"President Clinton is on the right track with some of his education ideas, but I doubt whether he can implement any of them without deeply extending the federal reach into our local schools. The President has come around to Republican education ideas such as accountability, a ban on social promotion and rigorous teacher performance exams. Just a few short years ago these ideas were heresy to Democrats - and they still may be to some Democrats in Congress - in the same way that welfare reform had been.

"The President’s challenge now is to implement these new initiatives without directing them from Washington. To my dismay, the President’s press release on these initiatives consistently uses the word ‘require’ in describing what states and communities must do to meet the criteria for these initiatives. It is clear that the President’s new initiatives will be heavily regulated and directed from Washington. Under the President’s proposals, Washington bureaucrats will call the shots for most of the major issues confronting states and local school districts. In exchange, the federal government will send them 8 percent of their funds, which is the average proportion of federal dollars in local school budgets. What a deal. As a former governor, President Clinton should know better.

"In the 106^th Congress, House Republicans will work to improve schools. We will send federal dollars directly to the classroom, push for quality teaching, bolster basic academics and foster parental involvement. These ideas drove more than two dozen House Republican education accomplishments in the 105th Congress and they will drive our bills in the 106th.

"President Clinton said in his State of the Union address, ‘Now each year the national government invests more than $15 billion in our public schools. I believe we must change the way we invest that money, to support what works and to stop supporting what does not work.’ We will scrutinize President Clinton’s new education proposals to make sure they do four things: Will they send more federal dollars to the classroom? Will they foster education excellence? Will they increase parental involvement in education? And, will they honor local control? Americans want those common sense education ideas - not more regulations, nor federal tests, nor unfunded mandates, nor duplicative programs.

"I have six major priorities for 1999:

Dollars to the Classroom: "The 106th Congress will send more federal dollars directly to the classroom. The House in the 105th Congress passed the Dollars to the Classroom Act, which was designed to consolidate 31 federal education programs totaling $2.7 billion and send their dollars directly to local schools. By reducing bureaucracy and opening funds for these 31 narrow, tightly restricted grant programs, the act would have sent an additional $800 million to the nation’s classrooms.

Support for Public Schools & Local Control: "We will look to quickly move an ‘ed flex’ bill that will cut burdensome federal education regulations and provide more flexibility to states and school districts. Washington doesn’t know best and Congress shouldn’t serve as a national school board.

Quality Teaching: "Nothing matters more in the classroom than having a competent, well-trained teacher. This year, Congress will move forward to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. During the ESEA debate, we will look at ways to direct federal dollars toward creating quality teaching. We will also look closely at President Clinton’s 100,000 new teacher proposal to determine whether it is creating quality in the classroom. Not every school district wants to hire new teachers or commit their budgets to what may someday be an unfunded federal mandate.

Education Savings Accounts: "Last year, President Clinton unfortunately vetoed a bill that would help parents save for education. Congressional Republicans will again push this bill, and while this legislation belongs to the Ways and Means Committee, I will help Chairman Archer in any way I can to get this bill passed and signed into law.

Special Education Funding: "Look for Congressional Republicans to again boost federal special education funding to meet the federal government’s long-delayed promise of full funding. Last year - despite the President’s attempt to cut funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - Congressional Republicans worked hard to see that an additional $510 million was appropriated for this unfunded mandate -- IDEA."

School Safety and Discipline: "We will do whatever we can to support local schools in their efforts to make their schools safe, drug-free and orderly. We will do this by working on new juvenile justice bills and by making needed reforms to after-school programs and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program."

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