Copyright 1988, Editorial The five-year reauthorization that emerged from a House-Senate conference last week would authorize $175.5 million in 1989--rising to $305 million by 1993--for science and engineering education initiatives.
The final version of HR 4418 does not specifically earmark any of the money for precollegiate programs.
The bill also moves a Presidential awards program for science teachers, which was created by the omnibus education reauthorization bill enacted earlier this year, from the Education Department to nsf
The Education Department and House members agreed last week to put off until 1989 action on measures aimed at curbing defaults on federally guaranteed student loans.
The Education Department moved to delay implementation of regulations excluding from federal student-aid programs any institution with a default rate exceeding 20 percent.
And sponsors of a House bill aimed at cutting down on defaults pulled the measure from the floor schedule.
The Senate has passed a bill expanding eligibility for aid by eliminating the value of non-liquid assets, such as a family’s home, from calculations of financial need.
Representative Major R. Owens, chairman of the House Select Education Subcommittee, has renewed his attacks on the Education Department’s proposed research center on disadvantaged students.
“A shadow of suspicion and doubt has been cast over the integrity and accountability of the grant-awarding process for the proposed new center,” the New York Democrat charged at a hearing last week.
He urged that the current proposal be replaced with a new research center focused on the education of inner-city youths.
The Education Department has a “double standard” on employee discipline, according to a House Government Operations Committee report.
The report was spurred by the case of Madeleine Will, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, who was reprimanded by the department after having been found to have continued paying an aide who no longer worked for her.
Critics of the department have charged that the punishments given to Ms. Will and other high-ranking political appointees have been relatively mild, while lower-ranking employees have been treated harshly.
Legislation making sweeping changes in the federal welfare system was approved last week by House and Senate negotiators.
The bill would emphasize education, job training, and work programs for welfare recipients in order to enable them to become self-sufficient.
Under the bill, welfare parents whose children are over age 3 will have to enroll in state education or job-training programs.
Senate Democrats have dropped their pre-election push to raise the minimum wage in the face of a Republican filibuster.
The bill would have raised the current $3.35-an-hour minimum wage to $4.55 by 1991.
Senate leaders have agreed on the “core” provisions of an omnibus anti-drug measure.
The bill calls for expansion of existing programs, including the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, and emphasizes drug treatment.
It does not contain House-passed provisions denying student loans and other benefits to drug offenders.
Several liberal Senators reportedly have vowed to wage a filibuster against the measure if such provisions are offered as amendments.
