Senate compromises on education bill may exclude school vouchers

The U.S. Senate is nearing a compromise over President George W. Bush's education package that will probably exclude a controversial voucher provision sought by the president and his congressional allies.

The senators disagreed about the best way to help students in public schools deemed to be "failing." The Bush administration proposed giving those students $1,500 vouchers to use at any other public, private or religious school. Opponents balked, saying the scheme violates the Constitution and undercuts public schools.

A tentative compromise reached last month leaves out vouchers and permits the use of tax money for public school choice only. It would also allow tax funds to be spent on tutoring programs run by community groups, including religious institutions.

Although Religious Right activists and their friends in the Senate backed the voucher proposal, both Republicans and Democrats agreed that the provision was so controversial it could have derailed the entire education package.

Democrats said the deal would not be finalized until Bush and the Republicans committed to spending more funds on low-income students. "We have made very substantial progress," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said. "What is absolutely essential is having the kind of funding levels to make sure children who need extra help get it."

Some senators, however, have not given up on the voucher idea. Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) said a voucher program could be offered as an amendment when the bill is debated on the Senate floor. "There will be a lot of amendments," he vowed. Democrats say they have the votes to defeat such a move.

Hutchinson may also have behindthe-scenes help from the White House. According to The Washington Times, Bush reaffirmed his support for vouchers April 12. School choice, he said, "is an idea that I remain strongly committed to."

The president's comments came during a White House meeting with voucher boosters, including some AfricanAmerican parents who participate in voucher programs in Milwaukee and Cleveland.

The House version of the education bill, H.R. 1, contains several provisions that were added at the behest of the Religious Right. In addition to a voucher component, it features language encouraging "voluntary prayer" in public schools, a measure mandating federal grants to religious groups for afterschool programs and funding for "school choice" demonstration projects. In other news about vouchers:

Florida legislators are pushing to expand the state's experimental school voucher program. Their proposal is to offer vouchers worth $3,000 to any student in a school deemed "overcrowded," which is defined as a school having 20 percent or more students than it was designed to accommodate.

The Florida House of Representative's Education Innovation Committee approved the bill 11-5 in late February, and the full House later voted 63-54 for the measure. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate, but a vote had not been scheduled as Church & State went to press.

Republican legislators in New Mexico have failed to add a voucher provision to an education reform bill. The plan, backed by Gov. Gary Johnson (R), would have established a fiveyear experimental voucher program aimed at lowincome students. It was voted down by a 23-18 party-line vote, reported the Albuquerque Journal.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum has called for expanding Milwaukee's voucher program by letting children continue to take part even if their parents' incomes increase and exceed the current cap. The existing program is aimed at lowincome students, but McCallum says the expansion is needed in case family incomes fluctuate. He has also proposed adding nearly $20 million to the program's budget, increasing it from $49 million to $68 million.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has reported that questions about academic performance continue to plague private schools taking part in the Milwaukee plan. While many participating parents say they are satisfied with the program, The Post noted that there is no way to determine if their children are doing any better academically. Voucher students are not required to take the standardized tests that their public school counterparts must take.

The Milwaukee program also imposes very few regulations on participating private schools. Last summer, The Post reported, a school called the SensasUtcha Institute of Holistic Learning enrolled 135 children and was prepared to receive voucher aid. School officials said the children would soak up knowledge from books simply by resting their hands on them. The Institute's director has a Ph.D. that he purchased over the Internet. Ultimately, the school did not open, but only because it could not find a suitable building.

Public school parents in New York City have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to turn five schools over to a private company. The plan, which called for giving control of the public institutions to Edison Schools, was heavily backed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. On April 2, however, the voters in the targeted districts went to the polls and defeated the measure handily - with 80 percent casting ballots against the proposal.