June 17, 1998
Under fire
Illinois state schools Superintendent Joseph A. Spagnolo is on the hot seat again.
The House and the Senate plan to vote this week on a quickly crafted compromise version of the "education savings account" bill that Republicans hope will force President Clinton to reverse his opposition to it.
Just two days after Californians voted to eliminate nearly all bilingual education in the state's public schools, the Education and the Workforce Committee of the U.S. House also weighed in on the issue. The committee on June 4 approved HR 3892, the English Language Fluency Act, by a vote of 22-17. Sponsored by Rep. Frank Riggs, R-Calif., HR 3892 would make fundamental changes to the federal Bilingual Education Act.
Budget setback
Already behind schedule, the Senate's education spending bill suffered another setback when appropriations subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter underwent emergency heart-bypass surgery June 1.
The Federal Communications Commission will not suspend the federal "E-rate" program, despite pressure to do so from key members of Congress, FCC Chairman William E. Kennard told a Senate subcommittee last week. But the program will be scaled back, he said, and will target its telecommunications aid to the poorest schools.
Washington
The divide between the vision of what a high-tech education should be and what's actually happening in the schools continues to defy attempts to bridge it, according to educators who were sharing ideas at a symposium here last week.
Supreme Court Rejects Channel One Case
The U.S. Supreme Court last week turned away an appeal from several Florida parents who objected to their children's required viewing of the classroom news show Channel One.
The Federal Communications Commission, in a 3-2 vote last Friday, nearly cut in half the new federal "E-rate" subsidies to help the nation's schools and libraries buy telecommunications services.
Ky. Board Stresses Public School Diversity
Vowing to make diversity a priority in public schools, the Kentucky school board has directed the state education department to write recommendations in four areas: minority hiring, multicultural education, data collection on student populations, and the agency's commitment to school diversity.
