Panel Clears Bush Education Plan

WASHINGTON – House lawmakers could debate President Bush's education package as early as next week, setting the stage for a clash over private school vouchers and a Republican push to give states vast control over federal education money.

The education bill, a centerpiece of Bush's domestic agenda, easily cleared the House Education Committee, which approved it 41-7, with few changes.

``This is representative of what the national consensus on education really is,'' Rep. George Miller of California, the panel's senior Democrat, said after Wednesday's vote.