Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993 TAG: 9304220070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Republicans were quick to note similarities to proposals made by the Bush administration, but there was one big difference: President Clinton's package does not include vouchers that parents could use to pay for private schools.
That school-choice plan was a central element of President Bush's ideas on education, but he could not get it enacted.
Clinton's plan, "Goals 2000: Educate America Act," also proposes a council that would certify that states are meeting standards and another board to develop national standards for job-training programs.
Education Secretary Richard Riley said that the package, to be introduced in Congress this week, will focus on such things as "improved professional development for teachers, increased parental and community involvement, increased flexibility from burdensome regulations," and greater accountability for schools.
The Bush White House worked with private groups to develop standards in mathematics, science, English, history, civics and the arts. The National Association of Teachers of Mathematics completed its work in 1990; an estimated 40 percent of the nation's schools have implemented at least part of its recommendations.
House Republicans, citing similarities to Bush's America 2000 program, pointed out that Clinton's plan would write into federal law the six national education goals that resulted from Bush's education summit with the nation's governors.
"I am pleased to see the Clinton administration continuing George Bush's efforts to undertake school reform by submitting a revised version of his America 2000 proposal," said Rep. William Goodling of Pennsylvania, ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.
However, he said, the Goals 2000 proposal "needs some improvements before I can lend it my full support."
Goodling said he had questions about the "opportunity to learn" standards, which he said "could lead to the federal government dictating how schools will teach."
To meet those standards, schools would have to offer students a core curriculum and certain learning aids, and give teachers opportunities to enrich their skills.
Carroll Campbell, a Republican who succeeded Riley as governor of South Carolina, said, "This country had better be careful about the federal government taking over the education system and dictating the curriculum."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., praised the package. He will be its primary Senate sponsor.
The idea of national standards enjoys broad support among educators, but some fear local officials would lose the freedom to decide how best to educate children.
Educators also had feared the package would include national testing, but it does not.
"I want to make it clear that we're not proposing in any way national testing," Riley said.
Nor does the plan address funding equalization.
Riley's assistant, Mike Cohen, said, "The issue is not how resources would be allocated within states."
But there was a behind-thescenes disagreement over this issue between governors and Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee.
Committee members objected that early drafts of the bill did not require states to equalize school spending between school districts in rich and poor communities. Governors, on the other hand, were concerned that the bill's first draft would have required states to spend hundreds of millions of state dollars to equalize funding in return for a few million federal dollars.
State and local communities would design their own strategies for meeting goals, and another national panel would monitor whether they met them. The plan relies on public pressure to force schools to improve.
by CNB