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Washington Watch

Bargaining Chips?

The voucher ploy; the embassy, still,- Holocaust posts.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

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my days after his inaugura-
tion, President George W.
Bush has offered an educa-
tion reform program that
includes school vouchers. And a divid-
ed Jewish community is gearing up for
what promises to be a vigorous battle.
On Tuesday, Bush announced a
$47.6 billion education initiative that
includes yearly testing in math and
reading and greater flexibility for local
school districts, as well as a nationwide
voucher program targeted only at par-
ents whose children are in failing or
persistently dangerous public schools
— and only after the schools have
been given time to improve.
"These are not the kind of vouchers
that have been promoted by conserva-
tive Christian groups," said John Green,
a political scientist at the University of
Akron who studies the religious right.
Orthodox Jewish groups say they'll
support the proposal — even though
it is not all they had hoped for.
Nathan Diament, director of the
Orthodox Union's Institute for Public
Affairs, said targeting families and
children who need help the most was
an appropriate place to begin."
The Bush proposal is "an entry way
into vouchers," said Marshall Breger, a
law professor at the Catholic University
of America and a vocal voucher sup-
porter. "There are some who say that it
w,, , i•t help Jewish day schools, and that
the Jewish community should not sup-
port it. But I think that's unfair; even if
day schools aren't helped, we have a
moral responsibility to help these chil-
dren in failing schools."
Liberal Jewish groups are likely to
support elements of the overall plan
while fighting vouchers.
The American Jewish Congress,
while criticizing the voucher proposal,
praised Bush for acknowledging "the
role of the federal government in edu-
cation, rather than leaving it to the
states and localities," and praised the
emphasis on fixing failing schools.
Richard Foltin, legislative director of
the American Jewish Committee, said,
"N.,ue don't like provisions that include
vouchers. But there are other elements
that we are likely to be more favorable
about." Fighting the targeted voucher

"

plan will be more difficult, he conceded.
Some suggest that vouchers may be
a bargaining chip that Bush will use to
advance other elements of the package.
"He needed to include vouchers to
satisfy the religious conservatives who
supported him," said political scientist
John Green. "But a lot of people think
he'll end up bargaining it away for the
things he really cares about."
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), co-authors of a
competing Democratic plan that shares
many elements with the Bush proposal
but omits vouchers, said they expect the
administration to give up vouchers in the
interests of an overall plan that is likely to
garner broad support.
"I just don't think President Bush's
education proposal, which has many
good parts to it, will pass with the cur-
rent voucher part in it," said Lieberman
— who has supported smaller voucher
demonstration projects.

The Embassy, Still

Jewish Democrats plan to make hay
over a campaign promise by President
George W. Bush that nobody expected
would be kept, at least fully.
In campaign appearances before Jewish
groups, Bush promised to "begin the
process of moving the U.S. ambassador
to the city Israel has chosen as its capital"
immediately after his inauguration.
Pressed on the issue only days after
Saturday's inauguration, White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer insisted that the
process of evaluating the embassy move
was underway, but offered no details.
"What the president announced in
May was that we would begin the
process of moving the embassy, and he
has — the various agencies involved
are aware of that, and we will start
looking at that process," he said.
But he refused to give reporters any
time frame, or details of what that
evaluation process might entail.
Preident Bill Clinton, too, promised
a reevaluation of the issue after the
Camp David summit — but apparent-
ly never acted on it.
Jewish leaders are hopeful, but few are
buying plane tickets to attend the dedi-
cation of a new embassy in Jerusalem.
"He has promised to study the issue,
and we believe he has set that in
motion," said Malcolm Hoenlein,
executive vice-chair of the Conference