Bipartisan Opening for Education

Moderate Democrats are offering the Bush administration a workable compromise on education reform. This should lead to a rarely seen result in what has been a bitterly partisan Congress: fast action and bipartisan agreement.

Ten Senate Democrats, led by Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), are willing to support the White House if President Bush backs away from a voucher program that would allow low-income parents to use public funds to send their children to private schools. Ten is a magic figure in a Senate split 50-50 by party. It is the number of Democratic votes the administration would need to break a paralyzing filibuster.

Most Democrats staunchly defend public education, opposing vouchers even to help poor children flee the worst schools. However, this intense issue need not be a deal-breaker. Lieberman and Bayh are privately considering a plan that would allow low-income parents to use government funds to pay for after-school tutoring, according to Times political writer Ronald Brownstein. The Democrats would pay for the extra help with money separate from government support for low-income students.

The group, which includes California’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, wants Washington to increase education aid by $7 billion a year over the next five years. About two-thirds of the additional money would go toward Title I, the federal government’s chief education program, which provides remedial help for low- income students and high-poverty schools. Washington can afford to invest more in education, and President Bush should not hesitate.

Bush is no slouch when it comes to spending money on public schools. His reading plan, announced earlier this month, would spend $5 billion over five years to improve reading instruction for children. The president is also big on accountability and is likely to tie strings to federal education dollars--not a bad idea given the history of ineffective use of Title I funds.

If the conflict over vouchers can be resolved, the bipartisanship on education could provide a road map for thornier political issues like the administration’s proposed tax cuts. Voters have made it clear that education is a priority, and few are likely to protest if a small percentage more goes to schools rather than tax cuts. Now, if the Democrats could just come up with a point-by-point tax proposal like the moderates’ education plan.

Bush has often said he wants to be a bipartisan president, just as he was a bipartisan governor. The education funding compromise proposed by the centrist Democrats gives the new president an opportunity to win one politically, and win one for children.