First lady makes education `her issue'

Laura Bush selects a natural cause that's serious, uncontroversial

WASHINGTON - It is the rite of passage for all first ladies: picking the personal cause.

Yesterday, Laura Bush joined in the tradition, announcing early childhood education as her signature issue and promising to use her celebrity to promote it.

She marked the occasion at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Hyattsville with a speech, a visit with students and an enthusiastic reading of the book "If You Give a Pig a Pancake."

With flashbulbs popping, Bush stepped into her shoes as national education pitchwoman with the poise of a glammed-up substitute teacher, smiling in a periwinkle blue suit under a sign promising "Reading is Fun."

Bush is taking her cues from the era before Hillary Rodham Clinton, picking a cause that is serious but not controversial, significant but nowhere close to policy-making. Bush, who campaigned as a traditional spouse, took an issue few could argue with - and in case they might try, left her event yesterday without taking questions from the news media.

Unlike other first ladies, who often struggle to find just the right cause, this one is a natural for Bush, a one-time public school teacher and librarian. A devoted reader who promoted reading when her husband was governor of Texas, she reinforces President Bush's efforts to portray himself as an education reformer.

While her husband can argue with critics over the wisdom of school vouchers and the size of the education budget, the first lady made it clear yesterday that her goal is to avoid political warfare and dole out inspiration instead.

"You don't hear often enough how much we appreciate you - I know, because I've been there," she told teachers. "What you do in the classroom determines the future for your students, and for our country."

Bush's cause echoed that of her mother-in-law, former first lady Barbara Bush, who raised $1 million for a literacy foundation that she created and once was voted most popular woman in America during her White House tenure.

But the political spokesmodel role can be tricky: Nancy Reagan ditched her foster grandparent program when no one paid attention to it; Lady Bird Johnson called her environmental efforts "beautification" to avoid seeming too political; and Jackie Kennedy was called elitist for choosing White House preservation as her issue.

"You've got to be very careful what you pick," says Lewis L. Gould, a University of Texas emeritus professor of history who wrote a book about first ladies. He even sees danger in education, a seemingly innocuous topic.

With the president and Congress likely to clash on portions of his education plan, Laura Bush could find herself dragged into the policy debate whether she likes it or not, says Gould. "Whether literacy will have the same benign nature that it had with Barbara Bush remains to be seen," he says.

Laura Bush outlined a series of appearances that she hopes will focus attention on her cause. She says she will recruit future teachers at colleges and on military bases, and will enter a classroom as a volunteer during "Teach for America Week" in October.

"Her job is to make people really believe that George W. Bush really cares about education," says Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at the University of New Orleans. "With the Bushes' education initiative, you're seeing Laura Bush nicely complementing her husband - not trying to achieve some sort of political gold star for herself."

First ladies have been known to rocket past their husbands in terms of popularity. By 1992, as her husband was trying futilely to get re-elected, Barbara Bush was voted No. 1 in a Gallup poll choosing the most admired women in America.

But forays into public policy can be hazardous for first ladies. Rosalyn Carter was criticized for spreading herself too thinly over too many issues - helping Cambodian refugees, addressing mental illness and more. Pat Nixon struggled to gain publicity for her cause - volunteerism - and it fell flat.

Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton are viewed as the most activist first ladies, but others have tried to influence policy through back channels. Lady Bird Johnson's highway beautification campaign resulted in a bill that aimed to remove billboards marring the countryside. The cause landed her a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine depicting a billboard that read "Impeach Lady Bird" - a cartoon in which she was said to take pride.

For anyone struggling with an image problem, a cause can be a godsend. Nancy Reagan, criticized as too regal and suffering poor popularity ratings, found some relief with her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. It hardly mattered that many drug-abuse prevention professionals criticized her ideas.

As for Laura Bush, even though the cause she has settled on involves an issue that has been an enduring concern of hers, it also underscores her intention to stay away from controversy

"Nobody's against better education that I know of," says Betty Boyd Caroli, who has written a book about first ladies. "This idea of Laura Bush and education is about as safe as it gets. Right up there with apple pie."