HASTERT SEEKS TO MAKE EDUCATION A HILL PRIORITY

'Not a New Passion' for Teacher-Turned-Speaker

The new House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, yesterday signaled a radically
different Republican approach to education, an issue Democrats have
successfully used in recent years to batter the GOP.

Hastert (R-Ill.), in his first public appearance since taking over
Wednesday from Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), used school events in Chicago and
suburban Elgin and Aurora to announce a $2.5 million grant to expand public
school drug and safety programs.

A former high school history teacher and coach, Hastert vowed to make
education a priority on the congressional agenda -- and to do it on a
bipartisan basis. "This is a time when we need to come together to get
results," the speaker told students at the Crawford First Alternative High
School in Chicago. "This is not a new passion for me."

As a negotiator in last year's end-of-the-session budget deal, Hastert
helped protect the school safety and drug money, aides said. As speaker, he
is determined to put Republicans aggressively onto the education issue, a
major concern for voters, by pushing programs to help both public and
private schools, give states more flexibility in the use of federal aid,
create new savings vehicles for education expenses and reform the major
federal school assistance program.

Hastert also plans to meet as soon as next week with Chicago Roman Catholic
Cardinal Francis George to explore ways to ease the financial crisis that
threatens a shutdown of some parochial schools.

Four years ago, when Gingrich led the first Republican majority in the
House in 40 years, the GOP unsuccessfully pushed a bill to abolish the
Education Department -- a stand the Democrats never have let the voters
forget. Last year, President Clinton scored more political points off the
GOP by making money for a start on hiring 100,000 new teachers his
bottom-line demand in bargaining over the budget.

Exit polls in last November's elections showed one-fifth of the voters
named education the most important issue; no other subject was mentioned
that often. Among those voters, 66 percent said they voted for Democratic
congressional candidates; only 32 percent said they voted for Republicans.

Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, said yesterday that many GOP
governors and gubernatorial candidates "either won on the education issue
or played it to a draw" with their Democratic opponents. "But on the
federal level, we're still trying to overcome the backlash for trying to
abolish the Department of Education."

Clinton, who has championed school programs since his first election as
governor of Arkansas 20 years ago, will push again this year to expand the
hiring of new teachers and provide federal aid for school construction and
modernization.

But Hastert, according to aides, is determined to match him step for step,
if not dollar for dollar.

On Thursday, Clinton was joined by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and the
chief executive officer of Chicago schools, Paul Vallas, at a White House
ceremony announcing that his new budget will call for tripling aid to
after-school programs, to $600 million.

Yesterday, Daley and Vallas were at Hastert's side as he delivered the
grant money. Daley, a Democrat who is friendly with the new speaker,
praised Hastert's assistance and Vallas said, "He's been there for us
consistently."

On Capitol Hill, aides said Hastert and Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.),
chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, plan to launch the
year with an "ed-flex" bill easing regulatory requirements on federal aid
programs, backed by governors of both parties, as a way of demonstrating
that education measures can attract bipartisan majorities.

Hastert, in his Wednesday speech accepting the speaker's gavel, threw his
support behind a bill that would consolidate 31 categories of grant
programs into a $2.7 billion block grant, with the goal of "getting more
dollars into the classroom." It passed the House last September but never
came to a vote in the Senate.

Republicans also plan to push initiatives creating tax-deferred education
savings accounts and voucher programs for low-income families to use in
sending youngsters to private and parochial schools. Both were strongly
opposed by the White House and most congressional Democrats in the last
Congress.

While Hastert emphasized education as "a bridge issue" between the parties
in his remarks yesterday, Republican political strategists said they are
also mindful of the political stakes in 2000 for the GOP.

Mike McKeon, Hastert's pollster, said after-school programs that provide
alternatives to street gangs are increasingly important to parents whose
working hours often do not coincide with the normal school day -- the same
point Clinton stressed at the White House on Wednesday.

Republican strategists also said the voucher proposal -- ardently opposed
by teachers unions allied with the Democratic Party -- gives the GOP a way
to reach Catholic voters, Latinos and middle-class African American
families who use -- or would like to use -- parochial schools.