Schools Seek Bigger Share From Defense Budget Shifts : Funding: Newport-Mesa and Orange districts are among 2,000 urging Clinton to improve education.

Nearly 2,000 school boards across the country, determined to hold President Clinton to his promises to improve education, Friday called on the federal government to shift more money from the Pentagon budget to domestic needs.

The gesture--in the form of resolutions passed by the boards and sent to Washington--illustrates the mounting tension between high expectations for progress on the domestic front and President Clinton’s inclination to cut less from military spending than many of his constituencies would prefer.

“It is our hope that these resolutions will give Congress the will needed to listen to the people of America,” said Jonathan Kozol, author of the best-selling book “Savage Inequalities,” which describes the impoverished state of many of the nation’s schools.

“I’ve visited schools with rain barrels in the halls, with sewage backed up into classrooms, with classes of 45, 50, 60 students, and with students coping with 19 different teachers in 20 days. . . . It’s time to shift dollars from the shrinking needs of the Pentagon to the expanding needs of the classroom,” Kozol said at a press conference to announce delivery of the resolutions to the White House, Education Department and other agencies.

The effort was organized by the year-old Campaign for New Priorities, an organization hoping to persuade the federal government to spend more money on education, job training, the environment and the country’s roads and bridges.

The school boards’ plea came just days after Secretary of Defense Les Aspin proposed reductions in the Pentagon budget that roughly correspond to Clinton’s pledges during the campaign. But at the same time, the White House and members of the Cabinet have been sending out the message that the huge deficit will make investment in some domestic programs more difficult than expected.

The underlying message of the resolutions was, however, that with the Cold War over, the public wants more of their federal tax dollars returned to local communities.

Between 1980 and 1991, federal spending on elementary and secondary education programs dropped by almost 7% when using constant 1991 dollars--from $26 million to $24 million. During the 1980s, the percentage of the federal budget designated for education declined by about 50%. Although former President George Bush had promised to fully fund Head Start, a program for low-income preschoolers, in his fourth year in office only about 36% of the children eligible for the program were being served, according to one study.

The Clinton Administration has not announced its education strategy, but Clinton talked in campaign speeches about his commitment to reforming public schools. He emphasized establishing tough national standards, reducing the gap between rich and poor by increasing federal aid for low-income students, expanding decision-making powers at the school level and making schools safe for students.

While the school resolutions did not make specific demands, fully funding Head Start and improving school buildings were cited as high priorities.

Long Beach Unified School District, Newport-Mesa Unified School District and Orange Unified School District were among 58 California districts whose resolutions were part of a 3-foot by 4-foot pile of resolutions sent to Congress and the Administration on Friday.

The Long Beach school budget has been cut $40 million over the last three years, according to Marilyn Russel Bittle, executive director of the Teachers Assn. of Long Beach. “What we’re talking about is cutting essential services” such as school-building maintenance, she added.

“We’re such a long way from Washington,” Bittle said. “But we can see that people across the country are worried about public schools. If we all join together, then we will be heard.”

Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) acknowledged that public officials share guilt for society’s failure to give many children the education they need. “Typically, we’re hypocrites because we’re not investing,” he said.

In an example of the desperate needs of many of the country’s schools, Chicago Board of Education President Florence Cox said that the roof collapsed in one school in her city last year, and a stairway collapsed in another.

“For the last 12 years, the federal government has been shirking its responsibilities in providing equity and access (in education),” Cox said.

Greater federal investment in education, especially in poor communities, she said, is essential so that children can again sleep soundly “on the bosom of America, knowing that there will be a future for them.”

The oft-repeated excuse that there is not enough money to improve schools because of the huge federal budget deficit rings hollow for people who have seen the horrible conditions in many schools.

“If we don’t address this problem, we’re going to see dozens of explosions like we saw in L.A.,” Kozol said. By only responding to communities’ needs when there is a crisis, such as the Los Angeles riots, he added, “We’re teaching kids a terrible lesson that the only way they can make their point is by burning their cities.”

National education officials, such as American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker, National Education Assn. President Keith Geiger and the National School Boards Assn. added their support to the campaign.

“We must not miss an opportunity to free up federal dollars once needed to maintain America’s security and reinvest them in the fight to improve the education of our children,” Shanker said.