Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- April 20, 1998
TOP POLITICAL STORY
GOP banking on school-choice bill
By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Senate will take up a school-choice bill this week that is opposed by the White House, teacher unions and the NAACP but that social conservatives call the most important educational reform of the year.
The bill would allow parents to save money for children's education in special tax-free accounts.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has set aside several days of votes on the measure that has emerged as a major election year issue for Republicans and a high-level family values priority for conservative leaders who have been aggressively mobilizing their grass-roots forces in its behalf.
"Outside of the partial-birth abortion ban Senate vote to override President Clinton's veto, this is one of the biggest issues on our agenda this year. This a top priority," said Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition.
"This is going to go a long way toward sending a message that Congress is serious about an issue that is important to social conservatives," Mr. Tate said.
Senate GOP leaders plan to kick off debate on the bill today with a rally in front of the Capitol aimed at reaching out to minority voters, who they say will be among its biggest beneficiaries, as well as social conservatives who have been critical of the GOP for giving short shrift to their issues until now. The rally will feature activist Alveda King and kids from a local private school that serves low- and middle-income minority families.
The proposal, backed by Sen. Paul Coverdell, Georgia Republican, would allow parents to put up to $2,000 in after-tax money each year into tax-free accounts that they could use for elementary or secondary education in public, private or religious schools.
Other parts of the bill would allow parents to invest in college tuition plans that lock in tuition costs at today's prices, tax free and create a new tax exempt bonds to build privately owned schools.
"Our nation needs the very best primary and secondary schools to compete effectively in a global economy. Education Savings Accounts will offer millions of American families real opportunities to invest their own money in their children's education," Mr. Coverdell said.
The Coverdell proposal was approved by Congress last year, but GOP leaders were forced to drop it from the budget bill during negotiations with the White House.
Subsequent attempts by Mr. Coverdell to pass Educational Savings Accounts as a separate bill were blocked by Democrats who mounted a filibuster, which they abandoned earlier this month after several Democrats -- including Sens. John B. Breaux of Louisiana, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey -- indicated they would support the proposal.
Senate GOP officials in charge of moving the bill through the Senate said Friday that they had more than enough votes to pass it without Democratic support. But Democratic liberals, led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, planned to offer several "killer amendments," and Vice President Al Gore was expected to be standing by in case he is needed to break a tie vote in his role as Senate president.
Eager to demonstrate their political muscle on a bill that appears likely to pass, social conservatives said that they were mounting their most aggressive lobbying drive of the year to win Senate passage.
"We're making phone calls to our members. We're sending out an action alert highlighting the bill. We're lobbying for it. We're leaving no stone unturned. We're pulling out all the stops," Mr. Tate said.
"This is something we're gearing up our grass-roots forces for," said Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council. "I've been on the radio with my daily commentary about this, and we're promoting it in our faxes."
James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, who has been most critical of the the GOP leadership's inactivity, has been promoting Mr. Coverdell's bill on his radio program.
But the bill is bitterly opposed by the National Education Association, the influential teachers union, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who maintain that it would divert needed tax dollars from the public schools.
"Under this bill, these are tax dollars that would not be going into public school coffers," said Hilary Shelton, deputy director of the Washington office of the NAACP.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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