The Nation : Extensive Education Bill Clears Senate

The Senate passed a broad education bill that renews and expands programs affecting most of the nation’s schoolchildren. The bill renews federal education programs until 1993, increases spending for some of them and authorizes several new programs. Among other things, the measure, which was approved 97 to 1, authorizes $400 million for a new compensatory education program for secondary school students and $100 million over five years for a “star schools” program to support education by satellite. The House passed a similar measure last spring. Senate passage of the bill came only after the chamber agreed, 98 to 0, to an amendment from Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to prohibit dial-a-porn services, in which a caller pays to hear sex-oriented messages, over interstate telephone lines.