The Week

President Clinton’s strategists are wondering how he can get a bigger bump out of Haiti and Iraq. Maybe if he were to move to Haiti or Iraq?

The Republican wall of obstruction wasn’t solid enough. In the last week of Congress the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was re-authorized, mandating that states adopt federal “content” and “student performance” standards in order to get federal aid. Also nesting in the bill’s 1,000 pages is plenty of other nonsense and waste: a “Gender Equity Act” mandating that teachers be trained in “gender equitable teaching and learning practices,” a grant for a non-profit organization to conduct scholar-athlete games, hate-crime prevention grants, etc. Former Bush Education official Chester Finn was the first to sound the alarm on the bill, followed closely by former Education Secretaries Bill Bennett and Lamar Alexander. But their efforts came too late. Senator Dan Coats (R., Ind.) sought the votes for a filibuster, but he failed when enough Republicans were persuaded by Ted Kennedy and Co. that their states wouldn’t lose federal money. Rest assured: the money will now be available to miseducate your children.