Senate Compromise On Education Bill May Exclude School Vouchers.

The U.S. Senate is nearing a compromise over President George W. Bush's education package that will probably exclude a controversial voucher provision sought by the president and his congressional allies.

The senators disagreed about the best way to help students in public schools deemed to be "failing." The Bush administration proposed giving those students $1,500 vouchers to use at any other public, private or religious school. Opponents balked, saying the scheme violates the Constitution and undercuts public schools.

A tentative compromise reached last month leaves out vouchers and permits the use of tax money for public school choice only. It would also allow tax funds to be spent on tutoring programs run by community groups, including religious institutions.

Although Religious Right activists and their friends in the Senate backed the voucher proposal, both Republicans and Democrats agreed that the provision was so controversial it could have derailed the entire education package.

Democrats said the deal would not be finalized until Bush and the Republicans committed to spending more funds on low-income students. "We have made very substantial progress," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said. "What is absolutely essential is having the kind of funding levels to make sure children who need extra help get it."

Some senators, however, have not given up on the voucher idea. Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) said a voucher program could be offered as an amendment when the bill is debated on the Senate floor. "There will be a lot of amendments" he vowed. Democrats say they have the votes to defeat such a move.

Hutchinson may also have behind-the-scenes help from the White House. According to The Washington Times, Bush reaffirmed his support for vouchers April 12. School choice, he said, "is an idea that I remain strongly committed to."

The president's comments came during a White House meeting with voucher boosters, including some African-American parents who participate in voucher programs in Milwaukee and Cleveland.

The House version of the education bill, H.R. 1, contains several provisions that were added at the behest of the Religious Right. In addition to a voucher component, it features language encouraging "voluntary prayer" in public schools, a measure mandating federal grants to religious groups for after-school programs and funding for "school choice" demonstration projects.

In other news about vouchers:

* Florida legislators are pushing to expand the state's experimental school voucher program. Their proposal is to offer vouchers worth $3,000 to any student in a school deemed "overcrowded" which is defined as a school having 20 percent or more students than it was designed to accommodate.

The Florida House of Representative's Education Innovation Committee approved the bill 11-5 in late February, and the full House later voted 63-54 for the measure. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate, but a vote had not been scheduled as Church & State went to press.

* Republican legislators in New Mexico have failed to add a voucher provision to an education reform bill. The plan, backed by Gov. Gary Johnson (R), would have established a five-year experimental voucher program aimed at low-income students. It was voted down by a 23-18 party-line vote, reported the Albuquerque Journal.

* Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum has called for expanding Milwaukee's voucher program by letting children continue to take part even if their parents' incomes increase and exceed the current cap. The existing program is aimed at low-income students, but McCallum says the expansion is needed in case family incomes fluctuate. He has also proposed adding nearly $20 million to the program's budget, increasing it from $49 million to $68 million.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has reported that questions about academic performance continue to plague private schools taking part in the Milwaukee plan. While many participating parents say they are satisfied with the program, The Post noted that there is no way to determine if their children are doing any better academically. Voucher students are not required to take the standardized tests that their public school counterparts must take.

The Milwaukee program also imposes very few regulations on participating private schools. Last summer, The Post reported, a school called the Sensas-Utcha Institute of Holistic Learning enrolled 135 children and was prepared to receive voucher aid. School officials said the children would soak up knowledge from books simply by resting their hands on them. The Institute's director has a Ph.D. that he purchased over the Internet. Ultimately, the school did not open, but only because it could not find a suitable building.

* Public school parents in New York City have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to turn five schools over to a private company. The plan, which called for giving control of the public institutions to Edison Schools, was heavily backed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. On April 2, however, the voters in the targeted districts went to the polls and defeated the measure handily -- with 80 percent casting ballots against the proposal.

Edison executives had hired the Rev. Floyd Flake, an influential black clergyman and former member of Congress, to serve as head of the company's charter school division and press for a yes vote. Flake blamed the defeat on "a cloud of misinformation."

* A Wisconsin Supreme Court judge who voted to uphold vouchers in that state has been fined $10,000 for a series of irregularities during his 1997 campaign. Wisconsin's Elections Board announced March 5 that Justice Jon Wilcox had agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, although he has admitted no wrongdoing. The board also announced that it would accept a record $60,000 settlement in the case, which accused Wilcox's campaign of various abuses of election law.

The board said Wilcox illegally coordinated his campaign with Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation, a front organization for well-heeled supporters of vouchers. The group poured $200,000 into a last-minute effort to promote Wilcox's candidacy through a campaign that attacked his opponent, Milwaukee attorney Walt Kelly.

* The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore is moving ahead with a new plan to strengthen the Catholic identity of parochial schools, even as the church hierarchy presses for various forms of government aid.

Church leaders announced in March that henceforth all teachers in church elementary schools will be required to receive a certificate in catechism. Teachers in grades 6 through 8 will be required to hold a youth ministry certificate, and all non-Catholic teachers in the schools will be required to take courses in basic Catholic doctrine.

"First and foremost, we really are rooted in the richness of our Catholic tradition," said Ronald J. Valenti, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Baltimore archdiocese. "That's the sum and substance of what we are. Catechesis should permeate all elements of school life."

Even as they boost the sectarian flavor of their schools, the church hierarchy continues to press for assistance from Maryland taxpayers. While voucher bills have not been successful in the state, church lobbyists did win an $8 million appropriate for textbook aid last year. This year, the amount of the aid was cut back to $5 million.

* Theodore J. "Ted" Forstmann, a wealthy businessman, has launched a new front group to push for school vouchers. The organization, Parents In Charge, held an inaugural press conference in Washington, D.C., April 3. Forstmann pledged to underwrite a million-dollar campaign lasting six months to place pro-voucher television and print ads.

The organization, despite its name, is not a coalition of parents. Rather, it is a new vehicle for Forstmann, founder of the Children's Scholarship Fund. Forstmann created the Fund along with Wal-Mart's John Walton to privately subsidize tuition in selected cities. Critics say the pair hope to create a demand for vouchers that will lead to publicly funded programs.

Forstmann, who called the public education system an "un-American" monopoly during the press conference, said his new group will not be political but will run its activities "like a national political campaign without a candidate." He has also enlisted former Education Secretary William Bennett and former U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, to back the crusade.

Although Forstmann has recruited a few minority leaders to endorse the drive (including Martin Luther King III), opponents note that the most prominent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, opposes vouchers. African-American voters in California and Michigan overwhelmingly rejected vouchers during referenda last November.