School Voucher Bill to Aid Children of Poor Unveiled

The Education Department unveiled a proposal today to authorize--but not require--local school districts to give parents of poor children vouchers to pay for remedial classes.

The plan, a restructuring of the $3.9-billion program that provides remedial education to about 5 million children, would leave the controversial question of voucher payments to local authorities.

The proposal also would target the remedial money to poor schools, in the process taking funds away from some middle- and upper-income neighborhoods.

And, it would require state education authorities to grade local districts on how well they are succeeding in overcoming educational handicaps.

Effective Use of Funds

“This bill is a serious attempt . . . to say we do know something about what works, that we can use the money more effectively,” said department Chief of Staff William Kristol. “It’s a serious attempt to take some of the things we know about social policy and embody those in a legislative proposal.”

The Education Department now spends $3.94 billion to help educationally disadvantaged children, most of them poor.

Bruce M. Carnes, the department’s deputy undersecretary for budget, said the department will seek an additional $200 million for the fiscal year beginning next October, allowing another 400,000 children to attend remedial classes.

But Kristol said department officials and many in Congress feel the program also needs restructuring to make it more effective.

Optional Vouchers

One section of the bill revives, but only as an option, Education Secretary William J. Bennett’s controversial proposal to give parents vouchers worth $500 to $600 that they could spend on either private or public remedial classes. Congress has firmly rejected the idea in the past.

Local authorities could try the voucher system, called “compensatory education certificates,” if they believe it is the best way to serve their students, Kristol said. He noted that current regulations forbid the use of education vouchers at all.

“It doesn’t authorize any parent to demand a certificate,” he said. “There is no right to a voucher in this bill. We’re just not precluding local authorities from doing it, and that just seems sensible.”