Hawaii reps help urge
GOP to fund schools

By Pete Pichaske
Phillips News Service

WASHINGTON -- Hawaii's Sen. Daniel Akaka and Rep. Neil Abercrombie joined about 60 of their congressional colleagues and President Clinton yesterday at a White House rally aimed at pressuring the Republican-controlled Congress into freeing more money for public schools.

"Just one day, that's all we ask," said Clinton, repeating the mantra of the Democrats, who want the GOP to set aside one day before the session ends later this month for Congress to vote on educational proposals. "We have the resources. What we need is the will."

Vice President Al Gore recited a litany of specific problems facing old and overcrowded schools he has visited -- including Honolulu's Aliamanu Elementary School, which he toured during his August vacation in Hawaii.

"The electricity goes out every week at least once a week," he said. "The issue ... is whether or not our generation is going to do right for the young people today."

Specifically, the Democrats are pushing a package of Clinton proposals that, among other things, would issue $22 billion in interest-free bonds to renovate and build 5,000 schools and allocate $12 billion to hire 100,000 teachers.

Abercrombie said Hawaii would receive $41 million for school repair money, enough to add 117 classrooms, and $3 million for new hires, enough for 80 teachers. Both, he said, are badly needed in Hawaii, with its aging schools and climbing student population.

"We face a problem that will mushroom into a crisis unless we act soon," he said.

Akaka said: "In the few remaining days before adjournment, the Republican majority should stop trying to run out the clock and devote one day to legislation to strengthen our public schools and assure our children a world-class education."

The Democrats' pleas, however, seem destined to fall on deaf ears.

Rep. William F. Goodling, R-Pa., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, dismissed Clinton's proposals in a statement as "duplicative government programs, unfunded education mandates and more federal regulation." Goodling, whose committee has jurisdiction over the Clinton proposals, listed 21 initiatives House Republicans have passed this session, including the Higher Education Act, $500 million for special education and Head Start funding.

"We're doing a lot, but we're doing nothing with his ill-conceived policies," Goodling said.