The Clinton Administration’s proposal for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will not formally be released until next month. But interviews with Administration officials, lobbyists, and Congressional sources, as well as a draft outline obtained by Education Week, have revealed many of the proposal’s likely features:
- Targeting funding under Chapter 1 more narrowly to concentrate funding on high-poverty schools.
- Basing accountability for Chapter 1 programs on standards and assessments that would be developed by states under the separate “goals 2000: educate America act.’'
- Allowing more schools to operate schoolwide Chapter 1 projects.
- Basing schools’ Chapter 1 eligibility solely on poverty levels and giving educators more flexibility to eliminate requirements that individual children be selected for the program based on poor achievement.
- Eliminating the Chapter 2 block grant by merging it with the Eisenhower mathematics and science program to create a single program supporting educators’ professional development across content areas.
- Changing the structure of the Title VII bilingual-education program and removing provisions that now discourage inclusion of L.E.P. children in Chapter 1.
- Establishing programs to aid states working toward equalizing funding among their schools and supporting public charter schools and educational technology.
Simplifying--and reducing--the impact-aid program.
