Education savings accounts receive approval in Senate

WASHINGTON (BP)--Education reform legislation permitting tax-free savings accounts to be used for private schooling has cleared the U.S. Senate.

The Senate approved the legislation, which includes the education savings account plan, by a 56-43 vote. A conference committee will be named to work out differences between the Senate version and similar legislation passed by the House of Representatives in October.

The education savings account provision, with Sen. Paul Coverdell, R.-Ga., as chief sponsor, allows parents to place as much as $2,000 a year for a child in an account at a tax-free rate if the savings are used for education. This post-tax money could be used for kindergarten through 12th-grade students at private, religious or home schools, but it also could be utilized for such expenses as tutoring, uniforms or home computers for public-school students.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission endorsed the measure in August as one of its top 10 immediate legislative priorities. The proposal is consistent with a 1996 SBC resolution supporting parental choice in education, said Will Dodson, the ERLC's director of public policy.

"This will equip parents with a greater number of alternatives in their children's education," Dodson said. "For many, it may mean that they will no longer, as a practical matter, be forced to send their children to public schools that may promote values contrary to what is being taught in their homes and churches."

The Coverdell plan was rejected by President Clinton and removed from the budget deal last summer. The president has continued to signal his opposition. Some amendments added by the Senate probably increased the likelihood of a veto. Senators approved amendments prohibiting the implementation of Clinton's plan for national English and math tests, as well as removing federal control from education grants to state and local governments.

"I urge the president to review the legislation in its final form before making any decision about the substance of our proposal," Coverdell said in a written statement. The Senate vote "represents both a great victory for our nation's schools and a giant step forward in the journey toward genuine education reform. We are on the verge of providing desperately needed education assistance to millions" of families, he said.

Sen. Robert Torricelli, D.-N.J., cosponsor of the education savings accounts, and four other Democrats voted for the legislation April 23. All but three Republicans voted for it.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D.-Mass., called the reform legislation a "scorched-earth" policy by Republicans toward education and an attempt "to privatize" it, The Washington Post reported.

Another Democrat, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, said in defense of his vote for the bill, according to The Washington Times, "I have been voting for education funding for decades, but American students are still mired in mediocrity. This is a new approach and is entitled to be tested."

One of the opponents of education savings accounts is the National Education Association.