Finally, a good fight
GARRETT, MAJOR
Finally, a Good Fight by Major Garrett Something refreshing is afoot in Minnesota. Republican governor Arne Carlson is in a knockdown-drag-out fight with the Democratic legislature over his plan...
...The proposal would give any family with an income of up to $39,000 a refundable tax credit of $1,000 per child per year, up to $2,000, for expenditures to improve the child's knowledge of subjects required for high-school graduation...
...In the next breath, though, they argue that the credits and deductions are a step toward dismantling public education...
...The governor has vowed to veto the entire $6.7 billion education budget unless the Democrats relent and give school choice to parents throughout Minnesota...
...Carlson also wants to let parents deduct the cost of a home computer and educational software...
...I find it appalling," he says, "that the president of the United States and the vice president want to celebrate their right to send their children to private school but deny others the same choice just because they are poor...
...House speaker Carruthers "knows" it is the supporters' intent "to set up a parallel system that ultimately replaces public education with a system that receives superior funding...
...What Carlson is up to is waging the most important battle for school choice in the nation...
...Carlson and the Democrats began negotiations last week, but no swift resolution is expected...
...The education lobby approached me in 1990 and wanted to know if i'd accept their support," Carlson recalls...
...Following this revelation, Carlson asked the legislature in 1995 to provide state education vouchers to poor children...
...Because the governor is fed up with what he calls the "education cartel...
...With the help of Tim Sullivan, press secretary to Vin Weber when Weber was a GOP congressman from Minnesota, the governor settled on his package of refundable tax credits for lower-income families and tax deductions for the middle class...
...These arguments, broadcast in massive media campaigns funded by the NEA, doomed school-choice referendums in Colorado and California and have scared off numerous Republican governors and members of Congress...
...The more i thought about it, the more I began to figure out that [the education lobby was] not that supportive of reforms that would actually help children...
...Education deductions already exist, but they are worth far less: $650 for children in grades K-6, $1,000 for those in grades 7-12...
...Says Tim Sullivan, "This is a test of wills between the broad public and the teachers' union's hammerlock on the Democratic party...
...The outcome in Minnesota could have a dramatic impact on the future of school choice...
...flute lessons, soccer camp, and self-esteem seminars would not...
...I don't understand why it hasn't gotten more national attention," says Chris Pipho, of the Denver-based Education Commission of the States...
...But instead of accepting defeat, Carlson set about devising a plan that could win middle-class support and sidestep church-state issues liable to land it in the courts (the fate of voucher programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee...
...Except that they aren't...
...He has pointedly declined to sip the tepid tea of bipartisanship with Democrats protective of the status quo in education...
...Even with the subsidy, poor families can't afford private school, and middle-class families that want to send their kids to private schools already do—and buy them computers as well...
...When the Democrats killed the plan in mid-May as the legislative session came to a close, Carlson demanded they debate it anew in a special session, now looming...
...That made life impossible...
...By threatening to veto the education budget, says Carruthers, the governor is trying to push through "something that he could not get from the legislature were it evaluated on its own merits...
...Minnesota voters bought the lobby's line that education spending is a zero-sum game and that vouchers for the poor would shortchange middle-class kids...
...But after i became governor, all i was pressured for was more money, more money, and more money...
...The Democrats and the Minnesota chapter of the National Education Association are astonished by Carlson's newfound passion on school choice...
...It's about protecting public schools from any encroachment...
...The defeat was reminiscent of many suffered by the school-choice movement...
...A Minneapolis Star-Tribune poll showed 68 percent public approval...
...But if the credits and deductions won't work and won't help anyone, how can they destroy the public schools...
...So far, the scheme has attracted much more public enthusiasm than Carlson's voucher idea ever did...
...Both sides have drawn a line in the sand on this one...
...The union interest is first...
...We have a videotape where he denounces using public money for private religious schools," says a genuinely confused Judy Schaubach, president of the Minnesota Education Association...
...So why pick a fight over school choice—a sticky wicket anywhere—in a state with an abiding affection for public schools...
...I don't know of any governor who has tied together the issue as Carlson has...
...That's because this is a zero-sum game," says Phil Carruthers, speaker of the Minnesota House...
...Tutors, educational summer camp, private school, and classes taught by qualified instructors would qualify...
...The $150 million for the credits and deductions would be taken out of the public education funding...
...The opponents argue that the credits and deductions are really disguised vouchers...
...Carlson's tax-credit and deduction proposal, introduced as an amendment in April, lost in the Senate 4023, only one vote short of the 24 needed to sustain a veto of the education budget...
...If the Democrats refuse to include his credits and deductions in the next version of the education budget, Carlson is confident the House will sustain his veto and that eventually the Democrats will have to blink...
...A pro-choice Republican who has signed gay-rights legislation and drastically boosted education spending, he keeps his distance from social conservatives and has never been supported by his party's nominating convention...
...The state education lobby endorsed him in 1990 and donated $60,000 to his campaign after he promised to oppose the use of public funds for private education...
...Republican governor Arne Carlson is in a knockdown-drag-out fight with the Democratic legislature over his plan to devote $150 million to tax deductions and credits for parents seeking alternatives to public education...
...Those numbers, however, have not translated into support in the legislature, where Carlson's plan was defeated in the education committees of both chambers on party-line votes of 9-5...
...i wish i knew what he was up to...
...That simply isn't true...
...After pro-plan commercials ran on radio and TV, state legislators begged Minnesotans for School Choice to end their campaign because calls in support of the governor were disrupting business...
...His critics, then, detect no hidden scheme to advance his political interests...
...Voters were also genuinely concerned about the blurring of church-state separation implicit in tax-funded vouchers' going to church-run, as well as secular, private schools...
...His gambit confuses his opponents on many counts...
...Yet when it comes to arguing the matter on the merits, Carlson's opponents have trouble maintaining a coherent line...
...There is a kind of pretense that to them kids are first...
...Major Garrett wrote about GOP strategy in our May 5 issue...
...First they contend that the tax credits and deductions won't help anyone...
...At the time, i was not in love with vouchers...
...He leaves office in two years, has no detectable senatorial ambitions, and is by no means presidential timber...
...So his concern really isn't about a zero-sum game...
...For that matter, the speaker admits he would oppose Carlson's credits and deductions even if they were pure add-ons to a bill that "adequately funded" every conceivable education need in the state...
...A deduction—allowing them to shield a sum from taxation—is not the same as collecting taxes and giving them back in the form of vouchers that must be used for private education...
...The credits and deductions are not going to have a widespread impact," says MEA president Schaubach...
...This Carruthers reluctantly concedes...
...The governor is adamant about the tax credits for poor families...
...He will accept no bill that excludes them...
...To sweeten the pot for the middle class, Carlson proposes a deduction of up to $1,950 per child in grades K-6 and up to $3,000 per child in grades 7-12 for the same educational expenses...
...If nothing else, the example of a Republican governor who, upon suffering one defeat, regrouped and fought again should invigorate a GOP congressional leadership bent on unilateral surrender on this issue and so many others dear to fiscal and social conservatives...
...The credits would be indexed to inflation and would reduce a family's tax burden dollar for dollar...
...The proposal attracted virtually no support and quickly died...
Vol. 2 • June 1997 • No. 38
