Senate leaders wrangle over education dollars

WASHINGTON – On the eve of the Senate debate on funding for education, Democrats and Republicans are still hung up on whether to increase spending for the Department of Education by the $4.6 billion President Bush wants or by the $13 billion Democrats want.

After meeting Tuesday with Education Secretary Roderick Paige, Republican senators, including Sen. Susan Collins, defended the president’s proposal and said that increasing money won’t necessarily improve test scores.

“Secretary Paige made the point that despite substantial increases in funding over the past 20 years, test scores have remained flat,” Collins said. “The White House wants to make sure that the funding increases are coupled with the reforms in this bill.”

Democrats have threatened to use a Senate procedure that would delay any votes on education if the White House declines to negotiate on spending levels. But congressional aides said they were confident an agreement could be reached late Tuesday. The main focus for Democrats is funding increases for Title I and improving teacher quality through training programs.

Collins said she’s pushing for more money for Title I, money that goes to schools with high populations of children of low-income families. But she said it was unclear how Senate leaders and the White House would tackle money for special education.

“We’ve come a long way because we’ve reached agreement with the White House and with the Democrats on a lot of the policy levels,” she said. “The funding ones are obviously more difficult to resolve.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe also attended the policy luncheon with Paige but was unavailable for comment afterward.