Opportunists seek to exploit disaster

Pressure is growing inside the Beltway to turn the wrecked Gulf Coast region into an ultraconservative petri dish for free-market “solutions.” Plans already are being drawn up behind closed doors, without any input from those who suffered in the states affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Wall Street Journal reports that 40 members of a conservative congressional caucus met to map out their strategy in a closed session at the Heritage Foundation on Sept. 13—before the levees of New Orleans were secure—and were almost giddy with the prospects. “The desire to bring conservative, free-market ideas to the Gulf Coast is white hot,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) told the newspaper.

The choir book they’ll most likely be singing from is what the Heritage Foundation calls “From Tragedy to Triumph: Principled Solutions for Rebuilding Lives and Communities.” The group is promoting school vouchers, tax breaks, cuts in federal domestic spending, limits on victims’ rights to sue, and gutted or weakened wage, antidiscrimination and environmental laws. Where to start? “Eliminate any entitlement expectations for disaster relief,” the group suggests.

Sounds like a plan—but not one the other side of the aisle will warm up to any time soon. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, says the plan must be rejected. “A second, ideologically driven abandonment of public responsibility in this region would be intolerable.”

Congress is considering a budget reconciliation bill that calls for deep cuts of at least $36 billion and possibly up to $50 billion in critical federal safety-net programs to purportedly reduce the deficit. Some of deepest cuts proposed—a staggering $10 billion—would come student loans and higher education programs. The AFT has joined with national student organizations and other groups to fight the proposed budget reconciliation in the U.S. House of Representatives. A number of Republicans in both chambers have said they’re uncomfortable passing a  bill that would harm low- and middle-income students in the wake of  disasters. Given this, we have a real chance of knocking this bill off of the remaining agenda for 2005.

We need your help now, to fight these cuts in the House. For background information, go to www.aft.org/higher_ed/washwire/aid_raid.htm. Then, talk to your representatives and secure their commitment to oppose any budget that makes such severe cuts to student aid.

The AFT has written to U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings expressing its concern over the makeup of a commission charged with carrying out the department’s newest initiative, called “A National Dialogue: The Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education.” The goal of the initiative, Spellings said when she announced it on Sept. 19, is to “develop a comprehensive national strategy for postsecondary education.”

The commission is to be chaired by Charles Miller, a private investor, who is the former chair of the board of regents at the University of Texas system. In addition, the 19-member commission includes seven business leaders, four former college presidents, a former governor, two for-profit education executives, education association executives and two higher education scholars.

But, as the AFT says in its letter, “while the commission includes one or two distinguished faculty members, we are concerned that it does not include leaders of organizations such as ours that represent thousands upon thousands of college faculty members...”

Due to the pressing matters of hurricane disaster relief and the Supreme Court appointments and confirmations, Congress voted to extend the Higher Education Act to Dec. 31. The AFT legislation department has heard that lawmakers are likely to pass another extension of the bill through March 2006.