Meet the New Chairman of the Senate HELP Committee

Its official: the Democrats have taken control of the Senate and are in command of Congress for the first time in 12 years. Get ready for more reshuffling on Capitol Hillnew Senate leadership means new committee control and new committee chairmanships.

But the Senate has a lot more experience in this arena than the House. A split Congress after the 2000 elections led to 17 days of Democratic control in January 2001, followed by a swap when Cheney was sworn in as Vice President, followed by Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords leaving the GOP to become an Independent and tipping the Senate back to the Democrats, followed by Republicans regaining power in 2003.

So the staff and Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) are prepared. Theyve been through this before. Theres no question that many of the new subcommittee chairs will be old subcommittee chairs.

But it begins with the big chair to be populated by Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, the 43-year, now 8-term Senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy became Chairman of the full education committee in 1987, and held that post for 8 years. He assumed it again between 2001 and 2003 when the Democrats retook the Senate. (Disclosure: Higher Ed Watch staff used to work for Kennedy, so were fond of him.)

Known as the Senates "liberal lion," Kennedy is one of the countrys most visible and vocal Democrats. Hes been a public figure since before most bloggers were born and is a big-time fund-raiser for the Democratic Party, and not coincidentally, the Republican Party.

But the image of Kennedy as an unyielding liberal doesnt tell the whole story. His skills as a cross-aisle negotiator and deal-maker have enabled him to become one of the most prolific and successful legislators in history. The man is responsible for every major civil rights bill of the last 41 years, all enacted with bipartisan support. Hes responsible for Meals on Wheels; the childrens health insurance program, created with Republican Senator Nancy Kassebaum; the Direct Loan program, created with Republican Senator Dave Durenberger, and the list goes on and on and on. He even authored the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.

The best example of Kennedys legislative skills in education rests in passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). One of NCLBs principal architects, Kennedy overcame opposition from both Republicans and Democrats to pass the bill. Some have argued that the K-12 struggle isnt so much inter-party as intra-party, and in 2001, Kennedy convinced the vast majority of his fellow Democrats to join his side while also cobbling together a deal that could buy in a majority of Congressional Republicans.

Whats ahead for the new Chairman and the HELP committee? His biggest obstacle will be the reauthorization of NCLB. Kennedys goals for the new legislation include: support for struggling schools, enhancing the quality of assessments, creating national benchmarks to upgrade state standards, better supporting teachers with high-quality professional development and more pay, and offering schools incentives to extend learning time. And of course, theres funding to make it all happen.

As for higher education, Kennedys also got a lot hed like to do. The Higher Education Act needs to be reauthorized. Theres plenty left to revisit there from Kennedys perspective, like a broad expansion of student aid, including increasing the Pell Grant.

First off though (after hiking the minimum wage), Kennedy probably will work to garner support for the 2006 Democratic campaign plan to cut the student loan interest rates in half. It wont be easy. But well have some recommendations for the Senator and others as to how to make that happen. The costs are not as much as some would have you believe, and remedying a variety of student loan inefficiencies can pay for it.