Lamar’s Choice

SHORTLY after George Bush released his America 2000 program for improving U.S. schools, Education Secretary Lamar Alexander trucked up to the Capitol for a meeting with Senate Republicans. He had just got Teddy Kennedy and Claiborne Pell to agree to introduce the Administration’s education bill. Forget about vouchers and national testing (the guts of the President’s program), Alexander told the Republicans. The idea was to get an education bill, any education bill, through Congress before the August recess, and neither of those provisions would get past Kennedy. But picture this, he told them: photo ops with Barbara Bush next year in front of the “New American School” in your district.

A pretty crass appeal, but then the idea of an education bill whose centerpiece is 535 New American Schools— one for every congressman and senator—speaks for itself. Of all those in the room (Senators Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, Thad Cochran, Dave Durenberger, Alan Simpson, Dan Coats, and Bob Kasten), the only ones to object were Coats and Kasten. Kasten likened the education bill to last year’s crime bill, where in the interest of getting something passed the Administration softened it, and the result was that the House liberalized it even further. But Alexander insisted: Ditch choice and national testing, push through a bipartisan bill, and then come back next year and ding the Democrats for dropping choice. Two days later Kennedy introduced the Administration’s package as S-1141.

WM

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William McGurn

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Department of Education

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Ronald Reagan

SHORTLY after George Bush released his America 2000 program for improving U.S. schools, Education Secretary Lamar Alexander trucked up to the Capitol for a meeting with Senate Republicans. He had just got Teddy Kennedy and Claiborne Pell to agree to introduce the Administration’s education bill. Forget about vouchers and national testing (the guts of the President’s program), Alexander told the Republicans. The idea was to get an education bill, any education bill, through Congress before the August recess, and neither of those provisions would get past Kennedy. But picture this, he told them: photo ops with Barbara Bush next year in front of the “New American School” in your district.

A pretty crass appeal, but then the idea of an education bill whose centerpiece is 535 New American Schools— one for every congressman and senator—speaks for itself. Of all those in the room (Senators Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, Thad Cochran, Dave Durenberger, Alan Simpson, Dan Coats, and Bob Kasten), the only ones to object were Coats and Kasten. Kasten likened the education bill to last year’s crime bill, where in the interest of getting something passed the Administration softened it, and the result was that the House liberalized it even further. But Alexander insisted: Ditch choice and national testing, push through a bipartisan bill, and then come back next year and ding the Democrats for dropping choice. Two days later Kennedy introduced the Administration’s package as S-1141.