Informed Sources

Good Luck Implementing This One

Washington -- A federal report due out this week will call for schools to sharply extend the amount of time students spend on their studies so they can compete with pupils in Germany and Japan. According to a Clinton Administration source, schools will be asked to double the roughly three hours a day that most children spend studying core academic subjects such as reading and math; the study will also recommend extending the school year to 240 days from the current average of about 180.

A New White Knight for Health Care?

Washington -- Treasury Secretary LLOYD BENTSEN, who has been on the sidelines of the health-care debate for more than a year, has quietly begun to sound out Democratic elders and health-care interest groups in the event Congress can't pass legislation this summer. Bentsen has never been a fan of the grandiose Clinton scheme, and may help cut a deal if the committee chairpeople on Capitol Hill can't do it themselves.

David Gergen and the Perils of Party Switching

Washington -- Clinton adviser DAVID GERGEN, a former aide to Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, sat toward the rear with other members of the Democratic Clinton Administration at the funeral for Nixon last week. James Cavanaugh, also a veteran of the Nixon White House, playfully scribbled a note and passed it back to Gergen. It read,"If you had stayed with us, you'd be three rows closer to the front!"