THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030552
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
School districts eager to join the Clinton administration's Goals 2000 program now may apply for grants even in states such as Virginia that have rejected the school reform program.
The potential for broader participation in Goals 2000 results from changes aimed at placating critics leery of federal meddling in education. The changes were part of the fiscal 1996 spending bill finalized last week.
This year, five states - Virginia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Montana and New Hampshire - have said they don't intend to ask for Goals 2000 money.
But the amendments mean local school districts can apply directly to Education Secretary Richard Riley for the Goals 2000 grants - as long as they have the nod of their state's education agency.
In Virginia, that might be tough; the state Education Department is dominated by appointees of Gov. George F. Allen, who adamantly opposes Goals 2000.
So two Democratic congressmen from Virginia, Reps. Lewis F. Payne Jr. and James P. Moran, asked Allen in a letter Thursday if he would now let school districts apply directly for Goals 2000 funding.
Goals 2000 gives money to states and communities working to set challenging academic standards, promote parental involvement, provide teacher training and make computers available to students.
In Birmingham, Ala., the interim superintendent of public schools, Edward LaMonte, said: ``We will leap at it. We are a financially strapped district. We have so many needs.''
The amendments, modeled after a bill introduced last fall by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., also eliminate the National Education Standards and Improvement Council, which was set up to certify and review voluntary state and national standards. Applicants also no longer must submit school reform plans to the Education Department.
Virginia's Allen says Goals 2000 gives the federal government too much say in Virginia's education system.
State legislators introduced a measure saying that if two-thirds of the state's 134 school districts passed a resolution expressing interest in Goals 2000, the state schools superintendent would have to apply for the money.
More than two-thirds approved the resolution, but the governor struck this language from state budget legislation. The General Assembly failed to override the veto.
In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Frank Keating initially welcomed the money, but then decided in February that he wanted to study the program and keep ``federal hands off our education system.''
``It's frustrating that the governor is a roadblock to the funds coming to Oklahoma,'' said Peg Vitek, a school board member in Stillwater, Okla. ``This would open up a whole new opportunity, something we would be able to do locally. I'm delighted to hear that it's not lost to us.''
In New Hampshire, at the urging of local districts, the state Legislature on Wednesday passed a measure to force the state to apply for millions of dollars in Goals 2000 money. House Education Chairman Nils Larson is challenging the governor not to veto the measure. Larson worries that districts would not have time to apply and receive money before the end of the fiscal year. by CNB