Click here to return to OFCN's Main Index Page.
--- Friday --- March 21, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 28 ---
D #### ##### #### ### #### #### ##### ### #### ####
A ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
I #### #### #### ## ## #### ## ## ##### #### ## ##
L ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
Y ## ## ##### ## ### ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ####
THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
SPRING BREAK -- SPRING CLEANING | SPOTLIGHT |
The DAILY REPORT CARD will be | |
on spring break doing some | A NEW LOOK AT THE |
spring cleaning beginning | VOTING RIGHTS ACT |
Monday, 24 March. We will | |
return on 7 April. Enjoy the | U.S. Justice Department |
holidays. | lawyers are busy examining |
| state takeovers of school |
HILARY HEADS TO AFRICA | districts to ascertain |
Hilary Rodham Clinton | whether they violate the |
addressed the need to improve | Voting Rights Act. They |
education for blacks in Soweto, | have interpreted the law to |
a poor township in South Africa | apply to takeovers because |
(AP/THE HARTFORD COURANT, | locally elected trustees |
3/19). Clinton sat in on a | have their powers usurped |
first-grade class at the | when the state steps in. |
Entandweni Lower Primary | |
School, where she helped teach | LOS ANGELES: Justice is |
an English class. | in the midst of collecting |
According to the paper, the | info to determine whether |
school "is part of a U.S.- | Calif. violated the Voting |
funded program aimed at helping | Rights Act when it took |
students learn English, one of | over Compton schools. (#4) |
South Africa's 11 official | |
languages." | TEXAS: Texas filed a |
While the country was under | lawsuit, challenging |
apartheid, it painfully | Justice's intervention in |
neglected the education of | state takeovers. (#4) |
black children. The paper | |
reports that a goal of | N.Y.C.: Chancellor Rudy |
President Nelson Mandela is to | Crew is petitioning Justice |
integrate the schools and | to allow him to have broad |
improve education for blacks, | powers over local school |
"but he needs money and | districts. (See DRC 3/17) |
training from foreign donors." |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"I suspect that what we're reporting today is only the first wave
of a dramatic upsurge in making health care more accessible for
children." -- Julia Lear, director of Making the Grade, on the
increase in the number of school-based health-care centers. (#5)
_______________________________________________________________
| A service of the National Education Goals Panel |
| Published by the Education Policy Network |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Wash, D.C.; 20037; 202/632-0952 |
| The DRC hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL ONE: SCHOOL READINESS
PENNSYLVANIA WELFARE REFORM: Changing day care policies. (#1)
MONEY MATTERS
A SWEET VICTORY: School tax passed in 8 Georgia counties. (#2)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
COURTS AGREE: Schools not beholden to old Ga. voucher law.(#3)
THE SCALES OF JUSTICE: Weighing in on state takeovers. (#4)
PROMISING PRACTICES
SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH CARE: A trend on the move. (#5)
HOW TO GET ON THE DRC LIST-SERVE
To subscribe: Send an e-mail message from the account you
wish to subscribe to rptcrd@mail.apn.com with the word
"subscribe" as the "subject." Please do not write anything in
the text section; only type in "subscribe" under "subject" in the
memo heading. You will receive a short message confirming your
subscription. If you encounter difficulties subscribing, send a
message to drc@mail.apn.com, detailing the problem.
===== GOAL ONE: SCHOOL READINESS =====
*1 PENNSYLVANIA WELFARE REFORM: CHANGING DAY CARE POLICIES
Pa. Gov Ridge (R) has proposed increasing state day-care
funds to $298M, a $68M increase over last fiscal year
(AP/Philadelphia INQUIRER, 3/20). The new funds would allow
35,000 more children from low-income families to enroll in day
care; however, working-poor families would be forced to dip into
their own pockets to pay for child-care expenses, notes the
paper.
"We're in a world of finite resources, and the families that
we're helping have to be prepared to move into a world of no
subsidies" as their incomes grow, said state Public Welfare
Secretary Feather Houstoun.
The INQUIRER reports that the day-care proposal
"dovetail[s]" with the state's overhaul of its welfare system,
which "would eliminate the present two-tiered system of child-
care assistance that divides recipients into those who are on
welfare and those who are not." Under the current rules, the
full cost of child-care services is afforded welfare mothers
while they are participating in job-training or education
programs. If the welfare mother lands a job that does not pay
her enough to leave welfare, she would lose the full child-care
subsidy, but could recoup a portion of child-care expenses
through her welfare check. However, if she gets a job that
allows her to get off of welfare, she can qualify for one year of
"fully paid transitional benefits through a separate program,"
explains the paper.
Ridge's plan would standardize the rules and provide for
income-based child-care allowances. From the paper: "One effect
would be to provide more money for child care to welfare mothers
when they start the jobs that the new welfare law will require
them to take."
A series of public hearings is scheduled beginning in April
to discuss Ridge's child-care plan. Joan Benso, director of the
Pennsylvania Partnership for Children, said she is pleased with
some components of Ridge's plan, but is waiting to hear more
detail in other areas.
===== MONEY MATTERS =====
*2 A SWEET VICTORY: SCHOOL TAX PASSED IN 8 GEORGIA COUNTIES
Earlier this week, voters in eight metro-Atlanta counties
approved paying an additional penny sales tax to fund school
construction. The ATLANTA JOURNAL/CONSTITUTION observed that the
vote will spur "monumental change in the way school systems can
pay for new school buildings and renovations." (Stepp and Smith
III, 3/19)
A small voter turnout helped propel the measure to victory,
which the paper calls the nation's "most ambitious" school
construction initiative. The vote also comes on the heels of
President Clinton's plan to provide a one-time federal subsidy to
spur local school construction and renovation. (See DRC 3/19)
According to the paper, the penny sales tax is expected to
generate $2.4B over five years for school construction, except in
Clayton County, which will collect the tax only for three years.
The paper provides a brief description of school
construction projects to be undertaken by the counties. For
example, Coweta County intends to build six schools and a
performing arts center and to install a system-wide computer
network with the funds. The revenue also will be targeted to
system-wide school repairs. Fulton County expects to build 17
schools or their equivalent in capacity. Atlanta County
officials pledge to fund "everything from expanded cafeterias to
wiring for the Internet," reports the paper.
A change to Ga.'s state constitution, which occurred in
November, allowed the school systems to seek school funds through
increases in the sales tax, writes the paper. Current policy
permits schools to tap only property taxes, bond referendums and
state funding. The new tax will become effective 1 July.
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*3 COURTS AGREE: SCHOOLS NOT BEHOLDEN TO OLD GA. VOUCHER LAW
The Georgia Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision
that state and local school boards do not have to honor a 1961
law that permits school vouchers (AP/ATLANTA
JOURNAL/CONSTITUTION, 3/18). According to the paper, a group of
parents was attempting to resurrect a segregation-era law that
permitted the state to grant tuition vouchers to parents who
wanted to send their offspring to private schools.
If the law were enforced, children in grades 1-12 would have
the same benefits enjoyed by pre-K and college students, who are
given money -- either from the lottery or the HOPE scholarship
fund -- to attend any public or private school of choice.
Lawyers for the state and local school districts challenged
that assumption, arguing that "because the grant statute creates
no entitlement for any student, local school systems could
legally issue no grants at all," writes the paper.
Although the Supreme Court decision was unanimous, the
parents' attorneys declared a "partial victory" because the high
court did not rule the voucher program unconstitutional. "We are
pleased that today's decision apparently allows Georgia parents
to petition their local school boards for school choice grants,"
said Frank Lightmas, a lawyer from the Southeastern Legal
Foundation, which represented the parents.
*4 THE SCALES OF JUSTICE: WEIGHING IN ON STATE TAKEOVERS
The U.S. Justice Department is examining whether the state
of Calif. violated the Voting Rights Act when it took over the
Compton school district in 1993 (Leeds, L.A. TIMES, 3/19).
Lawyers from the federal department's civil rights division are
examining copies of the district's academic and financial
problems, documents that detail why the state diminished the
powers of the local school board, and other information that led
to the installation of a state-appointed administrator to manage
the schools.
The TIMES explains that a provision of the Voting Rights Act
"bars states from taking actions that affect the voting powers of
racial minorities." Justice Department officials have
interpreted that law to apply to state takeovers of school
districts because locally elected trustees lose power when the
state comes in to run the district, reports the paper. However,
that provision of the Voting Rights Act only applies to certain
states and counties, not including Los Angeles County, according
to a Justice Department spokeswoman.
Texas education leaders are challenging the Justice
Department's intervention in state takeovers of local school
districts, notes the paper. Last summer, Texas education
officials filed a lawsuit that claimed they were "exempt from the
federal review requirement, in part because school district
takeovers do not have a 'direct relation' to voting rights,"
writes the paper. The lawsuit emerged after the Texas Education
Agency took over the Wilmer-Hutchins school district in south
Dallas.
According to the paper, Calif. state education officials
took over Compton after the district realized it could not meet
payroll. The Legislature agreed to lend the district $20M, but
only if the state DoEd appointed an administrator to oversee all
aspects of running the schools. Since then the district's school
board has operated, with reduced powers, under much controversy.
A state screening committee's candidate to replace a dismissed
school board member in 1994 was rejected by the board. Board
members then selected Saul Lankster, who was rejected by state
Superintendent of Public Instruction Delain Eastin, partially due
to his conviction in 1985 of falsifying traffic school diplomas.
Lankster eventually was elected in 1995, and now serves as board
president.
==== PROMISING PRACTICES ====
*5 SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH CARE: A TREND ON THE MOVE
The number of school-based health centers in the U.S. has
increased by 50% during the past two years, according to a survey
conducted by Making the Grade, a program of the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation (MAKING THE GRADE press release, 3/18).
"School-based health centers have been endorsed by community
leaders, educators, public officials and health care providers,
and I suspect that what we're reporting today is only the first
wave of a dramatic upsurge in making health care more accessible
for children," commented Julia Lear, director of Making the
Grade.
The survey found that 913 school-based health centers are in
operation nationwide, with N.Y. having the most -- 149. Fla.
comes in second at 66. These health-care centers provide a range
of medical and mental health services to students within the
school, writes the release. Other states with a high number of
centers include: Texas (60), Conn. (50), Pa. (39), Md. (38),
Calif. (37), Mass. (36), Mich. (34) and Ore. (34).
From the release: "Previous studies have shown that access
to these services, such as acute care, mental health counseling,
health screenings, and asthma treatments, otherwise would not
exist or would be limited to expensive after-hour clinic and
emergency room care."
Survey respondents attribute the growth of school-based
health centers to state funding coupled with support from
community leaders, local schools, hospitals and community health
centers. Other findings: 54% of all school-based health centers
receive some state dollars, primarily from Title V of the Social
Security Act and state categorical funds; and 34 states allocated
nearly $42M in state and federal block grants to school-based
centers during 1995-1996.
However, local and private funding sources are emerging to
help spawn more school-based health centers. For example, Kaiser
Permanente in Colo. launched a two-year program, School
Connections, that will offer full health coverage to 1,3000
students in 20 schools that have school-based health centers.
The program's mission: "To tackle the problem of uninsured
children by building on the cost-effective access to care
provided by Colorado's school-based health centers," writes the
release.
The survey, which was conducted during the summer of 1996,
was based on telephone interviews and written survey data with
adolescent health offices in the 50 states.
Making the Grade: State and Local Partnerships to Establish
School-Based Health Centers is a national grant program
supporting the development of state efforts to launch and sustain
school-based health centers, notes the release. The nine states
funded under the initiative are: Colo., Conn., La., Md., N.Y.,
N.C., Ore., R.I. and Vt.
For more information on the survey, school based health
centers and the Making the Grade program visit the project's web
site at www.gwu.edu/-mtg.
Click here to return to The 1997 Daily Report Card
Click here to return to OFCN's
Academy Program
Click here to return to OFCN's Main Index Page.
John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org