Bush impatient with Congress on education bill

Bush says Congress needs to get busy because officials such as the ones with him Thursday have "got plans to make for the public school children of America."

By Ian Christopher McCaleb
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush leaned on the House and Senate Thursday to bridge their differences quickly on his long-prized education reform proposals and get a bill to his desk.

Appearing briefly on the South Lawn of the White House after a 30-minute meeting with a handful of governors and local school officials on the status of the stalled legislation, Bush approached a microphone bank and strongly urged the Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate to get to the negotiating table and finish their work.

The House passed its education bill on May 23. The Senate, which had just come under Democratic control, passed its version in mid-June.

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Conference committee members from both houses have yet to take up the differences in the bills. Such negotiations are necessary to produce a compromise version agreeable to each chamber that would then go to the president.

The process has been stalled by the Senate's high-profile consideration of the patients' bill of rights and the weeklong Independence Day break.

"Members of Congress are enjoying the holiday week at home with their families," Bush said. "But when they come back, there is going to be a lot of work to do.

"I urge Congress to come back and work hard to reconcile any differences that may exist between the House and Senate bills, and get a bill to my desk quickly," Bush said. "It is important to do so."

Gesturing toward the dignitaries assembled behind him, Bush said the local school officials in attendance needed to know as soon as possible what kind of structural changes they would have to implement if the bill becomes law.

"They've got plans to make for the public school children of America," Bush said. "If the rules are to be changed in a constructive way, Congress must act quickly so people at the local level can plan."

Members of the Senate return to Washington on Monday to a week of debate that will include consideration of a supplemental spending bill for the current fiscal year. The House returns Tuesday for an ambitious week's schedule that will include consideration of campaign finance reform.

The House-Senate education conference presumably will also get down to business. This will mark the first time in recent years that a Republican House will have to engage in a high-level negotiating session with a Democratic Senate.

The differences between the two bills are not viewed as contentious -- save for an extra $1.5 billion dollars in spending called for by the Senate.

The House bill calls upon schools to certify their students are proficient in English after they have logged at least three years in U.S. classrooms. There is no such language in the Senate bill.

The House has called for a block-grant system that would allow states to use their federal education dollars as they see fit, as long as they sign pledges guaranteeing that state test scores will demonstrate a steady curve upward.

Democrats, fearing the money will not be applied to education priorities, have resisted the idea of block grants since the Republicans came to power in early 1995, arguing the federal government must monitor how federal funds are put to local use.

Bush, decrying what he has called "the soft bigotry of low expectations," has promoted reform of the public education system as one of the most pressing priorities of his young administration.

He argues that low expectations by local school officials and the larger education infrastructure have resulted in school systems promoting many children not competent at their own level.

Bush has called for a testing regimen to help get lagging or failed schools on track, saying student proficiency in reading and math must be measured so parents will know whether their children are advancing equitably -- and so school administrators will know if their teachers are performing up to locally established standards.

The tests would be administered every year to children in grades 3-8 and would be developed by local systems in consultation with the U.S. Department of Education. High school students would be tested once, and schools that do not improve in the short term would be granted higher levels of federal aid.

If those same schools do not register significant improvement after three years, however, they stand to see much of their federal money stripped away and given to parents, who could choose to have their children tutored, or send them to charter schools or to better-performing public facilities.

After three years poorly performing schools also run the risk of a complete shutdown, to be reopened later with a new staff.

For the most part, the House and Senate bills remain true to Bush's original intent.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, slammed Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, for the slow progress on the education package.

"By failing to act on President Bush's bipartisan education initiative, the Senate Democrat majority is holding up the most sweeping reform to our nation's educational system in decades," Lott said.

Following his remarks, Bush jetted off to his family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. He will maintain a low profile there through the rest of the holiday week.