NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, June 14, 2001

The stage is now set for the passage of landmark legislation to boost accountability in government schools with unprecedented federal taxpayer spending - without offering school choice to victims of failing school systems.

"This is truly great news," Education Secretary Roderick Paige said after the vote. "In just a few days we will have this voted out of the Senate."

Republicans said the defeat of an amendment drafted by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was vital to maintain bipartisan support for the bill. "If that had won today, it would have put the whole bill in jeopardy," said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

The final bill headed for passage follows through on President Bush's call for mandatory reading and math tests for grades 3-8, but the Senate voted against Bush on the use of federal vouchers at nongovernment schools.

The legislation authorizes unprecedented spending on education - more than $15 billion for "disadvantaged" schools alone next year as compared to around $8 billion this year.

Democrats and Republicans Wednesday drew battle lines for a nasty fight looming over how much of that money the federal government will actually spend. Democrats have signaled they might hold the education bill until Republicans commit to some or all of the spending outlined in the education bill. Republicans said that might be impossible, because the Senate has added billions in "authorized" spending to the education bill Congress would never be able to afford.

"It is frightening to see how much has been added with respect to authorized spending as we move forward," Frist said.

The Senate Wednesday voted 51-47 to defeat an amendment drafted by Dodd to remove an after-school program from a part of the bill that establishes a pilot project designed to send money to states in block grants, as opposed to targeted at mandated programs. Specifically, the pilot program would give block grants to seven states to do with as they see fit, in lieu of a list of government programs.

But Dodd wanted to pull one after-school program, called the "21st Century Community Learning Centers" program, out of the block grant plan and fund it separately. Dodd said the program was too important to meddle with.

But Republicans said the flexibility pilot program was more important than almost anything else in the bill. "The reason why it is signature for our side of the aisle is that it does crystallize our idea of flexibility and local control," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

Three Democrats, Sen. John Breaux, D-La., Zell Miller, D-Ga., and Tom Carper, D-Del., joined Republicans to defeat the amendment. Sens. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, voted with the Democrats. The Senate is expected to pass the education bill today.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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School Choice
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