Bill To Push Block Grant For Education

By Mark Pitsch

Washington

Key members of the House education committee are drafting legislation that would fold 11 federal education programs, including major initiatives such as Goals 2000, into a $1.4 billion block grant designed to spur reforms.

The proposal being designed by the panel's Republican leaders would share a central feature of the Clinton Administration's Goals 2000 strategy--a requirement that states and school districts adopt challenging academic-performance standards and assessments with which to measure students'...