The Mistaken Appeal of Block Funding.

What's going on in Washington-now that the dust has settled from the November election and Newt Gingrich and company have their hands firmly on the controls?

Things may appear calm on the surface, but changes are afoot.

For example, the House speaker has given broad authority to the House Budget Committee and its chairman, Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, to pare back federal spending sharply. In recent years, not much attention has been paid to the budget committees in each chamber of Congress because the budget panels have no authority to force any of the authorizing committees (which create and oversee programs, such as Title I) or appropriations committees (which provide annual spending for the authorized programs) to fall in line with the world, as the budget committee sees it.

Admittedly, the House and Senate are two separate entities. This year, the House is roaring ahead at full speed, while the Senate remains stuck in procedural details that come with a body whose only governing rule is that a senator may speak for as long as she or he wishes.

Kasich has found a way to work around the jealousies and fiefdoms that normally exist between his committee--which drafts a budget that sets the spending, revenue, and deficit limits for each coming fiscal year--and the authorizing and appropriating committees. He and Gingrich have created "task forces" around each functional area of the budget and have involved members of the House Budget Committee and members of the authorizing and appropriations panels that fall under those functions.

Consolidating Power

In the case of education, Kasich has assigned a few of his committee members and the education/health/training staff to meet regularly with their corresponding members on the House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee (formerly Education and Labor), and the House Subcommittee on Labor/Health and Human Services/Education Appropriations. Together they decide on spending cuts, block grants, and outright eliminations that will be acceptable to all concerned.

If this system works, it will focus much greater power on the congressional budget process--at least in the House--than in the past. Until now, the budget resolution could only set limits; none of its assumptions on what to cut or expand or drop to reach those limits had to be followed by the authorizing or appropriations committees.

Gingrich has enhanced Kasich's role in this whole process and has assured himself a loyal follower in Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., whom the House speaker elevated above four other Republicans on the Appropriations panel to be its chair.

Bundling Dollars

The word from the Budget Committee is "don't come to us looking to save programs; we intend to cut, consolidate, and eliminate." The Republican theme of driving decisions down to the local level is one with which few school administrators would disagree. Some GOP freshmen are saying, "Why don't we just roll up all the money that's tied to programs, eliminate the middlemen in the U.S. and state education departments, and send it to school districts in block grants?"

While appealing, this attitude is more likely to result in fewer total federal dollars to local education programs. For example, when this grand strategy was implemented in President Reagan's first year in office, education saw a net loss of several hundred million dollars. The Emergency School Aid Act to foster desegregation was dropped and, along with a couple dozen other programs, was consolidated into what we now know as Chapter 2. ESAA and the other programs that disappeared amounted to about $900 million. Today, Chapter 2, which has no real champion beyond school administrators and publishers, receives less than $350 million. In the end, the block grant hurt more than it helped.

Even if Congress were eliminate a lot of rules and give us large chunks of cash, we still will have the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a civil rights statute that local administrators must carry out, no matter how costly.

What will the future hold? Stay tuned; it's just beginning to get interesting. And while you're at it, make sure your own House and Senate members understand how valuable federal dollars are to your district and how you use them. When that key education vote comes up later this year, they'll remember their visit with you, especially if you take them to a school.