GOP Urges Private-School Tax Breaks

The Republican sponsor of a bill to provide tax breaks for parents of children in private schools asked Americans to tell President Clinton his opposition to the idea is wrongheaded.

“With your help, we can convince him to put the interests of school kids ahead of the special interests that oppose parents’ rights in schooling,” Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia said Saturday in the GOP’s weekly radio address.

During budget negotiations in July, Clinton warned in a letter that he would veto the balanced-budget agreement if Coverdell’s proposal were included. The plan would allow parents and grandparents to contribute up to $500 per child per year to an education savings account similar to the individual retirement account.

The account could have been used to help send children to private school, from kindergarten through high school, or to pay the costs of home schooling.

“I would veto any tax package that would undermine public education by providing tax benefits for private and parochial school expenses,” Clinton said then.

But Coverdell urged the public to help change the president’s mind. He portrayed Clinton’s veto threat as “a sneak attack, almost a Pearl Harbor for education reform.”

In response, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Clinton “supports school choice within the public school system” and “has been a leader in the charter school effort.”

Lockhart denied that the president acted sneakily. “Our position was well-known and was made clear under the bright sunshine of the balanced-budget negotiations,” he said. “The letter was requested by the Republicans late in the process, but our position’s been consistent and clear all along.”