Democratic Education Aid Bill Clears Hurdle in Senate : Congress: Measure keeps some Bush ideas but drops his plan to make private schools eligible for grants. Election-year politics play a role.

The Senate paved the way Thursday for passage of a Democratic-sponsored school aid bill designed to steal the thunder from President Bush’s proposal to finance development of new “break-the-mold” education plans in some 500 new prototype schools.

By a vote of 96 to 0, the lawmakers agreed on a compromise plan aimed at preserving some features of Bush’s proposal while rejecting his bid to make private and parochial schools eligible for some federal grants.

They then voted, 57 to 36, to defeat an amendment by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) that would have revived part of a Bush proposal to subsidize tuition for low-income families who want to send their children to private or parochial schools.

The votes came as the Senate continued work into the night on the education measure, with plans to pass it formally Tuesday.

The bill then would go to the House, which is preparing to consider a companion bill drafted by the House Education and Labor Committee. Congressional strategists say that final passage is likely by spring or early summer.

The legislation is expected to become a major element in the election-year battle between the two parties to seize the initiative on the education issue, which polls show has become important to many voters.

Bush has pointed to improvement of public schools as a “defining issue” between him and the Democratic presidential candidates.

The Senate bill would authorize $850 million for states to help design and carry out educational improvements. The money would come in the form of so-called block grants, similar to the federal revenue-sharing program of the 1970s and 1980s.

The compromise also would allocate $100 million to help create special “new American schools” to demonstrate innovative educational techniques, as Bush had proposed in his America 2000 education plan unveiled last April.

Bush had proposed including public and private schools in the program, contending that the plan--along with the companion proposal to help low-income families pay tuition costs for private schools--would promote excellence in schools by instilling competition among them.

But Democrats and public school authorities complained that such moves would undermine the nation’s public school systems and erode traditional barriers between church and state by making parochial schools eligible for such grants.

Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), a leading opponent of the Hatch provision, described it as a “nose-under-the-tent amendment” that would open the way to widespread federal aid to private and parochial schools.

Predictably, spokesmen for the two sides offered differing assessments of the Senate’s action Thursday.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chief sponsor of the Democratic bill, contended that it “retains the best features and eliminates the worst features” of the Administration’s proposal.

But Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander said in a statement that while the bill “includes important parts” of the President’s program, it does “not go far enough, fast enough.” “The President will keep fighting for more radical change in the education system,” he said.

In considering the school aid bill Thursday, senators rejected a spate of minor amendments, including a provision sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) that would have put the Senate on record as favoring voluntary prayer in public schools. The vote was 38 to 55.