Clinton Vows Fight Over Education Tests

By Arshad Mohammed 

OAK BLUFFS, Mass (Reuter) - President Clinton vowed Wednesday
to fight congressional efforts to block his plan for national testing of
school children, saying "it would be a terrible mistake" if the tests
were blocked. 

"I think it would be a terrible mistake for people who are afraid that
our children can't measure up or who have a misguided notion that
somehow the federal government's trying to take over education in
America to persuade members of Congress not to fund the tests, "
Clinton told a group of about 80 teachers at Oak Bluffs Elementary
School. 

"That's basically an issue that we're going to be fighting out over the
next few weeks," he said. The teachers were attending an orientation
session ahead of Thursday's first day of school on the Massachusetts
resort island of Martha's Vineyard, where Clinton is spending a
three-week vacation. 

The testing program Clinton proposed to Congress in this year's State
of the Union address calls for administering standardized reading
tests to all fourth graders and math tests to all eighth graders by
March 1999 to measure skills and establish high standards. 

The tests would be developed by an independent, bipartisan board,
paid for by the federal government, and implemented voluntarily on a
state-by-state basis. Seven states have agreed to administer the tests. 

High standards are necessary to ensure that more than 52 million
children now enrolled in American schools receive a good education,
Clinton said. "If you set a high standard and go after it, you can
achieve it," he said. 

National testing was a major piece of unfinished business in fulfilling
national education goals developed in 1989 by state governors and
endorsed by then-President George Bush, said Clinton, who was a
leader in the effort while serving as governor of Arkansas. 

But some critics fear too much federal influence on locally controlled
schools would result from the tests, or that they would discriminate
against educationally disadvantaged students. 

Rep. Bill Goodling, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House
Committee on Education and the Workforce, is seeking to amend the
Education Department's budget bill to bar the use of any federal funds
in developing national tests. 

Goodling will offer the amendment to the Labor-Health and Human
Services appropriations bill when it comes before the full House
Thursday, a committee spokesman said. This bill includes fiscal 1998
funding for the Education Department. 

The administration has awarded a $13 million contract for
development of the tests using funds from the Fund for Improvement
of Education. The spokesman said estimates as high as $90 million
have been seen for full implementation of the national tests. 

The White House has not requested any funds for the new test and
there is no money for it in the 1998 spending bill. "We are just making
sure this will halt any money they would construe out of other
programs," the spokesman said. 

Education Secretary Richard Riley and senior administration advisers
have recommended a veto of the education funding bill if it contains
the test-funding prohibition. 

Asked whether the Clinton would veto such a bill, Lockhart said: "I
don't think we've moved to that point yet ... I think we're still hoping
that we can make the case that standards is one the most important
challenges facing our nation and our educational system, and we don't
have to invoke a presidential veto." 

[September 1997]