In a political about-face, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett has begun urging the White House to abandon its six-year effort to make huge cuts in Federal spending for education.

The policy reversal is designed to win Congressional support for changes the Reagan Administration seeks in such areas as student aid, vocational education and bilingual education.

”We’re revising our strategy,” Mr. Bennett said in an interview yesterday. ”It’s time for this Administration to get the credit it deserves for being a major force in educational reform.”

Mr. Bennett said that irritation at the level of the Administration’s budget requests had led Congress to disregard Administration ideas for educational programs.

‘We Want to Play’

”We go to play poker and ante up $15 billion, and they say you need $20 billion to play,” he said. ”We know we have a good hand, and we want to play.”

The figures were a reference to the department’s current $19.5 billion budget and to the Administration’s original budget request, which was $15.2 billion.

Department officials said Mr. Bennett had discussed his idea several times with Howard H. Baker Jr., the White House chief of staff. Mr. Baker, who as a former Senator is familiar with attitudes on Capitol Hill, was reported to be ”receptive” to the new approach.

Mr. Baker, who replaced Donald T. Regan as chief of staff in March, is also said to be more sensitive than his predecessor to the political benefits of education programs. In the last three months, President Reagan has made six visits to schools and colleges.

The Secretary has also reportedly discussed the policy shift with the Office of Management and Budget. Although no decision has been made there, an Education Department official said that ”indications are that the suggestions are being taken seriously.”

Mr. Bennett refused to confirm or deny the reports concerning talks with Mr. Baker or the budget office. ”I have made a point of not commenting on conversations within the Administration,” he said.

White House officials were in Vienna for the economic summit meeting and unavailable for comment. Edwin L. Dale Jr., spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, declined to comment on Mr. Bennett’s new approach. He noted that any decision on future budget requests for education would have to take into account spending limits imposed by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act setting out a timetable for a balanced Federal budget.

A Series of Losing Battles

Since coming into office in 1981, the Reagan Administration has fought a series of losing battles in education. None of its original policy objectives -abolishing the Department of Education, legalizing organized school prayer and enacting tuition tax credits for parents of students in parochial and private schools – have been achieved, and Congress has consistently approved budgets far higher than Administration requests.

Since 1980, the staff of the department has been reduced by 35 percent, from 6,900 to 4,500 employees, but the budget has grown from $14.2 billion to $19.5 billion, in large part because of action by moderate and liberal Republicans. Most of the spending increase has been in student aid.

The department conducts educational research and provides funds for bilingual education, remedial programs for disadvantaged students and programs for the handicapped. Its Office of Civil Rights is charged with insuring educational institutions’ compliance with civil rights statutes.

In January, the Administration proposed reducing the department’s budget for the 1988 fiscal year to $14 billion, from the current level of $19.5 billion. It is generally expected that Congress will approve spending of $20 billion to $21 billion.

Congressional Disregard

Staff members say that the department’s repeated clashes with Congress over the level of appropriations have caused many members to stop listening to the department’s ideas on educational policy. ”They don’t take you very seriously when you are coming up looking for 42 percent reductions in your budget,” Mr. Bennett said, referring to an Administration budget request in an earlier year.

Mr. Bennett has reportedly argued that in cases when the Administration sought to ”neutralize the budget issue” by not seeking large-scale cuts, it was able to have its ideas adopted. For example, Congress is expected to go along with proposals to give local school districts much more discretion in the methods used for bilingual education, a program for which the Administration has sought sustained funding.

Bennett Expresses Confidence

Staff members indicated that the department would like to propose a spending level of $19 billion to 20 billion for the 1989 fiscal year. This would be about the same as current spending, though it would constitute a reduction of 5 to 10 percent from the expected level for next year.

In the interview, Mr. Bennett expressed confidence that most of his educational ideas had widespread public support.

”I’ve criticized the quality of higher education from the very beginning, and now the No. 1 best-seller in the country – ‘The Closing of the American Mind’ – makes exactly that point,” he said. ”I’ve complained about the cost of higher education, and that is no longer idiosyncratic. I’ve talked about more choice at the elementary and secondary level. Now there are magnet schools all over the country.”

Mr. Bennett’s shift in budget strategy was met with little enthusiasm by some educational organizations. ”Why should we be grateful that he only wants to steal 10 percent of aid to needy students instead of 50 percent?” said Charles Saunders, vice president for governmental relations of the American Council on Education, a higher education umbrella group.

Mr. Saunders also called the shift a ”public relations effort” by Mr. Bennett’s staff. ”Howard Baker is a realist,” he said. ”I suspect he sent word that they would welcome a request for something more.”



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