Aid Hike to Poorest Schools Planned : White House to Urge Punishing Those That Do Not Perform Well

The Reagan Administration in the coming months will seek to focus federal education aid on the nation’s poorest schools and to allow state officials to declare “educational bankruptcy” in schools where most needy pupils are failing, Education Department officials said Monday.

The Administration will also try again to create a type of educational voucher for the poor. It would allow local officials to give poor parents their individual share of the federal aid to use at the public or private school of their choice.

Those proposals will go to Capitol Hill in February as Congress begins to rewrite the major federal aid program for the nation’s public schools, a $3.9-billion-a-year legacy from the Great Society era. The aid subsidizes special remedial instruction in school districts in which a significant percentage of students come from impoverished families.

War on Poverty Program

Under current law, 70% of the nation’s elementary schools get a share of the funds, a system that originated with the War on Poverty in the mid-1960s.

“We need to get the money to where the kids need it the most,” said Education Secretary William J. Bennett, contending that federal funds are being spread too thin and should be directed to only the most impoverished areas.

Education Department officials who previewed the legislative proposal Monday said they believe that Democratic leaders in Congress will support the Administration plan to alter the aid program.

“We think there’s a bipartisan consensus that this money could be spent more effectively,” William Kristol, the department’s chief of staff, said. The Administration wants to reward schools in poor neighborhoods where children are making good progress and also allow state or local officials to take away special aid funds from schools where no progress can be seen, he said. In such cases, the state could contract with a local university or another school to provide remedial education for those schools’ students.

Lack of Penalties Cited

“If a program isn’t helping children improve their skills and performance, someone should be held accountable,” Kristol said, adding that the current law allows no incentives for success or penalties for failure.

The notion of “educational bankruptcy” for floundering schools was suggested last year by New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, and Kristol said the Administration proposes to give local or state officials the option of taking remedial education funds away from individual schools--but perhaps without publicly declaring them bankrupt.

The Reagan budget to be released next Monday will propose a $200-million increase in federal school aid for disadvantaged children, department officials added.

In the coming year, they plan to modify the controversial voucher scheme, which to this point has gained much attention but virtually no support on Capitol Hill.

Voucher Plan

Last year, Bennett proposed that the federal government give parents of needy students a voucher worth about $500 to spend on education at any public or private school, rather than having his department send that same amount to a public school in behalf of the student.

This time, according to Bennett’s aides, the department will seek the legal authority to permit local or state officials to adopt a voucher plan.

“This would not give parents a right to a voucher. It would give local school officials a right to do it if they determine that’s the best way to run their program,” Kristol said.

Last year, the nation’s big teachers’ unions and public school groups lobbied hard against the previous voucher proposal, saying it could harm the public schools. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles) also firmly opposed the voucher idea.

Hawkins could not be reached for comment Monday on the new proposal.