Peter Hoagland: “the amendment I am offering today is intended to correct an important flaw in the new approach to distributing chapter 1…”

“the amendment I am offering today is intended to correct an important flaw in the new approach to distributing chapter 1 funds that is provided for in H.R. 6, the elementary and secondary education amendments. The administration has decided on a policy change to concentrate chapter 1 funding to those schools with the most deserving and needy students. But the administration's bill fails to give any consideration to school districts operating under a school desegregation plan, and the result is that the proposal will penalize the very students chapter 1 is designed to help. In Omaha, NB, there will be 1,000 public school students and 350 private school students--currently receiving chapter 1 services--who will no longer receive assistance because these students are attending a noneligible chapter 1 school because of a desegregation plan. This is simply not fair. In Omaha, students from low-income areas of the city who attend Dundee Elementary School or Washington Elementary School or Belle Ryan or Western Hills Elementary School may very well need the extra boost a remedial reading program would provide them. They should not get left behind just because the school districts in their city operate under a desegregation plan and so do not fit into the administration's criteria for concentrated help. I think we should not prejudice those students.…”