Congress, President place high priority on education

1/26/99 – The 106th Congress began work this month with the Republican leadership promising to make K-12 education one of its top legislative priorities.

Meanwhile, President Clinton, in his State of the Union address Jan. 19, proposed a new theme for the national education policy of the 21st century: States and school districts should be held accountable for providing a high-quality education.

Noting the U.S. government "invests more than $15 billion in our public schools," Mr. Clinton said, "we must change the way we invest that money to support what works and to stop supporting what does not work."

Action by this Congress on improving public education primarily will occur through the five-year reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). First enacted in 1965 and due to expire Sept. 30, ESEA is an umbrella law that covers most of the federally funded K-12 education programs. This year's funding for ESEA is nearly $13 billion.

President Clinton said his plan for reauthorizing ESEA, to be called the Education Accountability Act, will require school districts that receive federal funding to:

• "end social promotion";
• stop using unqualified teachers;
• "turn around their worst-performing schools or shut them down";
• provide parents with detailed report cards about their schools; and
• implement "sensible discipline policies."

The President said his budget will seek to triple funding to $600 million for summer and after-school learning programs, provide $200 million to help turn around failing schools, and provide a six-fold increase in college scholarships to provide teachers for inner cities and rural areas. And he says he will renew his request that the previous Congress rejected to help "communities build or modernize 5,000 schools."

Mr. Clinton also said he will propose a $10 million competitive grant program to support community partnerships that will lead to new schools designed to serve a wide range of community needs.

NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant says the President's proposals are "attractive, coherent, and seem to be focused on the children who need help the most."

"It is critically important that the Administration and Congress take steps to give local school districts the flexibility to develop their own vision and their own plan for raising the academic achievement of their own children," Bryant says. "Equally important, Congress and the Administration must back up efforts to improve accountability by delivering more resources for core education programs."

Staff for both the House and Senate education committees that will oversee the rewrite of ESEA say they are planning to move expeditiously; they hope to complete work on the bill during 1999, before presidential campaign politics begin dominating the nation's capital.

However, NSBA Associate Executive Director Michael A. Resnick suggests that, if history is a guide, "it most likely will be a two-year process. We are anticipating broad revisions," as well as contentious work on a new funding formula.

Resnick says Congress is not expected to cut the heart of ESEA, the $7.67 billion Title I program, which provides formula grants to boost the education of low-achieving students in high-poverty areas. "If you look at the list of challenges in education today," he says, "at the top of the list would have to be closing the gap for those kids least likely to succeed."

Other major programs covered by ESEA include class-size reduction, school technology, safe and drug-free schools, professional development, bilingual education, Indian education, Even Start, and educational equity.

Senators on both sides of the aisle filed major ESEA bills on the same day Mr. Clinton gave his State of the Union speech. House education leaders are not expected to introduce ESEA bills for several weeks.

Sen. James M. Jeffords (R-Vt.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, says his bill, the Educational Opportunities Act, is based on four "basic building blocks of success" that parallel Clinton's goals: "parental involvement, qualified teachers, a safe learning environment, and a focus on high achievement for all students."

The new speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) say the four "big challenges" they will address this Congress are education, Social Security and Medicare, tax relief, and a stronger national defense.

Hastert's first public appearances after being elected to succeed Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) as speaker were school events in Chicago and two suburbs to announce a $2.5 million grant to expand public school substance abuse and safety programs.

"We must ensure a secure future for America's children by insisting that every child has a good school in a safe environment," said Hastert, who is starting his seventh term in the House. He says the federal role "should be to see that as many education dollars as possible go directly to the classrooms, where they do the most good."

Hastert is a former high school history teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Ill. His wife, Jean, is an elementary school teacher in Yorkville.

The new speaker intends to provide the Republican party with strong leadership on education. Among his education priorities are giving states more flexibility in how they use federal funds, creating new savings vehicles for education expenses, and seeking programs to help both public and private schools. One of his first actions as speaker was to meet with Cardinal Francis George of Chicago to discuss a financial crisis threatening the shutdown of some Catholic schools.

Hastert also urges that education legislation be a bipartisan effort by this Congress, a possible reflection of the fact that House Republicans have one of the smallest majorities in recent history–222 seats to 211 Democrats, with one independent and one vacancy. The Senate Republicans have a 55-45 majority.

Longtime Batavia, Ill., school board member Rosalie Jones, whose hometown is in Hastert's congressional district, calls him a "very positive, agreeable person" and a "real strong advocate of education." She says his support of private schools doesn't mean he is an "opponent of public schools."

In the House, the ESEA reauthorization is being handled by the full Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by William F. Goodling (R-Pa.).

However, public school advocates are pleased that moderate Republican Rep. Michael N. Castle (Del.) is becoming chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families, and thus will be working closely with Goodling.

Castle has voted against voucher legislation and has worked behind the scenes to blunt education funding cuts sought by some Republicans, says Ed Kealy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding.

Goodling's committee spokesperson, Jay Diskey, says Republicans will renew a measure passed by the House last year amid strong Democratic opposition to consolidate numerous federal education programs into a block grant to the states. Republicans support block grants as a way to move more dollars to classrooms.

Another issue expected to face a serious political fight is Mr. Clinton's plan to continue work toward providing 100,000 new teachers to support smaller class sizes in the early grades. While the plan was not popular among Republicans, Congress included $1.2 billion for 30,000 extra teachers as part of a single giant appropriations package for the current fiscal year.

House Republicans are "hesitant" to provide additional funding for more teachers, Diskey says, because this "ties the hands of local educators" and "someday it may end up as an unfunded mandate."

However, the Republicans appear to be softening on one Clinton proposal they rejected last year to provide tax credits to ease school construction costs.

School choice is expected to continue to be a politically contentious issue again in this Congress. The last Congress raised the choice issue in two major forms, neither of which became law: a pre-tax savings account for parents and publicly funded vouchers, both to pay tuition at religious and other private K-12 schools. The President vetoed the saving account plan, but this program has broad support in the Senate and is expected to be reintroduced.

Resnick expects a "a broad proposal" on vouchers will be raised as part of the ESEA legislation. "But since the Republicans have a razor thin majority in the House," whatever is actually passed "will have to be much more narrowly designed."

Both Goodling and Jeffords have expressed a hope to use ESEA to improve teacher training programs.

Resnick says another area that will be raised, either within the ESEA reauthorization process or elsewhere, is the debate over the authority of schools to discipline disabled students. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act passed by the last Congress allows districts to place a handicapped student who brings a weapon or drugs to school to be placed in an alternative setting for 45 days. But it leaves schools with "substantial limitations on a broad range of other safety issues," he says.

Several other education bills were filed by House members in the early days of the new Congress, including a measure to require seat belts on school buses, a bill to require schools to expel students who are convicted of violent crimes, and a proposed constitutional amendment on voluntary school prayer.

A bipartisan team led by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) plan to introduce an education reform bill that raises several new issues: funding to attract more principals, creation of "second chance schools" for troubled students, and expansion of the certification program operated by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The House education committee may hold oversight hearings on the e-rate telecommunications discount program for schools, but termination of the program is unlikely. "Some of the Republican fire has gone out," Kealy says. "Schools already have a pretty good record on it," and constituents in the 35,000 school districts that received e-rate funding are a strong voice.

Also up for reauthorization this Congress are the Education Department's Office of Educational Research and Improvement; the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which helps states establish standards-based school reform programs; and Title VII of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, which provides funds for educating homeless children.