GOP liberals stop Armey's school-choice bills

On October 21, dozens of House Republicans joined with Democrats to defeat conservatives on almost all of a series of education bills and amendments supported by the House GOP leadership.

House leaders, knowing chances of passage were slim, did not make the votes a test of party loyalty. But House leaders were at least able to stop most liberal proposals from passing as well.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R.-Tex.) offered the "Safe and Sound Schools Amendment" to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was up for reauthorization.. The amendment would have earmarked $100 million annually over the next five years to fund scholarships for students in grades I through 5 trapped in failing public schools. State governors would have decided which schools were failing. Students in all grades would have been eligible for scholarships, worth $3,500, if they had been a victim of a violent crime while at school.

Educational Disaster Zones

The amendment was defeated 166 to 257, with 52 Republicans opposing it and only three Democrats voting in favor. (See rollcall, page 27.)

"When communities are devastated by floods, fires, droughts, or earthquakes, they are declared natural disaster areas '11 said Armey. "They become eligible for financial assistance from the federal government. And rightfully so.... Today, many communities across the nation are being devastated by a different kind of disasterfailed public schools."

An Armey spokesman said the amendment most likely failed because some Republicans feared the teachers unions and that Clinton would veto the entire bill because of it. The bill is the primary vehicle for authorizing federal aid to public schools around the nation.

Earlier this year, Congress did pass Armey's District of Columbia school-choice proposal, which President Clinton vetoed. "Mat made it gdl the way to the President's desk:' said Armey's spokesman. "The bottom line is, the reason we don't have D.C. school choice is Bill Clinton." Armey said that the Safe and Sound Schools Amendment could reappear next year since it still exists as a separate bill.

Another even more limited school-choice proposal,

sponsored by Rep. Thomas Petri (R.-Wis.), which would have allowed ten states to use Title I money to fund student vouchers for public or private or parochial schools, failed 153 to 271. Sixty-six Republicans voted against it. (See rollcall in future issue.)

Meanwhile, 39 Republicans joined with 203 Democrats to pass an amendment sponsored by Rep. Tim Roemer (D.Ind.) to hike Title I spending by more than 15%, from $8.4 billion up to $9.9 billion.

The House did pass a watered-down version of the Straight A's Education Overhaul Bill (HR 2300) by 213 to 208, with only nine Republicans defecting and five Democrats on board. This bill, designed to decrease federal control over education, would give ten states federal education dollars in block grants. "We're waiting on the Senate" to pass the bill, said Armey press secretary Jim Wilkinson.

The bill had at first applied to all states, but a presidential veto threat against the original measure and opposition from GOP moderates led by Rep. Mike Castle (R.Del.) forced its reduction to a pilot program. Castle had been an original co-sponsor of the first version, then changed his mind.

House Republicans also achieved a victory when the House rejected, 183 to 235, an amendment to Straight AN offered by Chata Fattah (D.-Pa.) that would have required that each state's expenditures per pupil be equal in an regions, a measure that would have destroyed local taxation and control over school districts. Fattah's amendment would have exempted states if students in areas with lower per pupil spending performed just as well academically as those in areas with higher per-pupil spending.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 5, 1999
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