Copyright 2000 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha
World-Herald
May 4, 2000, Thursday BULLDOG EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1;
LENGTH: 879 words
HEADLINE:
Senate Debates Education Democrats seek a veto-avoiding compromise, but the GOP
stands firm
BYLINE: JAKE THOMPSON
SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
DATELINE: Washington
BODY:
While President Clinton visited Davenport, Iowa, on Wednesday to tout his
school-reform initiatives, the U.S. Senate - including the four senators from
Iowa and Nebraska - battled over diminishing the federal role in education. As
they argued on the Senate floor, the third day of debate, it seemed clear that
the customary bipartisanship on reauthorizing a major education bill would not
rule in this election year. Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss., dug in their heels. They proposed trimming federal red tape and
giving states more control. They also backed a new pilot block-grant program and
a plan to enable some parents to buy special tutoring with a federal subsidy.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., rejected the Republican plan as a
"blank check." He proposed an alternative to hire more teachers to curb class
size, fix up dilapidated schools and expand after-school programs. Wednesday
evening, the Senate voted 54-45 to table Daschle's alternative. To Republican
senators such as Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, who spent 90 minutes Wednesday morning
on a PBS education panel for a program airing next month, the outcry from
teachers and parents for change justifies the GOP approach. But Hagel chafed at
the fact that both Republicans and Democrats have made the education bill "one
of these party litmus tests kinds of votes." "I'm not wedded to a party position
on education," Hagel said in an interview. "I think that's dangerously
irresponsible. I put education, national security and foreign policy and trade
in the same category. It should be bipartisan." Hagel, a member of the Senate
Education Committee, added that on a few amendments, "I may bolt here." His
Nebraska colleague, Democrat Bob Kerrey, echoed Hagel's lament. On any big
issue, from Social Security to Medicare to education, Kerrey said, "You've got
to start bipartisan or you can't finish it." If the Republicans pass their bill
without Democratic support, President Clinton will veto it and Republicans will
fail to override him, Kerrey said. "The bad news is, we'll fail to respond to
the challenge," Kerrey said. "We're not doing our work. We're playing politics."
A bipartisan group of about a dozen senators worked behind the scenes Wednesday
to try to fashion a compromise, but how much support they might attract remained
to be seen. The main Republican plan proposes to give states more flexibility
with TitleI money in the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act. Title I, for poor and disadvantaged children, represents about $ 8
billion of the bill's $ 12 billion price tag. Republicans also propose to set up
a pilot program in 15 states, allowing them to combine money from 12 federal
programs into one pot, a kind of block grant, and decide their own priorities in
those programs. "For those who are wedded to federal domination of education ...
we give them a choice," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "But if the state
wants to go to a different direction, they can." Kerrey contended that the
states already have a large measure of control of the Title I program, which
provides remedial math and reading, vocational education and teacher training.
The Republican idea would "cause a lot of disruption in the state of Nebraska,"
Kerrey said. Programs might be canceled abruptly, he said. Many Democrats voiced
that argument on the Senate floor, rankling Republicans. "What they're saying is
'I don't trust the local school boards, the parents the teachers and the state
boards of education,'" Hagel said. "I do trust them." Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.,
and others suggested that Republicans really want to gradually eliminate the
Department of Education by setting up block grants and then cut them over time.
Not so, said Hagel. It was the Republican Party that put nearly $ 1 billion more
into education last year than the president or Democrats sought, he said. "So, I
don't think that there's any great danger of us all of a sudden sneaking up on
anybody and doing away with the Department of Education," Hagel said. Another
area of difference is in school renovation. The House last month shot down a
proposal to spend more than $ 1 billion next year fixing up the nation's
deteriorating schools. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is seeking to offer an amendment
to the education bill in the Senate providing $ 1.3 billion to fix up crumbling
schools. "You have to wonder when the nicest things our kids see growing up are
shopping malls, sports arenas and movie theaters and the worst thing they see
are the public schools," Harkin said Wednesday on the Senate floor. "You have to
wonder what kind of message that sends to our young kids." Grassley said the
Republicans would free states to decide which schools to fix up. He saw
Clinton's trip to Davenport on Iowa's eastern border as politically driven.
Polls show that the Midwest states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio will be a
key battleground in the presidential contest, Grassley said, and Clinton wants
to help Vice President Al Gore succeed him in office. "He's probably getting two
bangs for his buck," said Grassley. "And probably getting all that political
benefit for Gore without having to pay for it out of the Democratic treasury."
LOAD-DATE: May 4, 2000 
