'' said the former 
House GOP aide. ''He did not waver for a second on that issue. . 
. . He was the best person we could have had leading the 
charge.'' The source added that since then, conservatives on 
Capitol Hill have believed that they can depend on Goodling: 
''He's been very conservative and very reliable. He's been a lot 
more reliable than we thought he would be.'' 
	     Democratic colleagues of Goodling's have also noticed his 
change in attitude and attribute it to pressure from the Right. 
''Bill certainly has not had the freedom to do what he normally 
would like to do, because the extreme Right has forced the 
agenda,'' said Rep. Dale E. Kildee, D-Mich., a longtime member of 
Goodling's committee. 
	     Another Democratic member of the panel agreed. ''He has 
had a hard task to adapt to the conservative Republican views,'' 
said Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii. ''Over the course of time, he had 
to take a harder line. He couldn't serve as chair if he conformed 
to his own views.'' 
	     Likewise, former Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wis., who was a 
close Education Committee ally of Goodling's when he was a House 
member, said that Goodling's change in tactics was critical for 
his political survival. ''He recognized . . . that he could do 
nothing for public education if he didn't maintain his 
chairmanship,'' Gunderson said in an interview. He said that 
Goodling developed a partisan edge that was ''obvious, but also 
necessary.'' 
	     Goodling, said Gunderson, ''has been frustrated by the 
politics of education,'' adding, ''His passion was education.'' 
	     Others attribute Goodling's turn to the right to his 
electoral problems back home. After succeeding his father in the 
House in 1975, Goodling generally had little trouble getting re- 
elected every two years. But in 1992, after it was revealed that 
Goodling had 430 overdrafts on the now-defunct House bank 
totalling $ 188,000, he faced opposition from a Democrat and from 
a former aide to Jack Kemp who ran as an independent, and won 
with only 45 percent of the vote. 
	     Then, in 1996, Goodling was confronted with Republican 
primary opposition from Charles R. Gerow, the head of 
Pennsylvania's Citizens Against Government Waste, a national 
conservative group. Gerow attacked Goodling as a capital insider, 
and Goodling lost one of the district's three counties in the 
primary, in which he was renominated by 55 percent to Gerow's 45 
percent. Last year, national Republican leaders were worried 
enough about Goodling's re-election that they spent a significant 
amount of time campaigning in his district, and Goodling won 
easily. 
	     Goodling admitted he was shocked by opposition from some 
conservative groups. ''It was surprising when you look at the 
awards (I received) from the same people,'' he said. 
	     Goodling, though, does not see a stark change in his 
politics. ''I've always been a fiscal conservative,'' he said. 
''On domestic issues, I've never been.'' He added, ''If you look 
at my voting record, I don't think it's any different now than 
it's ever been.'' But Goodling asserted that he also has had to 
be pragmatic in attempting to pass legislation. ''I have a 
balancing act to do,'' he said. ''I have to get a majority of 
votes out of that committee.'' 
	     Gunderson believes that Goodling has indeed been able to 
walk the fine line of chairing the committee while still 
maintaining credibility with the education community. By 
emphasizing quality in education programs, Goodling has succeeded 
in changing the debate from an anti-public education discussion 
to one that emphasizes more local control of federal education 
money, Gunderson said. ''In many ways, he was the right guy at 
the right place,'' Gunderson said. 
	     It is true that while Goodling has taken a hard 
conservative line on some issues since 1995, he has had 
bipartisan support for other efforts. Notably, the ''Ed-Flex'' 
legislation passed earlier this year to give states more 
flexibility in spending federal education funds. Goodling, like 
some other House Republicans, has tempered the rhetoric of the 
hard-charging days of 1995-96. Moreover, Goodling made waves on 
Wednesday by speaking out against education spending cuts that 
House Republican leaders are weighing. 
	     Heading into this year's ESEA reauthorization, Goodling 
said he will again emphasize the issue of educational quality. 
''My goal is to make sure that every Title I program (for low- 
income students) out there is a quality program,'' he said. 
	     Goodling contended that when Democrats controlled Capitol 
Hill, they were so worried about making sure needy school 
districts received adequate funding that they de-emphasized 
quality. ''It was frustrating to sit there all those years, 
because you knew (programs) weren't working the way they were 
intended,'' Goodling said. ''The (Democrats') whole fear was that 
the money wouldn't get to the right place.'' 
	     As he works on the last major education reauthorization 
of his career, Goodling will continue to walk a tightrope. 
Conservatives said they like the signals they are receiving-- 
Goodling has stayed in close contact with them on the 
legislation. Democrats, on the other hand, will be counting on 
the chairman to smooth out the hard-line conservative agenda. 
''At least he can moderate the Right a little bit,'' said Kildee.