Jeffords Still on Outside, After Vote

The finale to this year’s congressional debate on education reform was a bittersweet moment for the Senate’s lone independent.

Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont voted against the reform bill Tuesday, even though he had quit the Republican Party--and tipped the Senate into Democratic hands--partly in hopes that an education measure would emerge that he could support.

He ended up one of only 10 senators to oppose the legislation, a compromise bill fashioned by top-ranking Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

As a Republican, Jeffords had chaired the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and helped lay the groundwork for the bill. He even traveled to Austin, Texas, a year ago to talk with then-President-elect Bush about the legislation, which also was a priority for the new administration.

But Jeffords became disenchanted when his campaign to increase federal funding for disabled students met with resistance from Republican colleagues and the White House. He cited special education as one of several key policy disagreements that led him to abandon the GOP last spring and alter the Senate’s balance of power.

But his new Democratic allies were unable to do anything more for Jeffords than deliver impassioned speeches supporting his cause. A Senate-passed measure to guarantee tens of billions of dollars in additional special education funding over 10 years was stripped from the final bill.

After the Senate vote on Tuesday, he told reporters the proposed reforms--aimed at improving student proficiency in reading and math within the next 12 years--could well fail. “It takes money,” he said. “These communities cannot make these dramatic changes without additional funding.”

Unless Congress delivers more money, Jeffords added, “this bill is going to be embarrassing to this country.”

He said the Senate could have withheld its approval of the bill until the White House and congressional GOP leaders gave ground.