Congress puts spotlight on education issues

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- From prekindergarten to No Child Left Behind, from broadband-wired schools to college loans, students in every age group are suddenly finding the spotlight on Capitol Hill.

After months of relative neglect, education issues are getting the attention of lawmakers from both parties -- as well as President Barack Obama -- just as the school year is ending and, for many college students, the cost of education is about to go up.

Interest rates on new subsidized Stafford loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent if Congress doesn't act by July 1, but talks between Democrats and Republicans have largely broken down. The Senate yesterday failed to move forward with proposals to avoid that.

"Nobody's even sitting at the table. That's a problem," said Andrew Kelly, an education scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The Republican-led House already has taken action on loans -- and drawn a veto threat from Obama. The Senate took up student loans yesterday with competing Republican and Democratic versions of legislation but neither cleared the 60-vote threshold to move forward.

Just before the Senate began to talk about student loans, Senate Republicans introduced their rewrite of the sweeping education law known as No Child Left Behind. Two days earlier, Democratic lawmakers introduced theirs.

House Republicans, too, are planning their own version of No Child Left Behind in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been promoting Obama's early childhood program, although it seems headed nowhere. Obama has proposed working with states to set up programs for all 4-year-olds, and eventually all 3-year-olds, to prepare them for kindergarten.

In short: Scattershot ideas on education are tugging at Americans' attention and dividing Congress' priorities.

"You can't tell the bills without a program," said Terry Hartle, a top official with the higher-education lobbying group the American Council on Education.

Those are just the proposals getting serious or immediate consideration. Others -- Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's proposal to offer students loans at the same rates available to Wall Street, for example, and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's proposal to consolidate educational tax breaks -- are still sidelined despite fevered popularity among some constituencies in their parties.

Come July, college students will be hit with an extra $1,000 in student loan payments each year.