Burgeoning Budgets Put GOP in Unusual Policy Position

By Anjetta McQueen

Washington

Riding the wave of the gop 's congressional takeover in the 1994 elections and spurred by a budget-conscious House majority, Republicans vowed to streamline education and the rest of big government, even to the point of targeting 80 programs for elimination and threatening to abolish the Department of Education.

Nearly four years after the Republican majority took office, federal education spending has not only survived, it has grown--by nearly 38 percent since the fiscal 1996 budget, into a $33.1 billion discretionary-spending package for fiscal 1999.

Next year, the GOP will maintain its majority in the new 106th Congress and keep hold of the federal purse strings. But the Education Department has more funding than ever under a political party...