ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 25, 1996 TAG: 9611250198
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Associated Press
GOV. GEORGE ALLEN says there are too many strings attached to the federal education grant.
Virginia will lose $14.9 million over the next two years if state officials continue to snub the federal Goals 2000 program, according to new figures from the U.S. Department of Education.
The state already has turned down $8.4 million for the first two years of the education program.
Virginia is the only state that has refused to accept money under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which is intended to encourage education reform and higher academic standards in the states.
Virginia's Goals 2000 allocations - $1.7 million from fiscal 1994 and $6.7 million from fiscal 1995 - were redistributed to other states. Virginia has until June 30, 1997, to apply for its fiscal 1996 allocation of $6.2 million. But it won't, a spokesman for Gov. George Allen said.
The state could apply for the $8.7 million in fiscal 1997 money beginning July 1.
Allen's administration has maintained that there are unacceptable ``strings'' on the funds that would give the federal government too much say over Virginia's public education policies. The state Board of Education has followed Allen's wishes and voted not to apply for the funds.
In the first year of participation, states are required to report how localities spent the money and show how their efforts contributed to ``comprehensive education reform,'' said Jennifer Davis, special assistant to the secretary of education in Washington. Forty percent of the money could be kept at the state-administration level for planning.
After the first year, 90 percent or more of Goals 2000 funds must go to localities to implement their programs. Each state's education reform plans must undergo a ``peer review'' by a body of educators and others, or the states must otherwise provide ``assurances'' that they have reform plans, Davis said.
Virginia in the past year has implemented its own new, more rigorous academic requirements. In October, the education board chose a San Antonio testing company to develop new standardized tests for the state's 1.1i million public-school students. The General Assembly budgeted $12 million for the first six years of the new tests.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines KEYWORDS: 2DAby CNB