Once Again, Tough Talk on School Spending

By Joetta L. Sack

Washington

Senate Republicans and President Clinton sparred last week over education spending priorities upon the release of the Republicans' five-year budget proposal, signaling the start of the annual battle of the budget.

At the same time, GOP senators failed to block a filibuster on a proposal by Sens. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., and Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., to allow tax-free savings accounts for K-12 education. Debate on the Coverdell measure, which will continue this week, also became tangled in larger questions about school construction funding--a Clinton administration priority for fiscal 1999.

The proposed Senate version of the budget resolution--Congress' nonbinding blueprint for federal spending levels for the next five years--would increase funding for special education and an existing education block grant program. Overall, though, the budget resolution laid out by the Senate GOP would closely follow last year's bipartisan funding agreement, leaving little leeway...