LEXIS-NEXISŽ Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXISŽ Academic

October 6, 1999, Wednesday NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Page A06

LENGTH: 862 words

HEADLINE: BUSH BLASTS REPUBLICAN RIGHT WING / REACHES FOR MINORITY VOTE

BYLINE: By Ken Fireman. WASHINGTON BUREAU

BODY:
Portraying himself as an innovative opponent of outmoded thinking in both political parties, Texas Gov. George W. Bush yesterday coupled a call for a major overhaul of federal education programs with a blast at the right wing of his own Republican Party.

"Too often, on social issues, my party has painted an image of America slouching toward Gomorrah," Bush said in a speech at a midtown Manhattan hotel.

"Too often, my party has focused on the national economy, to the exclusion of all else, speaking in a sterile language of rates and numbers. Too often, my party has confused the need for limited government with a disdain for government itself." And the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination used the first stop of his two-day visit to New York City to signal his readiness to compete for minority votes, something GOP candidates have often talked about but rarely done. Bush visited a new charter school in Harlem, where he won lavish praise from a prominent black Democrat, former Rep. Floyd Flake of Queens. Flake, still a political force in his home borough despite his retirement from Congress, stopped short of a formal endorsement. But he warmly introduced Bush at two campaign stops as a "homeboy" who had made great efforts to reach out to minority communities. Such efforts, Flake said, demonstrate "that no party has total control of any community in this country." Taken as a whole, Bush's day of campaigning in the city projected two interrelated political messages. The first was that he is determined to put distance between his own high-flying presidential campaign and the conservatives who dominate his party's congressional ranks but have alienated many swing voters. The second is that Bush is prepared to make a major effort to carry New York, which has gone Democratic in the last three presidential elections.

Bush used his morning tour of the Sisulu Children's Academy on West 115th Street, the first charter school to open in the state, as the springboard for a midday speech proposing fundamental changes in the way Washington provides financial aid to the nation's school systems.

He called for collapsing 60 existing federal aid programs into five broad categories of assistance and delivering the money to state governments with virtually no compliance requirements. In return for such streamlining, Bush said he would demand that all states administer yearly reading and math tests of their own choosing to every student from grade three to grade eight.

States that register improvements would be eligible for increased funding from a new $ 500-million pot of aid that Bush wants to create. States where test scores consistently decline would be in jeopardy of losing a portion of their federal funds. The money would go instead to support charter schools - schools that use public funds but maintain their independence from existing public school systems in order to experiment with innovative educational approaches.

Bush also proposed providing $ 3 billion in loan guarantees to fund construction of new charter schools. And he proposed that parents be allowed to contribute up to $ 5,000 annually into a tax-free account and use the money for any educational purpose, including private school tuition.

But Bush's education proposals were almost overshadowed by his criticism of Republican conservatives, his second such blast in recent days. Last week, Bush surprised and angered House Republican leaders by condemning their plan to delay payment of a federal tax credit to low-income workers, calling the proposed delay an unwarranted effort to "balance the budget on the backs of the poor." A senior Bush adviser strongly denied that there was any element of political calculation in the governor's new comments, noting that he has frequently talked about the need for Republicans to soften the harsh, strident image many voters have of them.

But the adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity, readily acknowledged that the effect of Bush's remarks was to draw a sharp contrast with both the Clinton administration - which favors national standards and testing and a continued strong federal role in education - and a Republican congressional leadership that is unpopular with many voters. "That puts him squarely in the center, which is not a bad place to be," he said. "That's where most elections are won." It is an especially handy place, the adviser noted, for a Republican in New York, where the party's southern-dominated congressional leadership has been particularly unpopular. A new poll released yesterday by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion showed Bush running even with Vice President Al Gore in the state but trailing former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) by 10 percentage points.

The poll, which was conducted Oct. 3-4 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points, put Bradley and Gore dead-even among Democratic voters, no change from last month but a big shift from the spring, when Gore led by a wide margin. Bush continued to dominate among Republican voters, but Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has moved into second place, supplanting Elizabeth Dole.

GRAPHIC: AP Photo- On a campaign visit to Manhattan, GOP presidential hopeful Texas Gov. George W. Bush, right, meets students of Sisulu Children's Academy in Harlem yes terday. With Bush, from left, Gov. George Pataki, former Rep. Floyd Flake, and the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker.

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