By Anjetta McQueen
AP Education Writer
Friday, Sept. 24, 1999; 5:50 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON –– Giving parents vouchers for private schools doesn't mean abandoning public education, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told congressional leaders interested in replicating his state's program at the federal level.

"There should be zero tolerance for failure," said Bush, whose state is the first to give parents money that can be used for private and parochial schools.

Parents whose children are in low-performing schools must be given options, but those schools must not be neglected, Bush told the House Budget Committee on Thursday.

Though similar proposals died in the Senate, a majority in the House has always been willing to consider the idea of federal public funds for private schooling. Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, who chairs the budget panel, said plans like Florida's "are able to rescue the public education system, by giving a failing school the resources – and time – necessary to right itself."

Under the state law Bush signed in June, schools are graded on an A-to-F scale based mostly on students' state test results in reading, math and writing. Students in schools graded F for two out of every four years could go to private school with the tax dollars that would otherwise go to the public school. The amount could range from $3,000 to up to $25,000 for a child with special needs such as one with a physical disability.

This year, 78 schools with 61,000 students, got Fs. But just two schools were chosen for the voucher plan. Bush said that the 134 children who used the vouchers had a range of abilities, which he said debunks the theory that vouchers take the best students from public schools.

"The reaction to our plan has been fun to watch," said Bush, adding that failing schools get funds for after-school programs, class-size reduction and extended-year schooling. "You have dramatic reform in schools where children have not been learning as well."

Education Secretary Richard Riley strongly criticized the idea.

"There's the belief that all you have to do to fix public schools is to leave them behind and subsidize private education instead, that there is some kind of parallel universe of superior private schools ready to take on the job of educating 46 million public school students," Riley said in his testimony. "Well, I'm here to tell you that there is no such parallel universe. The only way to fix the public schools is to fix the public schools, not to abandon them."

Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, criticized Republican funding of education: "The House leadership has had a rhetorical support of education, but there has been little in the way of actual support. You need only look at this year's flat funding for the education budget."

Bush's brother Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the GOP presidential hopeful, has proposed giving federal money for poor children to their parents. Parents unsatisfied with their schools could use the money for tutoring or toward a public or private education.

Jeb Bush defended Florida's plan, noting he also gives those schools that get an A grade incentives up to $100 per student to spend as they see fit. Some education and civic groups have charged the plan violates church-state separation laws and takes needed public funds from public schools. A pending lawsuit by the NAACP and the state teachers' union is aimed at eliminating the program.