10-16-1999

EDUCATION: Panel Flunks Civility Test On `Straight As' Act

They began like model students, courteous and eager to learn, but members
of the House Education and the Workforce Committee ended up like a bunch
of lunchroom brawlers on Oct. 13. Republicans pushed through a contentious
school reform bill that they touted as the "centerpiece" of
their education agenda, but that Democrats condemned as
"dastardly," "disgraceful," "Kafkaesque,"
and "Robin Hood in reverse."


The panel approved the "Academic Achievement for All (Straight A's)
Act" (H.R. 2300) in a 26-19 party-line vote. Under the bill, states
can enter into five-year "performance agreements" with the
Education Department to receive federal education funds for elementary and
secondary schools without any of the usual federal regulations. States
that meet certain accountability requirements for improved student
performance could receive their federal education dollars--including
"Title I" funds for disadvantaged students--in the form of block
grants, which give state and local officials broad discretion over how the
money is used.


"We want to free [school] districts from the current tangle of red
tape so that they can focus their efforts on improving academic
achievement," said committee Chairman William F. Goodling,
R-Pa.


The legislation infuriated Democrats, who charged that it would undermine
educational accountability and eliminate the federal priority of targeting
aid to the neediest students. "This is unfettered, unlimited freedom
and zero accountability," said Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind. Last week,
Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said that if the bill passes, it
would probably draw a presidential veto.


Democrats also protested that the GOP legislation made a
"mockery" of a separate, massive bipartisan bill (H.R. 2) to
reauthorize Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The
panel approved the bipartisan bill, the "Student Results Act,"
in a 42-6 vote earlier on Oct. 13, after four days of deliberations and 47
amendments. The legislation would provide a five-year reauthorization for
Title I, which channels about $8 billion annually into programs for some
10 million disadvantaged students.


The committee's review of the Title I bill was, for the most part, a study
in legislative good behavior. Democrats agreed to a GOP-favored provision
that limits the number of teachers' aides who can be hired with Title I
funds. Republicans, moreover, opted not to include a voucher provision
that would have allowed poor families to use Title I dollars for private
school tuition.


But the mood soured when the committee repealed a Democratic amendment
that it had adopted last week to make sure the most-impoverished schools
are targeted for aid. "I think it's just cruel and it's wrong,"
said an angry Rep. Donald M. Payne, D-N.J., who had sponsored the
amendment.


Molly Peterson

National Journal