10-16-1999

EDUCATION: The Education of W., Courtesy of PPI

Looking for "compassionate conservative" ideas? Try the
Democratic Leadership Council. It seems to be working for George W.
Bush.


An education proposal Bush outlined Oct. 5--consolidating 60 federal
education programs into five--cribs liberally from an Apri1 proposal by
the DLC's think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute. This unusual
meeting of the minds not only highlights Bush's ever-more-centrist
strategy, but also may offer a springboard for a New Democrat education
proposal expected to be introduced in the Senate within the next few
weeks. And having embraced a Democratic proposal that Democratic
front-runner Al Gore hasn't, Bush's maneuver raises questions about what
the Vice President will pursue in terms of a comprehensive education
policy.


Bush's plan would merge federal elementary and secondary education funding
into five categories: achievement for disadvantaged children; teacher
training and recruitment; English fluency; character-building and school
safety; and parental choice. The PPI proposal groups the same federal
money into programs for compensatory education; professional development
for teachers; limited-English-proficient students; "innovative
strategies"; and state administration. Both proposals withhold
federal money if states do not show they are boosting student test
scores.


"It's difficult for me to criticize his position because it's
ours," said Will Marshall, the president of the Progressive Policy
Institute. "I think it's a shrewd recognition of how the debate has
changed in the United States. What he has done is to try to move to occupy
territory that represents where the debate is moving. I think there is a
growing feeling that the federal role in education has been well
intentioned but ineffective in terms of raising the performance of
low-income kids."


The Bush team has had its eye on the PPI proposal for a while.
"They've always liked [PPI's plan]," said Nina Shokraii Rees, an
education policy analyst at the rightward-tilting Heritage Foundation, and
an adviser to the Bush campaign. "Conceptually, they're
identical." She added that Bush's education agenda also includes
elements of the GOP Straight A's proposal, which would allow states to
combine the funds from more than 30 federal programs. Bush also backs
tax-free education savings accounts, a favorite of Sen. Paul Coverdell,
R-Ga.


Two of Bush's education proposals could soon end up on the Senate floor
simultaneously--one sponsored by Democrats and the other by Republicans.
Bush's consolidation proposal sets up a new dynamic on Capitol Hill that
may boost a bill based on the PPI proposal--which Sen. Joseph I.
Lieberman, D-Conn., plans to introduce when Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss., brings the Straight A's proposal to the floor.


"It highlights what everybody knows from Texas," said Bush
spokeswoman Mindy Tucker. "Governor Bush leads by uniting people
behind common goals and working with people from both sides of the aisle
to achieve results."


Lieberman believes that Bush's support for a similar proposal will give
his bill traction on the other side of the aisle. Bush's consolidation
plan "may perhaps be our best pitch to moderate Republicans for our
proposal," said Dan Gerstein, Lieberman's press secretary. "It
has legs all the way to Austin." Several House members, including
Reps. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and Calvin Dooley, D-Calif., have expressed
interest in sponsoring a companion bill.


Heritage's Rees agreed that the Lieberman/PPI proposal, now co-opted by
Bush, could offer a blueprint for reforming the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA), which outlines the federal commitment to elementary
and secondary education. "Everyone is fed up with ESEA --it's just
that no one's thought outside the box," Rees said. "The
leadership in the House and Senate are paying attention to education, but
not offering anything new." House Education and the Workforce
Committee Chairman William F. Goodling, R-Pa., plans to shepherd through
his chamber this fall legislation making relatively few changes to the
34-year-old law.


PPI's Marshall said that if the legislation comes to pass, Bush will be
able to share in the credit. "I think that there's still the
opportunity for New Democrats in the Senate and the House to say this is
their proposal," he said. "He moves the debate back toward this
position, so there could be a real bridging here. It'll be interesting to
see if Republicans get behind their front-running candidate."


Recently, Bush has taken multiple stands against the Republican leadership
in Congress, and it is not yet clear whether this proposal will be another
such example.


Bush's co-optive move forces not only congressional Republicans but also
Al Gore into an awkward position. When Lieberman's office forwarded the
consolidation plan to Gore's campaign, it met with no response, though
Lieberman is a Gore backer. And ironically enough, the author of PPI's
proposal, Andrew J. Rotherham, is now at the White House, where he is
special assistant to the President for education policy.


"I think it presents [Gore] with an interesting choice,"
Marshall said. "Choice one is to offer a competing blueprint of his
own for all these federal aid to schools programs, or he can simply
criticize the Bush proposal."


Calling Bush's consolidation proposal a "bureaucratic fix," Gore
campaign policy adviser Elaine Kamarck said that Gore wants to focus on
"new ideas" such as universal preschool and extended family
leave to cover parent-teacher meetings. Noting that Gore was the father of
"reinventing government," Kamarck said, "There's nothing
wrong with [Bush's] idea; it was our idea to make it easier for states to
administer their federal money." She added that Gore has worked to
streamline programs at the Education Department throughout his vice
presidency.


"It has not been our experience that these things make for great
news," Kamarck said. "These are sort of inside baseball for the
government. They're not the most exciting things to put into campaign
speeches." She said she did not know whether Gore would later
consider a consolidation policy.


"He's cautious right now," said one Democratic analyst and Gore
supporter. "Bush is getting a pass from his interest groups that
Gore's not getting. He's telling the Christian Coalition to go to hell,
but Pat Robertson is still all over the Sunday morning talk shows saying
how great he is." Gore was endorsed by the American Federation of
Teachers the same day Bush introduced his consolidation plan, and the
National Education Association's endorsement followed later that
week.


"Gore is really locked into a box where he can't say, `I don't like
my boss's plan,' " Rees of Heritage said.


Although Marshall said Gore does not have to toe the Clinton
Administration line on education, the agenda Gore has thus far outlined
largely builds on Clinton's 1994 reforms that emphasize setting standards
for student achievement; testing student progress toward those benchmarks;
pushing for money to hire teachers; and fixing crumbling schools.


For Gore, Marshall said, the challenge will be to find a publicly
appealing, comprehensive proposal that sounds different from what the
country has heard for the past seven years and doesn't just establish a
program to address every problem. The Vice President's next step, said
Marshall, should be "to look beyond the initial strategy of base
consolidation to a general election strategy."


That's what Bush is doing as he co-opts Democratic ideas possibly at the
expense of his base. And Marshall, a key strategist for Clinton in 1992,
noted that's a familiar recipe for success. "It's further
confirmation that Bush is pulling a reverse Clinton," he said.
"He's running a Republican version of the campaign Clinton ran in
1992."


Siobhan Gorman

National Journal