School disrepair isn't feds to fix

You would think the last election would have sent a clear message to members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle: The New American Majority wants a smaller, cheaper, less intrusive federal government.

Nevertheless, last week U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., called for increased spending in a new federal program to patch the roofs and fix the plumbing in America's public schools -- needs she found in a report she requested from the General Accounting Office. The recently released GAO assessment found that one-third of America's school buildings need repairs, renovations or modernization to ensure the health and safety of students or to comply with federal mandates. The price tag: $112 billion.

It doesn't seem to matter to Moseley-Braun that the federal government is broke. She has caught "programitis," a disease deeply rooted in the culture of Washington: Where there is a need, there must be a federal solution.

Those with educational programitis don