Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
The Washington
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March 01, 1999, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 718 words
HEADLINE:
Clinton Presses GOP To Aid Teacher Hires
BYLINE:
Charles Babington, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: PARK CITY, Utah, Feb. 28
BODY:
President Clinton today turned up the
pressure on congressional Republicans to spend more federal money on hiring new
teachers.
The president, who is vacationing in this ski resort town,
will send a letter to Senate leaders Monday urging Congress to authorize $ 11.4
billion to hire 100,000 teachers in the next six years. The GOP-led Congress,
contending that the federal government should not meddle much in local schools,
rejected that proposal last year, although it later agreed to devote $ 1.2
billion to hire about 30,000 teachers for one year.
The Senate, in its
first substantive floor action since it acquitted the president two weeks ago on
impeachment charges, this week will take up the "Ed-Flex" bill, designed to give
states greater freedom in using federal funds for curriculum design and other
educational needs. Republicans view the measure as a means of showing their
interest in public education, for which many voters believe Democrats have more
concern.
Republicans, such as Ed-Flex co-sponsor Sen. Bill Frist
(R-Tenn.), say the federal government provides about 7 percent of public
school funding but attaches many restrictions and paperwork
requirements. Many Democrats support the bill but also want Congress to approve
such measures as extra spending on school construction and teacher hires, issues
historically left to local school districts.
Clinton's letter, provided
today to The Washington Post, calls on Congress to amend the bill to authorize $
11.4 billion to complete the president's goal of hiring 100,000 new public
school teachers over seven years.
"It is important that we act now on a
long-term commitment to reduce class size, because communities will soon begin
to receive the funds we appropriated last year for this purpose," his letter to
Senate leaders said. "Communities will not be able to use these funds as
effectively as possible unless they have confidence that Congress will provide
continued support to reduce class size for years to come."
Vice
President Gore made a similar pitch in Seattle today, joined by Sen. Patty
Murray (D-Wash.), who with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) will seek to amend
Frist's bill this week to add the extra teacher spending. "It has bipartisan
support," Gore said in an interview. "This is not a partisan issue. . . . We are
encouraged, but we know that it could be close" in the Senate. "I think some
[opponents] are just still focusing on ideologically based arguments that
education should be entirely left up to local communities."
John
Czwartacki, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), said the
debate over 100,000 new teachers should take place in a major school funding
reauthorization bill later this year. "The idea that you'd want to create a
canard right now with another issue to reduce the likelihood of very widespread
bipartisan support [for Ed-Flex] doesn't seem to fit with the president's stated
objective" of passing the Frist bill quickly.
In recent months,
Democrats and Republicans have vied to portray themselves as champions of strong
schools -- an issue with which Americans are deeply concerned, according to
polls. Republicans are using the issue of greater flexibility for local schools
to show that they can deliver on substantive issues after the partisan
bitterness over Clinton's impeachment trial.
Frist said in Saturday's
weekly Republican radio address that the Ed-Flex bill would free many local
schools from bureaucratic red tape and increase flexibility and accountability
in public education. "For too long, Washington has been part of the problem with
education, enacting many well-intentioned programs that result in more red tape
and regulation," Frist said.
Under a 1994 pilot program, 12 states have
the authority to waive federal regulations in several areas, but not health,
safety or civil rights. Texas, for example, has used waivers to revamp
teacher-education programs. The Ed-Flex bill would extend the waiver powers to
all 50 states.
A November 1998 study by the General Accounting Office
found that most initiatives triggered by the waivers were not innovative but
made it easier for schools with relatively few low-income students to receive
funding under Title I, a federal program for the disadvantaged.
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