Federal File

Using taxpayers' money to open the world of television to deaf and hearing-impaired people is all well and good. But "The Jerry Springer Show"? That's going way too far, two angry senators told Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley last week.

Sens. Daniel R. Coats, R-Ind., and Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., wrote to the secretary expressing their "outrage" over a grant program that helps provide closed captions on the outlandish--and extremely popular--daytime talk show.

The program, the senators wrote, "is the closest thing to...