Clinton’s Classroom Math: $20 Billion for Buildings

Seeking to revive his $20-billion program for school construction and modernization, President Clinton on Wednesday pointed to congressional support for a multibillion-dollar highway bill and argued that education is at least as important as transportation.

“Last week, Congress passed [a $217-billion spending bill] for new roads, new bridges and other public works,” Clinton told youngsters and their teachers assembled at a recently renovated Chicago public school, adding that he favors the effort to improve the nation’s infrastructure. “But I believe none of that will matter very much if we let the education system come crumbling down.”

In his budget request, Clinton proposed that the federal government allot $5 billion to help school districts raise $20 billion in bonds for construction and renovation. In lieu of interest payments, investors in these bonds would receive federal tax credits.

Under the plan, California would be able to float $2.2 billion in school bonds, including $687 million in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The construction bond proposal would be part of the broader White House education agenda, which includes increasing the number of teachers, establishing voluntary national learning standards and targeting needy regions for special increases in assistance.

But the construction bond proposal ran afoul of the Republican-dominated Senate, which last week approved a budget that rejected most of Clinton’s new spending and tax relief initiatives for education, child care, expanded health care, research and other measures.

When Congress returns later this month, Senate Democrats plan to introduce a proposal modeled after the president’s plan as an amendment to legislation written by Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) to establish special savings accounts to help cover costs for parents whose children attend private schools.

Clinton’s appearance in Chicago was part of a nationwide effort organized in 21 cities Wednesday to build support for the school construction proposal. He chose the Rachel Carson school on Chicago’s South Side because the more than 80-year-old building recently received a $15-million addition that school officials said would eliminate the need to bus some of the school’s 1,200 students to other sites.

The money for the addition was part of the $1.7 billion raised in Chicago as part of one of the most ambitious school construction projects in the country.