Heritage Makes Its Mark In Education Debate

By Joetta Sack

When Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, strode to a podium at the Heritage Foundation headquarters earlier this year, he didn't plan to talk about the federal budget, foreign affairs, or any of the other policy areas with which the conservative think tank is traditionally associated.

Instead, the House majority whip urged the the audience of 100 or so neatly dressed, mostly young members of the audience to support legislation to reform child-abuse and foster-parenting laws. And he had an underlying message as well: Conservatives should claim a constructive role in such areas as education and children's health, where liberals have usually led the way.

"We have let the liberal paradigm define the debate, and the result is the false stereotyping of conservatives as disinterested in the suffering of this nation's at-risk...