As governor of Delaware, Michael Castle started this state's school reform efforts. Now as our U.S. representative, he is struggling in Washington to forge bipartisan compromise on President Bush's education bill that is waffling its way through Congress. As chairman of the House subcommittee on education reform, Rep. Castle is second in importance only to Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who is chairman of the Education and Reform Committee and the floor manager of the bill. Mr. Castle's reputation in Delaware earned him that position. It has not been an easy task.
Liberals have the power to kill the bill if public school vouchers are included.
Rep. Castle eased them out in the House. Conservatives want to allow local districts to do anything they want with federal education money with what they disingenuously call the Straight A's amendment. Rep. Castle has beaten that one back too, but barely, to keep moderates and liberals behind the president's legislation. I programs for the poor. The idea was to give conservatives something without losing liberal votes, and to create a negotiating tool in a future conference committee to iron out differences between House and Senate versions of the bill.