Clinton Budget Targets Reform, Poor Schools

By Robert C. Johnston

Washington President Clinton asked Congress last week to increase federal funding for high-poverty schools, professional development, college aid, and his own education-reform programs as he issued a budget request for fiscal 1997 that is similar to his earlier spending plans.

The budget does, however, include two new initiatives: a proposed $130 million merit-scholarship program for high school students who graduate in the top 5 percent of their classes and a $250 million school-technology fund that would be used to leverage local contributions. The president also proposed increases in other school-technology programs, building on a theme he has stressed in recent speeches and school visits.

Mr. Clinton would offset these spending increases by eliminating 38 education programs for a savings of $760 million. Most of them, notably the block-grant program formerly known as Chapter 2, have been targeted before. But the National Diffusion Network, which disseminates model educational programs, and two migrant-education programs are new...