Senators Assail Bennett on Education Cut

Education Secretary William J. Bennett, defending the Reagan Administration’s proposed 30% cutback in federal aid to education, faced a tempest of bipartisan disbelief and ridicule Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t believe you can be serious,” declared Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. He called President Reagan’s budget proposal to reduce educational assistance to $14 billion from $19.5 billion “a giant step backward.”

‘Lead-Pipe Last’

The chairman of the committee, Democratic Sen. Lawton Chiles of Florida, complained that the Administration was showing that it would settle for being “lead-pipe last” in training the next generation of students.

In back-to-back appearances by Bennett before the Budget Committee and the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, senators joined in telling the Administration that it is going too far to meet federal deficit reduction goals at the expense of education assistance.

At the Budget Committee session, Bennett acknowledged the criticism. “I’m impressed at least by the bipartisan nature of your opening statements,” he said.

Anti-Drug Funds Halved

Drawing the strongest protests were the Administration’s proposals for deep cuts in direct aid to college students, a tightening of eligibility and benefits for student loans, the elimination of vocational education grants and a 50% reduction in funding for a new and much-advertised school drug prevention program.

Chiles noted that the percentage of American high school students enrolling in college has quadrupled during the last generation with the advent of federal student assistance programs. But, he said, the Reagan Administration budget would reverse that.

“It seems to me you are discouraging people with hopes because they also happen to be people without money,” he said.

Sen. Terry Sanford (D-N.C.), the former president of Duke University, chided Bennett for acquiescing to the Administration’s emphasis on reducing spending at the expense of federal educational programs. “I’m just sorry the secretary doesn’t shed a tear,” Sanford said.

Bennett asserted that “I didn’t kick up my heels and say: ‘Get out the Champagne’ ” when the Office of Management and Budget gave him his funding target. But, he declared: “I think I have done my duty in a way that is not injurious to American education.”

And, he insisted: “Above a certain level, how much money doesn’t matter. It’s how you spend it . . . . And we’re above that level.”

Bennett testified on behalf of educational cuts one day after Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger made his case to the Budget Committee for an increase in military spending.

Sen. J. James Exon (D-Neb.) complained to Bennett: “I hope you get the message here this morning. This is never going to be accepted by this Congress. . . . I wish you were as strong an advocate for education as Secretary Weinberger is for defense.”