PA. EDUCATION House, Rendell progress on talks

Both parties say final legislation could reach the House floor next week.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- House lawmakers and the administration of Gov. Ed Rendell are whittling down differences on an education package that have divided them for months and finding ways that will allow both sides to claim victory in expanding education funding.
While closed-door talks continue on important issues -- the amount of money to be spent and the types of programs to be funded, for example -- Democrats and Republicans have agreed on a conceptual model to fund the programs, officials say.
Democrats and Republicans say they are hopeful that legislation could reach the House floor as early as next week.
"I'm fairly confident that something can move, if not next week, then the week after," said Mike Manzo, chief of staff for the House Democratic leader, H. William DeWeese of Greene County.
'Reasonable' numbers
After months of sparring over the size of new education programs proposed by Rendell, House Speaker John Perzel, a Republican from Philadelphia, said that the Rendell administration has settled on numbers that he thinks are "reasonable" and could find a receptive Republican majority in the House.
Under the proposed funding concept, local school districts would have more latitude to develop new programs for which they would receive special state aid, and the neediest districts would get the most money. Republicans had criticized Rendell's plan for the state to choose which districts qualified for particular programs as a "cookie-cutter" approach, and pushed for a shift to local decision-making power.
Democrats said they want the list of eligible programs to be as close as possible to what Rendell has proposed, such as preschool programs in needy districts, teacher training, full-day kindergarten, and smaller class sizes in kindergarten through third grade.
A spokeswoman for Rendell, Kate Philips, said that the governor is amenable to a "hybrid" plan that includes his programs, pays out money in grants, and gives districts more control over the decision-making.
"We think it's doable," she said.
GOP proposal
Republican House Leader Sam Smith has proposed that the programs be those that would specifically help districts meet the benchmarks laid out by President Bush's No Child Left Behind program, which Manzo said gives the GOP "political cover" for spending money on Rendell's initiatives.
Republicans reject that interpretation, saying they passed an increase in the state's education subsidy in March before Rendell vetoed that appropriation from the $21 billion state budget that he signed, saying that he wanted lawmakers to act on his new education initiatives before he would release the money.
Republicans have resisted Rendell's proposals, saying that they are too expensive and would require a significant tax increase. Smith has proposed $50 million in funding, although both sides say that figure was simply a starting point for negotiations. Rendell has signaled a willingness to reduce the $560 million he originally wanted to somewhere around $400 million.
Hinging on the outcome is more than $4 billion in basic school subsidies, which have been overdue since the first round of payments was skipped in late August.