Republicans: Department Is Lagging on ESEA

By Joetta L. Sack

Washington

The Clinton administration may be falling behind in the crucial task of drafting legislative language to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act this year.

The Department of Education does not expect to release its ESEA proposal until mid-March, although Congress began hearings on the reauthorization late last month. Some Washington education analysts say that's bad timing, because Republicans will have finished their framework for the legislation without input from the administration.

"They better they get a bill up there soon–the longer they delay, the more they allow the action to get away from them," said John F. Jennings, the director of the Center on Education Policy, a Washington research group. Mr. Jennings was a longtime aide to Democrats on...