Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993 TAG: 9309150045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Education Secretary Dick Riley said the revisions would improve learning opportunities for poor children, who are much less likely to succeed in school than those from more affluent homes.
Federal funding for weak inner-city school systems like Detroit and poor rural school districts like East Carroll, La., would increase. But wealthy systems like Fairfax County, Va., would lose money.
Some entire states would see a decrease, including a 12 percent cut for Maine, the home of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.
The proposal responds to the "new face of education, the increasing poverty, the increasing lack of resources for children most in need," Riley said.
The administration's proposals are contained in legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, enacted in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty programs.
The legislation, which expires next year, targets money through its Chapter 1 program for 5.5 million poor students who need extra help in reading and other subjects. Two-thirds of the nation's schools now receive money through the program.
But Chapter 1 increasingly has been criticized because qualifying students frequently are taken out of regular classes for special tutoring that adds only about 10 minutes to the pupil's day and does little to enhance learning.
Some critics also have suggested that much of the money doesn't help poor children. The Education Department said one-third of the children in high-poverty schools do not receive Chapter 1 services.
Riley said the proposal would "make a fundamental revision on how we target funding."
The amount of money for schools with high concentrations of poor children would increase to $7 billion in the 1995 fiscal year from $6.3 billion in fiscal year 1994.
by CNB