
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994                   TAG: 9408030077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL FUNDING BILL OK'D

UNLESS THE LEGISLATION is amended, schools could lose federal funding for distributing material or referring students to counseling in which homosexuality is considered acceptable.

The Senate adopted a $12.5 billion school funding bill Tuesday, but an anti- gay provision almost guarantees debate before the legislation becomes law.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was approved, 94-6, after almost three days of sometimes contentious debate that saw inclusion of an amendment that would cut federal funds to school districts that teach acceptance of homosexuality.

A conference committee must work out differences between House and Senate versions before the bill returns to both chambers for final passage.

``This legislation represents another main part of our efforts in this Congress to improve American education,'' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

Amendments that Kennedy added could provide the means for stripping out the anti-gay provisions pushed by Sens. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Bob Smith, R-N.H.

Their measures provide that schools that distribute instructional materials or offer counseling services portraying homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle or that refer students to gay organizations for counseling could lose their federal funding.

The senators denounced instructional materials used in social studies and sex education programs that teach about homosexuality as obscene.

An amendment sponsored by Kennedy forbids schools from using federal dollars for programs that ``promote or encourage sexual activity'' of any kind, whether heterosexual or homosexual.

Congressional aides said including that language was a parliamentary maneuver that would allow the Smith-Helms amendment to be removed from the bill.

``We are grateful that the Kennedy amendment provides an opportunity to keep Jesse Helms off the backs of the nation's public schools,'' said Doug Hattaway, a lobbyist for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation's largest gay-rights lobby.

The bill also would authorize $7.5 billion for disadvantaged students. More than 90 percent of school districts get money from the Chapter I program, although many poor students are not served because the money is spread so thin.

The Clinton administration sought to target the program to the neediest school districts, but it met resistance from members of Congress concerned that their districts would lose money.

by CNB