U.S. School Repair Bill Voted Down in Senate

Dealing a substantial blow to President Clinton’s education agenda, the Senate on Tuesday rejected a White House proposal to provide more than $3 billion in federal subsidies over five years to help renovate crumbling school buildings around the country.

In another snub to the administration and its Democrat allies, the Republican-controlled Senate shot down a separate Clinton-backed proposal to help finance the recruitment of an additional 100,000 teachers in an effort to reduce class size.

The two votes--56 to 42 to kill the school construction amendment and 56 to 41 to reject the teacher recruitment plan--signal that central elements of Clinton’s education agenda are essentially dead for the year. Democrats, however, vowed that they will continue to push those and related education issues as a major theme in this year’s election campaigns.

The votes came as the Senate continued for a second day to wade through a politically charged debate on a GOP plan to provide new tax breaks for families that save for education expenses, including private and parochial elementary and secondary schools. A final vote on the bill, already approved by the House, is expected by Thursday.

Clinton has promised to veto the education savings bill if it is enacted in its current form. Appearing Tuesday before reporters in the White House Rose Garden, the president said he objects to the measure because it would channel tax subsidies to families with children in private schools rather than addressing the pressing needs of public schools.

“It won’t do anything to strengthen our schools and in fact would weaken public education by siphoning limited federal resources away from public schools,” Clinton said. “If we want our children to be prepared for the 21st century, they ought to have 21st-century schools.”

Although the stalemate between Clinton and the GOP seems likely to prevent either party from enacting its education ideas into law this year, Republicans and Democrats eagerly embraced the opportunity to showcase the sharp differences between the parties.

Both sides hope to exploit the contrast to their advantage when congressional election campaigns hit full stride this fall.

Democrats plan to call attention to GOP votes against school construction and other education initiatives that they believe are popular with voters. Republicans hope to use Clinton’s expected veto of the education savings account bill to portray him and his fellow Democrats as enemies of broadening educational choice to parents and as guardians of a discredited educational establishment.

“Federal policy has to become a friend of change and reform, not a defender of the status quo,” said Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), principal sponsor of the savings account bill.

The Coverdell bill would allow most families to place up to $2,000 a year in tax-sheltered education accounts. Although the initial deposits would not be tax-deductible, accumulated interest and earnings would not be taxed when withdrawn as long as the money was used for education expenses, including tuition at private schools, computers, uniforms and the like.

The school construction proposal was a centerpiece of the education agenda that Clinton included in his budget request for this year. It was brought before the Senate by Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.), who is facing a tough fight for reelection, as an amendment to the GOP savings account bill.

The measure would have subsidized school construction by authorizing local authorities to issue a new kind of bond, for which investors would have received federal tax credits in lieu of interest payments. Proponents estimated that the subsidy would have reduced the ultimate cost of school infrastructure improvements by at least one-third.

The amendment would have allowed localities to issue $22 billion in such bonds over the next two years. California’s share would have been $2.5 billion. The cost to the federal government was put at $3.3 billion in lost tax revenue over five years.

Proponents said more money must be invested in school infrastructure to accommodate burgeoning school enrollments and repair poorly maintained facilities. Clinton cited estimates that one-third of all schools need to be updated and that nearly half do not have adequate electrical wiring to support a basic level of computer usage.

Opponents of the amendment argued that it would create an ungainly new federal bureaucracy to oversee the new bond issues and would get federal officials too involved in decisions that should be left to localities.

“This falls back on the failed notion that Washington knows best,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.).

Coverdell argued that the school construction proposal would “reward failure” by subsidizing construction in districts that have failed to maintain their school facilities.

Republicans agreed that school improvements are needed but proposed a less ambitious response as part of the savings account bill. The GOP alternative would provide $58 million over five years to foster school construction in the nation’s fastest-growing districts. It also seeks to reduce red tape affecting the issuance of school construction bonds.

In a separate vote, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) intended to increase the ranks of teachers by 100,000, a key priority of the president. But although Clinton had proposed direct aid to school districts to hire more teachers, Kennedy took a more indirect approach.

Kennedy proposed spending about $1.5 billion over five years to forgive student loan debts for those college graduates who become elementary school teachers. He cited estimates that the nation will need 2 million more teachers during the next decade to accommodate rising student enrollments and teacher retirements.

Republican opponents said they prefer a narrower proposal included in another piece of education legislation awaiting Senate action. It would provide more limited loan forgiveness only for people teaching in the nation’s poorest schools.

“It is not the schools in some of the more affluent suburbs that are having problems attracting teachers,” said Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.). “It is the schools in the poorest districts. . . . Those are the teachers we want to encourage.”