Clinton Stumps for Schools Before Heading for Russia

After a quiet Martha’s Vineyard vacation, President Clinton on Monday stepped back into politics as usual by urging congressional Republicans to pass his education agenda.

Clinton focused on legislation to add 100,000 teachers nationwide as a way to reduce class sizes in early grades and build or modernize 5,000 schools.

“I would implore you, without regard to your political party, to contact your members of Congress, your senators, to ask them to support this agenda,” Clinton said at a round table discussion at Herndon Elementary School in this Washington suburb. He spoke hours before his scheduled departure for a summit in Moscow.

“The ultimate national security of any country rests in the strength of its own citizens,” Clinton said, referring to Russia’s economic troubles and the mounting international threat of terrorism. “For us, that means we have got to prove that no matter how diverse we are, we can still offer a world-class education to every single American child.”

Clinton said there is still time to pass his agenda of “smaller classes, better-trained teachers and modern schools” before Congress breaks for the November elections, in which education is expected to be a hot topic.

“I’d like to see this get broad bipartisan support,” Clinton said.

Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.), who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, responded by saying Clinton is blaming Republicans for his administration’s lack of organization.

“I invite the president to work with us on education--not against us,” Goodling said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the president’s education agenda consists of little more than vetoes and veto threats to our common-sense education legislation.”

Despite school pride, officials and teachers at the elementary school decried large class sizes and inadequate school space.

“We don’t call them portables, we call them learning cottages,” said Daniel Domenech, Fairfax County school superintendent, referring to trailers occasionally used as classrooms because of overcrowding.

The round table discussion never veered toward the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation, but outside the school, several people carried signs stating: “Resign.”