FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 31, 1997
CONTACT: Kristin Hansen, (202) 393-2100
FOR RADIO: Rebecca Biles
BAUER REBUKES SENATE FLIP-FLOPPERS WHO
PUT PARTISANSHIP AHEAD OF CHILDREN'S
EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
WASHINGTON, D.C.-"This is a sad day for American families and American education," Family Research Council President Gary Bauer said Friday. "A coalition of six Senate flip-floppers, President Clinton and the liberal education establishment are responsible for torpedoing an initiative to provide much needed educational opportunities to children in grades K-12."
Bauer made his remarks after the Senate voted 56-41 in favor of Senator Coverdell's A+ Education Accounts, four votes short of cutting off a filibuster. Senators Joseph Biden (D-Del.), John Breaux (D-La.) Tom Harkin (D-Ia.), Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) contradicted their earlier support for the A+ legislation by siding with the education establishment on this crucial vote.
"As columnist Charles Krauthammer eloquently stated, 'the great crisis in American education is not at the university level. It is at the elementary and high school levels, where thousands of kids -- particularly inner-city minority kids -- are getting educations so rotten that their entire life prospects are blighted," Bauer said.
The Coverdell bill would expand the scope of existing education savings accounts, already used for college expenses, by allowing parents of K-12 students to withdraw funds that accrue tax-free interest for school-related expenses like tutoring fees, services for students with special needs, school uniforms and transportation costs. Any individual or business would be allowed to make annual contributions up to $2,500 per-child to the account of a child who attends a public, private, parochial or home school. The legislation has already won strong approval in the House.
Bauer, who previously served as Undersecretary of Education in the Reagan administration, noted that the Coverdell proposal "offers increased educational opportunities to children of every race, faith and economic background. That's something that every member of Congress should support," Bauer said. "This most recent capitulation to the education establishment is particularly disturbing."
"Contrary to Mr. Daschle's disingenuous claim, germane amendments would have been allowed even if the Daschle- Clinton-Education Establishment filibuster had been stopped," Bauer said. "A successful vote would have allowed the Senate to move forward on this important legislation while precluding the introduction of unrelated killer amendments."
Bauer thanked Senators Bob Torricelli (D-N.J.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) for resisting pressure from their party's leaders and voting to cut off the Daschle filibuster. He also commended Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, along with Jim Jeffords of Vermont, for reconsidering their earlier opposition to A+ accounts and voting in the affirmative today.