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American Morning

President Bush's Battle with Congress Over Education Reform

Aired December 27, 2001 - 07:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So what are some of the other major issues we missed while we were busy covering the military campaign in Afghanistan. One of them, President Bush's battle with Congress over education reform and joining me now to talk about that in Washington, Ron Brownstein, political columnist for "The Los Angeles Times". His "Washington Outlook" appears every Monday and in Crawford, Texas, CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett.

Ron, let's begin with you. It wasn't a voucher bill, but there are an awful lot of tests that have been mandated. What's it all going to mean for students and parents?

RON BROWNSTEIN, LOS ANGELES TIMES: Well Miles, you know this year education started off as President Bush's top domestic priority. That's what he said when he took office and by the time it passed, we were all looking elsewhere but a lot of families are going to feel the impact of this bill, which the president is going to sign into the law early next year.

That groan you're hearing is students reacting to the news that over the long run it's going to mean a lot more tests. Under the bill every state is going to have to test every student in reading and math in every grade from three through eight and states are going to be rewarded based on how students do.

Now the interesting thing about this bill is that it sets up a system by which schools are going to be judged on the results of those tests and schools that are seen to be not improving student performance, a variety of things are going to happen. The schools are going to face new responsibilities and parents are going to get new options including if the school fails to improve student performance long enough, parents are going to get money for after-school tutoring; for summer school.

They're going to have the option to transfer their kids to other public schools and eventually the school is going to have to do what's called reconstitution, which means basically firing the staff. So this federal bill is a little unusual in that the impact is going to be felt not only by the professionals - not only by the administrators and the teachers and the principal, but by parents themselves, are going to see some direct impacts in the options that are available to them and their kids.

O'BRIEN: All right, everything but the vouchers, though. The vouchers meaning the ability to take your child and go to a private school. Let's send it down to Major Garrett in Crawford. I'm curious Major if that is a stinging defeat for the president not to get that in that bill, or is this something that they're willing to declare victory on?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Miles, the president has always considered himself a realist when it comes to education reform and as he realistically assessed his chance of dealing with democrats and republicans in Congress on the issue of education, he knew he was going to have to give in some areas.

Now some conservative republicans believe the president gave too early on the whole question of vouchers. But the president and his advisers did not want the education debate to become one about vouchers - that they knew that that issue had not quite matured, it hadn't reached the level of public acceptance to things like accountability had.

So the president wanted to lead the issue of accountability and that's what Ron is talking about with this new testing mechanism. And one interesting thing I want to relate to you Miles is that one of the fascinating debates going on within the Bush White House right now at the senior level is how to remind the country about this education bill.

The White House is fully aware that the media has essentially overlooked this story. So in early January the president is going to travel a good deal, have some education events. They're also deciding well where should we sign this bill; should we sign it in Washington to underscore the presidential - the president's role in putting this through or should we sign it somewhere else out in the country to underscore the fact that this is a reform for everyone.

Those kinds of things are being worked through now, but the White House is definitely drafting a means by which to remind the country over and over education has passed. The president was a big push behind that passage and that things are going to change for the better.

O'BRIEN: Another issue to bring out in this Ron, is the fact that there is no mandatory testing for teachers. In other words, schools are held accountable for the performance of their children, but teachers individually are not. Now that's a lightening rod issue always, isn't it?

BROWNSTEIN: Well it is and in fact, though, there are provisions that they are requiring new teachers to be what's called highly qualified over the next few years, putting pressure on states to ensure that the new teachers they bring into the classroom are certified. Now that's going to be difficult to do and practice in many of the big cities where you have these big increases in enrollment.

You know Miles right now we have more kids in (INAUDIBLE) education than at any time in our history, even more than the height of the baby boom - some 53 million kids. So finding the teachers to deal with all of that is going to be challenging. At the same time, the bill does I think make an important step in the area of Title One. Title One is the biggest federal education program, about $9 billion a year -- the money that we give to low-income communities to help deal with the special challenges of educating kids from low-income families.

Now that bill - that money often has become more of a jobs program for adults than an education program for kids, and one of those sort of hidden things in this bill is putting pressure on states and school districts to hire more qualified - hire people with more qualifications in the classroom when using that money. And that could be a hidden benefit for a lot of families in the long run out of this legislation.

O'BRIEN: Major, back down in Crawford there, I'm just curious with this bill passed, what's next for the administration? What do they intend to try to fix in education or will they leave it be for a bit?

GARRETT: Well there's a couple of things the administration knows it's going to have to confront as the continuing education debate goes on. First of all it's going to have to prepare the country for the kind of changes that Ron has already outlined. They also knows that the democratic senate particularly is going to come back at the administration wanting more money for special education - children who have extra special needs.

The republicans generally support that. The White House supports it and it was that disagreement over exactly how much to increase that funding that held the bill up until late in this first year of the 107th Congress. The White House knows it's going to have to revisit that and the White House eventually is going to try to get back to the voucher issue. But first of all it's going to prepare the nation for this massive new education bill; also debate special education needs for children who have those needs and democrats particularly in the senate who want to fund them.

O'BRIEN: All right Major Garrett, some commercials headed down the track here at CNN. We appreciate it. Ron Brownstein with "The Los Angeles Times". Thank you both for shedding some light on education, another story we haven't spent as much time talking about of late.

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