Senate Panel Urges Approval of Bennett for Education Post

WASHINGTON —  The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee on Friday unanimously recommended the confirmation of William J. Bennett as secretary of education.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the panel’s chairman, said the full Senate could vote on the nomination as early as Tuesday.

The committee, made up of 17 senators, took the action in a poll without a formal meeting after a three-hour hearing on the nomination Monday.

Bennett, 41, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities since 1982 and a former philosophy teacher who also holds a law degree, has been an outspoken advocate of getting American schools back to the basics and colleges back to the classics and liberal arts.

President Reagan nominated Bennett on Jan. 10 to succeed Terrel H. Bell.

Bennett, in response to written questions from senators, defended Reagan’s plan to impose a $4,000 cap on the total federal aid--including loans, grants and earnings from college work-study jobs--any student could draw in a year. He also said the government must economize in the guaranteed student loan program, where Reagan reportedly will seek to deny loans in the 1986-87 academic year to all students from families with incomes above $32,500.