School Daze
Education tops the "to-do" list for the new Bush administration, but whether school vouchers are part of the final outcome remains a huge political question mark.
This week, Mr. Bush is expected to send his education reform bill to Congress. While the president touted vouchers during the campaign, he's taken a somewhat muted tone on them more recently. Case in point: Rod Paige, the new education secretary, said during his Senate confirmation hearing that vouchers would not be a priority.
And at first, new White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card seemed to sidestep that controversial issue on CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday.
"We want accountability in the system, and we want schools to recognize they have a responsibility to teach students," Card said. "And if they're not teaching students, we'll find out, and then at some point, we may have to find other alternatives where students can learn, and that's where a system of scholarships might come in to provide students an opportunity to move to a different school."
But the Bush team is anything but ruling out vouchers, either.
"Let's put it this way," Card said. "Scholarships that allow students to get a good education are important, but first we want to measure the progress that the schools are teaching our students, we want to hold them accountable for the progress, we want to hold the schools accountable for teaching the young people in America. And if they're not doing a good job, we'll find other alternatives. One of them might be vouchers."
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., called it "good news" that Mr. Bush was taking up education as his first issue, but added a voucher program was "not something that we will agree with."
If education reform is the number one priority for the new administration, tax cuts appear to rank a close second. Already, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) and Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) are proposing a tax cut plan that's similar in size and in scope to Mr. Bush's trillion-plus package.
"This is a tax cut plan for America, and it's going to be across the board so every American can benefit, and we think it's the right thing to do not only to stimulate the economy, but most importantly, to offer a little more confidence to consumers," said Card in defending the administration's proposal.
On the regulatory front, Mr. Bush has been busy blocking the wave of last-minute executive orders by outgoing President Clinton. Those orders include environmental restrictions on runoff from animal feeding operations and more than 800 pages of new guidelines for managed care programs under Medicare. Card was asked on Face The Nation whether the Bush rollback would apply to the abortion pill RU-486.
"We're going to take a look at all of the regulations. We're going to take a look at all of the executive orders. We are going to be responsible about it. Thiis not a knee-jerk reaction to undo. Instead, it is a responsible review of what has happened..." adding "We are reviewing everything."
Finally, Mr. Bush will have to deal with the campaign finance reform bill co-sponsored by his one-time primary rival, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis. The president says reform must contain so-called "paycheck protection," giving union members the right to refuse to have their dues used for political purposes. Democrats and organized labor regard that as a "poison pill," arguing that it would be unfair unless stockholders had the same right concerning corporate political donations.
"I don't want to mislead you. The top priority is education," Card said. "We will also be talking about community and faith-based opportunity that comes in America and tax reform and military readiness. So, we have a lot of priorities that would come before campaign finance reform, but we do respect the leadership that John McCain has offered in this area."