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Yahoo! It's Only Temporary, But D. C. Vouchers Bill Is Stalled
Republicans withdrew a school voucher plan for the District from the Senate floor last night amid partisan recriminations, acknowledging that they lacked the 60 votes needed to carry the controversial, $13 million program over a threatened Democratic filibuster.
GOP leaders blamed Democratic obstructionism, a crush of pressing business -- in particular, President Bush's $87 billion request for Iraqi aid -- and an 11-day recess that starts Friday for giving up on passing the federal voucher plan for now. They vowed to return to the proposal later this month, probably by rolling the measure into an omnibus federal spending bill that would force Democrats to risk a broader showdown if they insist on stalling the voucher plan.
Nevertheless, the retreat dealt at least a temporary setback to the first-in-the-nation federal voucher program, a proposal to give at least 1,700 District schoolchildren in low-income families grants of as much as $7,500 to attend private or parochial schools. Both sides acknowledged that momentum behind the plan had ebbed after a week-long debate.
GOP senators began honing their attack, accusing anti-voucher forces of standing in the way of a schoolhouse initiative for poor children that was backed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz (D) and D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7). Senate education committee chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) took to the Senate floor with a larger-than-life photograph of two black schoolchildren behind him.
"Our Democrats across the aisle, they're essentially saying they can run the city of Washington better that the mayor can run it, better than the school board can run it, better than city council members who support the program can run it," Gregg said. "They're saying to the children they're just casualties of the politics of the Senate -- tough luck."
Democrats said that it was Republicans who had forced the logjam by attaching the plan to the District's $5.6 billion 2004 budget. They said Republicans ignored warnings of solid opposition and were headed toward a train wreck on the Senate floor, with six of 13 government spending bills unfinished as of yesterday's end to the fiscal year.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), standing in front of his own poster-board props, cited 30 elected D.C. officials and District-based organizations opposed to vouchers. He charged that the plan would divert taxpayer funds to private schools, which are less accountable than public schools, at a time when national public education reforms are coming up billions of dollars short.
"Why are our friends on other side . . . why aren't they trying to impose vouchers on the state of California or Nevada or Massachusetts?" Kennedy said. "They want to impose it on the District, which doesn't have a spokesman here on this issue."
For now, voucher foes have forestalled a recorded vote on the question and gained time to amplify their criticisms. But Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and floor manager Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) maintained they had enough votes to defeat Democratic efforts in the end.
Bush unveiled the District program as part of a $75 million multicity school choice initiative last winter. The House approved $10 million in voucher money last month for the District -- the only surviving component of Bush's plan -- by a single vote, 209 to 208.
Williams last night expressed confidence in eventual victory, despite the setback in the Senate. Mayoral spokesman Tony Bullock said: "The reason it was set aside has nothing to do with the merits of the bill or the issues related to vouchers. It has to do with other business before the Senate."
— Spencer S. Hsu
Senate Backs Off D.C. School Vouchers
Washington Post
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25971-2003Sep30.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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