From the National Governors' Association, December, 2000.
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To help reach a compromise, Democrats said they may scale back their funding request for 2002, which begins Oct. 1, in exchange for a commitment to boost spending for programs that aid poor children in the next three years. Funding is the biggest obstacle facing the education bill, which supporters call the nation's most significant school reform effort in 35 years. Democrats had initially threatened to block debate on the bill until an agreement was reached with the White House on funding. Now Democrats say they will let the bill advance as early as Monday, confident enough Republicans will vote to boost funding on the Senate floor if the Bush administration balks at a deal ahead of time. Instead, it would allow students in failing schools to use some federal funding to pay for private tutoring and to transfer to another public school.