Lamar Alexander: Who's In Charge Here?

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Lamar Alexander is used to cleaning up big messes. When he walked into the Tennessee statehouse in 1979, his first chore was to sweep up after the scandal-tainted administration of his predecessor, Ray Blanton. Last week the two-term former Governor and current president of the University of Tennessee took on another big political cleanup job. President Bush asked him to become Secretary of Education and revitalize that Cabinet post after the forced resignation earlier this month of the lackluster Lauro Cavazos. One of Alexander's first priorities, however, will be to help extricate his new boss from the political morass resulting from a highly controversial Education Department ruling restricting college scholarships for minority students.

The scholarship imbroglio so visibly unbalanced Bush -- and so glaringly spotlighted the Administration's inept handling of civil rights -- that it all but eclipsed Alexander's generally well-received nomination. The drama hurtled Administration officials into a rushed series of consultations. Result: a policy flip that flopped spectacularly. Civil rights leaders blasted the White House for threatening to slam expensive college doors in the faces of under- represented minority students. Conservative critics lambasted the decision for its failure to reject unambiguously racial preferences of any kind.

The crisis was touched off two weeks ago when Michael Williams, a mid-level Education official in charge of civil rights, announced a startling reinterpretation of existing federal anti-discrimination laws. College scholarships exclusively earmarked for minority students are illegal, he declared, and institutions that offer them may face a cutoff of federal funds. Colleges and universities around the country immediately set off alarm bells and sent the Administration scrambling to clarify a policy that Williams had apparently enunciated without consulting the White House.

Last week, after a high-level tussle in which staunch anti-quota advocates beat back more pragmatic advisers, the Administration trotted Williams in front of reporters to announce a tangled compromise: pending a four-year review, federally aided colleges may set aside some scholarships for minority students only if the awards come from specially designated private donations or federal programs -- but not if the money comes from the institutions' general operating funds.

At a news conference, the President explained lamely that the new policy would "continue these minority scholarships as best we can." But civil rights advocates and educational professionals immediately cried foul. The latest policy twist, they charged, was administratively unworkable, legally shaky and likely to invite endless litigation. Moreover, by outlawing the use of general funds, the ruling placed the largest source of money for minority scholarships off limits. "On issues of race and sex discrimination, Bush is merely Ronald Reagan in sheep's clothing," fumed Ralph Neas, head of the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.