This Week
Washington Watch
final
clearance!
Voucher Wars
Court decision puts the school payment proposals
back on the front burner.
40:70%°"'
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
0
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n Monday, President George
W. Bush was in Cleveland,
and for the first time since
his inauguration, he was
talking openly about school vouchers.
The reason was no mystery — last
week's 5-4 Supreme Court vote
endorsing the pioneering voucher pro-
gram in Cleveland is expected to
reignite the voucher wars.
Bush touted vouchers as "a construc-
tive approach to improving public
education" and indicated that his
administration would seek to develop
and promote new voucher legislation,
now that the Supreme Court has given
the constitutional go-ahead for such
programs and laid out some markers
for their design.
But backers face daunting problems
in enacting new programs, including
state constitutional barriers, the politi-
cal realities of a divided Congress and
the inevitable bottom line of new pro-
grams at the state and federal level:
money.
"Almost every state legislature is try-
ing to cut education funding," said
Marc Stern, legal director for the
American Jewish Congress, which
opposes vouchers. "To add voucher
programs, you'll have to find extra
money."
Stern, who said voucher opponents
are "licking their wounds" after the
stinging defeat, also said numerous
states have constitutional provisions
that will make it much harder to enact
programs to help parochial aid stu-
dents.
In fact, 37 states, including
Michigan, have constitutional provi-
sions that could prove a big hurdle to
new voucher programs.
Nationally, political support seems
to be slipping even as the courts clear
the way for voucher programs and
other schemes for aiding parochial
schools. Voucher proposals have been
defeated in voter referenda in
Michigan and California; some polls
show a majority of Americans oppose
such plans.
On Capitol Hill, voucher backers
face a huge obstacle: the Democratic
Senate. For voucher supporters, "the
Senate elections this year are absolute-
ly critical," said one supporter. "You
have a House that is inclined to sup-
port vouchers, a Senate that is divided
and a president who would like to sign
a bill. Obviously, that calculus makes
this coming election particularly
important."
Richard Foltin, legislative director of
the American Jewish Committee,
another group that opposes vouchers,
said advocates are now scrutinizing the
complex court decision to "use it as a
road map for new 'proposals." That
means that at least in the short term,
new voucher programs will focus on
children attending the worst inner-city
schools, the target population of the
Cleveland program — although most
analysts say the court left the door
open to programs serving other popu-
lations.
A New Scenario
It wasn't supposed to work this way
for Yasser Arafat.
In the past, Washington would
make angry noises about Arafat's per-
formance or non-performance, the
Palestinian leader would promise to do
better and then go on signing the
checks for the suicide bombers and
gunners eager for martyrdom. And
then, Washington would say, "Never
mind, you're still our partner."
That doesn't seem to be happening
since President George W. Bush
demanded "a new and different
Palestinian leadership" as the price of
U.S. support for even a provisional
Palestinian state.
Over the weekend, a parade of top
administration officials hit the talk-
show circuit, indicating that even if
Arafat wants to climb back in the
diplomatic boat the administration
won't throw him any life preservers.
"The fact that the president is now
talking about cutting off (Palestinian)
aid shows that they're really serious,"
said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive
vice-chair of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. "There really has been
a change in thinking in Washington."
In his speech last Monday, Bush did
not mention Arafat's name, but his
top foreign policy advisers weren't so