Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, last week told members of the Committee for Economic Development that the Congress may need to protect education funding through innovative means.
Lawmakers should consider making education and early-childhood programs entitlements, the Senator said, adding that a tax levy could be dedicated specifically to education programs.
Noting the constraints imposed by the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, Mr. Kennedy said the Congress may want to consider establishing education-funding levels outside the regular process, the way the costs of the Persian Gulf war and the savings-and-loan bailout are being handled.
“We’re talking about taking the bull by the horns and raising this issue across the country,” he said.
Representative Steve Bartlett, a Texas Republican and member of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced last month that he will resign from the House to run for mayor of Dallas.
In his fifth term, Mr. Bartlett serves on the committee’s elementary and secondary, labor standards, and select education subcomittees.
Mr. Bartlett may leave soon, since the mayoral election is slated for May 4. But the vote may be delayed until November because of a legal dispute, in which case he could stay in the House for several more months.
Mr. Bartlett has been a strong advocate of using Chapter 1 funds to promote school choice.
Mahlon Anderson, an Education Department spokesman for former secretaries William F. Bennett and Lauro F. Cavazos, is now talking “suds” for the Beer Institute.
The former ed spokesman said he left the department when rumors of Mr. Cavazos’ departure began circulating. Soon after, he joined the Washington-based trade group representing the majority of the nation’s brewers.
Going from education to beer was not difficult, Mr. Anderson said, because much of his work deals with alcohol-education and abuse-prevention programs.
He dismisses critics who say beer ads target youngsters by enlisting athletes as spokesmen and by sponsoring rock concerts.
“If you look at all the advertising in the industry,” he said, “I don’t think anyone can say that it’s clearly targeting people under 21."--mp
