House Sets Its Toughest School Standards Ever

The House, in a rare display of bipartisan agreement on education, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve the strongest requirements for higher standards and accountability ever imposed by the federal government on local schools serving poor and disadvantaged students.

And, in a stinging rebuff to Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) and other conservatives, more than 50 Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting proposals to offer vouchers for private school tuition to students in failing or violent schools, even on a limited basis.

The bipartisan bill, which tracks closely what the Senate is expected to approve, renews a 34-year-old Great Society program that channels federal funds into the vast majority of U.S. school districts and would provide almost $200 million for Los Angeles alone.

But in renewing the massive Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for five years, the House bill would stiffen requirements for higher academic achievement by disadvantaged students. The bill would toughen qualifications for teachers’ aides, who now play an important role in many classrooms in poor areas but often lack college training.

And it puts public pressure on schools where student achievement continues to lag far behind state and national standards by ordering local officials to issue detailed report cards on test scores and other measures of success, permitting parents to monitor school performance.

The bill would require parents to be notified promptly if their children are attending low-performing schools or are taught by teachers who lack professional qualifications. And it would give parents the right--and limited federal aid--to move their children to better public schools.

Though the bill, which passed 358 to 67, echoes the theme of greater accountability that has become the mantra of Republican governors and education reformers, Thursday’s voting also reflected a lingering ideological split among Republicans.

The votes on vouchers and several other defeated amendments proposed by conservatives demonstrated that moderate Republicans, who often bow to the wishes of House leaders on less sensitive issues, are willing to buck them on education, which polls show is a core concern of voters.

A breakdown of the numbers showed that moderate Republicans supported the bipartisan bill, with 157 of 223 Republicans voting for it. But they also joined Democrats in raising next year’s authorized funding to $9.9 billion, adding $1.5 billion to the 8% increase already provided in the original bill.

Assessing the new political atmosphere, Rep. David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.) said that it reflects caution and fear at a time when Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the party’s presumptive standard-bearer next year, has bashed House Republicans on budget policy and when the party’s own leaders are weak.

“A lot of Republicans say: ‘I’m going to run for the hills and not cast a vote that anyone can criticize me for. . . .’ It’s fear based on absence of leadership, and it’s not going to change until the next president is elected,” McIntosh said.

Not only did moderates refuse to follow conservative leaders, they also forced conservatives to retreat on what one House aide called “the flagship piece” of the conservatives’ education agenda: a companion bill called “Straight A’s.” That bill, endorsed by the House Education and Workforce Committee as a companion bill to Title I, would allow states to receive aid as block grants for almost any educational purpose they choose--without necessarily targeting disadvantaged students, as Title I has always required.

Originally, “Straight A’s” was to have come to the floor immediately after Title I and was considered likely to pass, though by a narrower margin. But when moderate Republicans who had supported the bill in committee spread the word that they could not do so on the floor, “Straight A’s” sponsors stepped back. They turned it into a proposal for a limited pilot program, supervised by the secretary of Education.

Late Thursday night, mollified by the concessions and ready to give conservatives a chance to cast a symbolic vote for their constituents, moderate Republicans helped pass “Straight A’s” by a margin of 213 to 208, with one Democrat denouncing it as “a political gimmick to provide Republicans with 30-second sound bites.”

The 60 Republicans who voted against the Title I bill were chiefly conservatives who considered its accountability features a violation of local control of schools. Democratic support reflected not only continuing support for federal help to the poor but a seismic shift in philosophy about the schools. Initially uneasy about the accountability movement, Democrats--and the teachers’ unions that often support them--now strongly favor the concept. In part that is because the conservative alternative to improving public schools through accountability is vouchers that could be used to send students to private schools.

Most education specialists said that the Senate is likely to approve reauthorization of Title I in a form similar to that passed by the House on Wednesday. The administration has indicated that Clinton could accept such a bill.

“We think it is indeed a bipartisan product and are generally supportive,” Scott Fleming, assistant secretary of Education for legislation, said of the House measure. “There is a lot to like,” he said, though the administration will seek changes on some points as the legislative process moves forward.

Rep. Bill Goodling (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee and architect of the bipartisan bill, acknowledged that many of his fellow Republicans see parts of the measure as dictating to local schools, but “this is 100% federal tax dollars, and we cannot continue to fail these kids.

“For the first time in the history of Title I, it will actually improve the academic achievement of those most in need.”

Title I is the federal government’s largest aid program for students who are poor, disabled or have limited English proficiency. It has channeled about $130 billion in federal funds into schools serving such students over the last three decades and has become a crucial funding source for many school systems, especially in large cities.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, about 475,000 students in 472 schools are eligible for Title I assistance, most of them in the elementary grades. That is about two-thirds of the district’s students.

Statewide, California received about $830 million in the last fiscal year, 11% of the total $7.3-billion Title I budget. Approximately 4,800 schools in 833 districts received funds.

The bill approved Thursday strengthens the effort begun in the 1994 reauthorization to pressure local schools to do more to boost educational achievement among poor, immigrant and other disadvantaged students.

Christopher T. Cross, president of the Council for Basic Education, a nonpartisan organization advocating higher standards, said that federal pressure to raise achievement is needed because “states have not been paragons of strength when it comes to enforcing standards against local schools.

“Local governments almost never have the guts to do something like that. That is a legitimate and perfectly proper role for the federal government to play.”

Cross, who served in the Education Department in the Reagan administration, was a member of the independent review panel that studied Title I last year. Many of the panel’s concerns are addressed in the House bill.

Specifically, the House measure includes requirements that schools receiving Title I money:

* Post achievement gains for all categories of students, including the poor, those with limited English proficiency and the disabled. Now, states can meet achievement goals on the basis of statewide averages of all students, which can mask continuing failure among Title I schools.

* Make public the information on student performance, graduation rates, retention rates and other measures of success or failure for individual schools.

* Disclose the qualifications of teachers, including those who are working in classrooms without meeting state certification requirements, a common condition in Los Angeles schools, especially in poor and immigrant neighborhoods.

* Require paraprofessional teacher’s aides to finish at least two years of college or pass an equivalent test within three years. Such aides are widely used in Los Angeles and other large cities to supplement or even perform the duties of classroom teachers, though current law requires only a high school diploma or general education certificate within two years of being hired.

* Allow students in low-performing schools to transfer to better public schools within their districts and receive Title I money for transportation.

The bill also extends the approach begun in 1994 to require that disadvantaged students be held to the same high achievement standards applied to other students in a state.

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Times staff writers Richard L. Colvin in Los Angeles and Janet Hook and Keenan Suares in Washington contributed to this story.

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Details: Title I

Facts and figures about Title I, the $9.9-billion-per-year program designed to close the achievement gap between rich and poor students:

* Title I represents more than half of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which governs $13.4 billion in federal education programs for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

* The five-year plan serves 10.5 million children in more than half of U.S. schools.

* The federal government gives states money for school programs to raise test scores and academic performance of poor children and underachievers. The grants--from $300 to $1,500 per child--include money for teachers, books and computers.

* Title I was created in 1965 after debates over whether states were equally funding education in poor communities. Besides Title I, the education act provides federal funds for school technology, teacher training and alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

Source: Associated Press

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* CHILD-CARE BENEFITS

Quality child care for poor preschoolers yields lasting benefits, a study says. A3