Senate Oks School-Funding Bill Clinton Opposes Measure Which Could Endanger Many Programs
The U.S. Senate approved Thursday an amendment that could dramatically change how federal funds are allocated to local school districts.
Its sponsor, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., hailed the amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Act as “a triumph for our nation’s education system.”
The proposal, if approved by Congress, will send $11 billion in public education funding directly to school districts in the form of block grants.
That would shift control of the federal money away from Washington bureaucrats to local school boards and administrators, according to Gorton.
The Clinton administration strongly opposes the amendment.
Education Secretary Richard Riley said it would put several key initiatives, such as funding for charter schools, bilingual education and classroom computers, “on the chopping block.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who voted against the amendment, agrees. The federal government, she said, plays a vital role in assuring equity among the nation’s school districts.
Funds should “not be watered down and spread across all school districts, regardless of need, as it appears the Gorton amendment would require,” Murray said.
Washington Schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson issued a statement expressing strong concerns about the amendment. “The key impacts of this method of distribution will be to undermine accountability, create an inequitable funding pattern and fragment public schools programs and learning-improvement efforts,” she said.
Under Gorton’s proposal, federal money would be distributed to each district based on number of students and per capita wealth of the state.
The Education Department currently distributes the money to each district. Under Gorton’s plan, no district will get less money than it received last year.
Prominent Republican leaders, such as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, pledged their support of the amendment.
The appropriations bill now heads to a conference committee for reconciliation with the House version.
, DataTimes