Copyright 1999 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
THE ARIZONA
REPUBLIC
January 20, 1999 Wednesday, Final Chaser
SECTION: FRONT; Pg. A13
LENGTH: 483 words
HEADLINE:
PRESIDENT PUTS SCHOOLS ON NOTICE
BYLINE: By James W.
Brosnan, Scripps Howard
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
President Clinton on Tuesday outlined a
carrot-and-stick approach to spur improvement in the nation's schools, offering
to help them achieve higher standards but threatening to withhold money from
those that fail to comply.
In his State of the Union speech, Clinton
said that states should be required to give regular report cards on school
performance to parents. He also proposed:
* Requiring states to fix
low-performing schools within two years, or let the students transfer to other
schools.
* Making all new teachers take performance exams and phase out
over five years the practice of allowing teachers to instruct subjects in which
they lack training.
* Eliminating "social promotion" by requiring
students to meet academic achievement standards or go into remedial classes.
States that failed to comply would lose a portion of $8 billion in aid
under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Clinton also is proposing to overhaul a $600 million school safety and
drug program with performance standards, including annual reports on drug use
and violence at each school.
Bob Chase, president of the National
Education Association, said teachers will support the plan because it includes
programs to help low-performing students and schools.
Anne Bryant,
executive director of the National School Boards Association, agreed, saying
that eliminating social promotion is "trickier than simply holding a child back.
What you've got to do is intervene with the right learning strategies."
But Republicans may be a tougher sell. Congress last year balked at
Clinton's proposals to use federal money to reduce the cost of school
construction bonds. It took a veto threat to force Republicans to give Clinton a
start on his plan to hire 100,000 additional teachers in the early grades.
Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., a moderate who heads the Senate Labor and
Human Resources Committee, said Tuesday that some of Clinton's proposals are
"very attractive."
"Certainly, social promotion is one of the most
serious problems we have in this country, with literacy examinations showing
that 51 percent of those who are graduating from high schools are functionally
illiterate," Jeffords said.
Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., chairman of the
Senate Republican Education Task Force, says there is a way to meld the
president's accountability standards with a bill Frist is sponsoring to give
states broad leeway to waive federal regulations.
"I feel pretty
positive," Frist said.
"He (Clinton) has a reorganization of existing
resources that looks at accountability, that looks at flexibility, that looks at
merit and that looks at performance."
Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said
Clinton's plan will mean more regulations.
Former Education Secretary
Lamar Alexander said, "The federal government has no business hiring teachers,
setting their qualifications or ordering them what to do."
LOAD-DATE: January 26, 1999 
