Federal File: On the bus; Civil-rights squabble

Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley last week joined the C-SPAN cable network for a conversation with 30 high school students that coincided with the debut of the public-affairs channel's school bus.

During the hourlong discussion with students from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md., Mr. Riley responded to a variety of concerns, including safety at sporting events, the role of mathematics and science in the curriculum, and the cost of higher education.

Mr. Riley touted the Clinton Administration's school-reform strategy, embodied in the proposed "goals 2000: educate America act.'' He also explained the changes to the federal student-aid program that the Administration pushed through Congress and said school-finance equalization...