Congress and School Reform

Congress is joining the school-reform movement. The lawmakers feel that too often local schools fail to find tutors or make other changes when students do poorly in reading and math. Congress thinks local school districts and state education departments should step in when students test results drop in a school. So it is writing changes into the federal education-funding law to encourage stronger steps to get grades up. The House may take up the measure on Tuesday.

In the past, Congress has resisted dictating classroom guidelines for fear that states and local school boards would claim federal interference. There will still be some of that, but the authors of the pending legislation have tried to anticipate it by not defining the kind of outside help to be given.

The law would require of local schools receiving federal money for remedial programs that their students show progress. If students’ test scores go down and not up, the schools must work first with their districts’ administrators to draw up a plan for improvement. That might involve special instruction outside of regular classes for individual students or it might involve new reading programs for an entire class. But that’s up to the local school and the district administrators. If scores don’t improve after a second year, then the stateeducation department must join local administrators in the effort.

The bill contains another new approach as well. Rep. Bill Goodling (R-Pa.) suggested that young children sometimes don’t do well in school because their parents didn’t do well. Their mothers and fathers may be illiterate. His solution: Teach the parents to read in a program that is also helping their children get ready to start school. This program, dubbed Even Start, begins with a modest $50-million authorization for demonstration programs in each state. The bill, now in conference committee, should sail through Congress. But it may be different when legislation to finance the program appears in a few weeks.

If every eligible student were to participate, the total package of federal aid would come to $16.3 billion a year. This bill authorizes spending that much, but Congress has been appropriating--that is, actually spending--about one-third that amount. This year $6.5 billion was appropriated for these programs, and the House budget resolution for next year calls for an increase of $1.2 billion.

Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Robert Stafford (R-Vt.) have worked hard to bring the bill this far. Their efforts should yield tangible results for America’s children.