Wilson Says He May Block Reform Aid for Schools : Education: Five county districts are in jeopardy of losing up to $900,000. Governor cites too many federal strings as reason for action.

About $900,000 in federal grants slated to beef up math instruction in Newbury Park, prepare Simi Valley preschoolers for kindergarten and increase literacy among poor students in Ventura are in jeopardy because Gov. Pete Wilson has threatened to block their distribution, officials said Thursday.

Wilson, in a recent letter to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, said he would withhold funds for a national education reform effort called Goals 2000 until Congress has reviewed the program.

Goals 2000 has become a target of conservatives hoping to trim the federal government’s influence over public education. Congressional action is pending to eliminate funding altogether, said Terry Emmett, a state Department of Education consultant.

Wilson, a Republican contender for the White House, may be trying to avoid the appearance that Goals 2000 is another Big Brother layer of government, said Jackie Richardson, a Simi Valley education consultant.

“The perception is that the federal government is going to tell you what your schools should look like and what should be taught,” Richardson said.

The governor’s action means the money may never reach local public schools, Emmett said.

“Even if [the state Department of Education] gets it, he can block its distribution through the Department of Finance,” Emmett said.

In Ventura County, that would mean the elimination of money intended for five school districts--Conejo Valley Unified, Simi Valley Unified, Oxnard Union High School, Ojai Unified and Ventura Unified.

Those districts were slated to receive a combined $407,040 for the 1995-96 fiscal year. But the Department of Education has already informed school budget managers that it has authority to pass along only 40% of those funds, Emmett said.

The remaining 60% of this year’s grant and all of the funds slated for 1996-97, totaling $895,488 for the two-year period--are being held up by the governor’s office, she said.

In his letter to Eastin, Wilson said he is concerned that there are too many strings attached to the federal money. He said Goals 2000, started under the Bush Administration and expanded by President Clinton, would weaken state control over schools.

“What started as a hopeful partnership has deteriorated into a myriad of federal dictates,” Wilson said in the July 20 letter. “We do not need federal micro-management of California’s education reform efforts.”

But Pat Chandler, Ventura Unified School District’s assistant superintendent of education, has a different take on Wilson’s motive.

“Oh, we’re running for President, aren’t we?” Chandler said. “I mean, this sounds like Republican Party rhetoric.”

Goals 2000 was signed into law in April, 1994, by Clinton. The act provides $700 million in federal funds in 1995 for those states and school districts that voluntarily adopt eight federal standards for improving education.

Those goals include the objectives that by the year 2000 “all students will be competent in core academic subjects” and that “the United States will be first in the world in math and science.”

The law also establishes three national panels, one to assess efforts to achieve the goals and two others to establish academic and vocational standards.

House and Senate conservatives who were swept into power in the 1994 midterm elections have blasted the initiative as wasteful, saying it adds another layer of unneeded educational bureaucracy.

And the Christian Coalition, a 1.6-million member organization of socially conservative Christians, has included the elimination of Goals 2000 in a 10-point legislative program released earlier this year.

Wilson chose to withhold the funds not to win right-leaning voters, but to limit the amount of federal oversight in California education, said Cindy Katz, a spokeswoman for the governor in Sacramento.

“From Day 1 as governor, one of his priorities was to get rid of federal mandates,” Katz said. “I don’t care if it’s a zillion dollars. If it isn’t good for kids, he doesn’t want it.”

The amounts in question range from $309,712 for the Oxnard Union High School District to $56,432 for the Ojai Unified School District. William Studt, superintendent of the Oxnard district, said loss of the funds will slow down, but not eliminate, efforts to smooth students’ transition from middle to high school.

His district is setting up a program where high school teachers will regularly confer with middle school teachers to ensure that students are being properly prepared for higher grades.

“If the funding dries up, we will continue with that effort,” he said. “It just might take a little longer.”

Likewise in Ventura, efforts to increase student achievement in reading and math at Sheridan Way, E.P. Foster, Oak View, Will Rogers, Montalvo and Lincoln elementary schools and DeAnza Middle School will continue whether or not more money is available.

The district focused on those goals in applying for the Goals 2000 grant and won’t abandon them, Chandler said. But Jerry Gross, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said losing the funds would severely curtail his ability to offer special math programs at elementary and high schools in Newbury Park.

“We know what the mood of Congress is, with Newt [Gingrich] and his colleagues,” Gross said. “We are frankly not surprised that the funding is in jeopardy.”