by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

WASHINGTON -- A House-Senate conference committee on Tuesday approved a compromise version of an amendment to an education bill introduced by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) earlier this year that would withhold millions of dollars in federal education funds from public schools that deny "equal access" to meeting space for the Boy Scouts.

"The language agreed to by the conference committee has no place in the education bill," said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political group. "We’re disappointed that a number of our allies voted for it."

Helms argued that schools throughout the country were seeking to penalize the Boy Scouts over the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay admission policies. He said the federal government should step in to "discourage" schools and school districts from taking such action.

The House and Senate each passed the Helms amendment in the spring.

Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) were among the members of the conference committee that backed the compromise.

"It’s not okay," said U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay. "I would have preferred not to have it at all. But it’s much better than the Helms amendment."

An official with Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, a gay litigation group, and the head of the D.C. office of the ACLU’s gay civil rights project, said the compromise could be harmful to gays because it sets a precedent that singles out the Boy Scouts for "special treatment" solely because of their "discriminatory" policies against gays.

The conference panel approved the compromise language as part of a sweeping education bill proposed by President Bush. The full House and Senate are expected to approve the compromise in separate votes during the next two weeks.

The compromise retains Helms’ language that would withhold federal funds from public schools or public school districts that deny "equal access" to meeting space for the Boy Scouts if the schools or school districts routinely offer similar space to other groups.

But the compromise language also states that schools are not required to sponsor Boy Scouts chapters, clarifying a concern by gay education groups that the original Helms amendment would blur the distinction between school sponsorship and access to meeting space.

The conference panel’s compromise rejected a separate amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), which the Senate passed on the same day it passed the Helms amendment. The Boxer amendment called for prohibiting public schools from denying equal access to facilities for the Boy Scouts and other groups based on those groups’ "favorable or unfavorable position concerning sexual orientation."

Unlike the Helms amendment, the Boxer amendment did not call for withholding federal education funds.

Gay advocacy groups favored the Boxer amendment, saying it was preferable because it didn’t single out the Boy Scouts for what the groups say is "special treatment."

Frank said an existing federal law that already bars schools from denying equal access to the Boy Scouts and all other groups, and noted that gay rights advocates never called for deny equaling access from the Boy Scouts.

"From a practical point, it has no effect," Frank said. "It was a victory for us to get the sponsorship issue cleared up."

But Buckel of Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund said the compromise language sets a dangerous precedent.

"It is now a special rights bill for the Boy Scouts," he said. "Schools that run afoul of this law will face the prospect of taxpayer funds being used to investigate them."