Financial Aid for Children of Poor Urged : Education Chief Asks for Funds to Help Parents Pick School

Secretary of Education William J. Bennett today asked Congress to give vouchers worth an average of $600 yearly to parents of poor children so they can shop for “the best possible schools for their children,” public or private.

Bennett said vouchers could improve opportunities “for millions of young Americans.” He predicted that the vouchers would spur “a healthy rivalry” among public and private schools to provide a better education for the poor.

“This is a good thing,” Bennett told a news conference. “It will lead to better education services for these children and greater opportunities for them later in life.”

The $3.6 billion in federal remedial aid called Chapter One funds would still flow to public school districts, but parents would have the right to demand that the school issue them a voucher worth up to $600, provided that they paid that much for tuition or remedial education or both.

School of Their Choice

They then could take the voucher and spend it at any public or private school they choose.

Local school districts would decide how many disadvantaged children to serve and would set up income cut-off levels for those receiving the vouchers. The amount of the vouchers would vary, depending on how much a district had to spend per child.

The proposal, called The Equity and Choice Act (TEACH), is the latest, and perhaps the most controversial, step in the Reagan Administration’s efforts to give parents more choice in education and to make public schools compete for children.

Much of the bill’s language is directed at ensuring that vouchers are not used to pay for tuition at any private school that practices racial discrimination.

To qualify, the private schools would have to file “a verified statement” that they have “not followed a racially discriminatory policy during the previous 12 months.” The attorney general would have “exclusive authority” to investigate them.

Given New Impetus

The voucher idea, long championed by conservative critics of public schools, was given new impetus by the recent Supreme Court decision, Aguilar vs. Felton, that barred public schools from sending teachers into parochial schools to conduct remedial classes for disadvantaged children.

The law still requires the government to provide remedial services for eligible parochial school children, but the 5-4 high court ruling last July forced public and parochial school administrators to scramble for new ways to deliver the services outside parochial schools.

The Rev. Thomas Gallagher, secretary of education for the U.S. Catholic Conference, said his group “welcomes the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts” to strengthen “parental choice and responsibility” in education.

But National Education Assn. President Mary Hatwood Futrell called the proposal a sham.

She said it “will not help the parents of disadvantaged students and will not improve public education. What parent earning $12,000 to $14,000 a year will be able to use a $600 voucher toward tuition of $3,400 in a public school or over $8,000 in a private school?”