On Tuesday the House and Senate ironed out the discrepancies between their versions of the Bush education bill, emerging with a unified plan that is likely to be passed Thursday and reach the president's desk shortly.

In a press release, the national gay rights group Human Rights Campaign praised the House-Senate conference committee on two counts. First, the committee kept alive a series of programs that help communities confront hate violence in schools. Second, the lawmakers took the teeth out of an amendment that would have required kids to get parental consent before using school health services. That amendment, sponsored by Reps. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., would have effectively prevented closeted gay kids from receiving counseling, STD treatment, STD screening and other kinds of help.

In the improved version, parental consent is not obligatory, but parents can voluntarily deny their children access to health services if they like. The amendment would have also required parental consent in order to respond to the sort of school surveys that track risky behavior among youth. Such surveys, HRC says, are essential in formulating HIV prevention programs aimed at teens.

HRC was disappointed that the bill retained a provision that appears to punish schools for keeping the Boy Scouts out of their facilities. Under this aspect of the bill, schools are allowed to refuse to sponsor the scouts, but if they try and ban scouts from meeting on school property, they can lose federal funding.

In practice, the language is a red herring, since federal law already prohibits schools from blocking access to a legitimate group, whether it's a Boy Scout club or a gay-straight alliance. Nonetheless, activists fought the provision on principle.

M.K. Cullen, director of public policy for the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), notes that the education bill was two years in the making, contains over 300 provisions and is the size of a phone book.

"Congress has one opportunity every five years to look at what's working and what's not working, and to make adjustments," she says. Like HRC, GLSEN was pleased that the hate violence programs were extended, calling that "a major victory."

But overall, Cullen was "disappointed that Congress didn't use this opportunity to put in place overarching, comprehensive protections for GLBT young people and staff." The bottom line, she said, "is that the government can be doing more than it's currently doing to protect the lives of GLBT youth."