CLINTON UNVEILS EDUCATION PROPOSAL

WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton called on Congress today to impose strict
new requirements on school spending, saying "We do not have the luxury of
waiting and continuing to subsidize failure."

Clinton's legislation already under fire from Republicans would require
schools that receive federal money to phase out the use of teachers who are
not certified for the subjects they are teaching.

The administration's education proposal also would require school districts
to reduce class size, set rigorous academic standards, bolster teacher
training programs, broaden after-school and summer programs and work to make
schools drug-free.

"We have to do a far, far better job of spending the $15 billion in federal
aid we send to our schools every year," the president said.

Education Secretary Richard Riley said, "We're not satisfied with the status
quo." Clinton said schools that accept federal aid "must take responsibility
for turning around failing schools or shutting them down." He said his
measure would provide children with safe learning environments.

"For the first time," Clinton said, "it will require schools to adopt
comprehensive school safety plans, use proven anti-drug and anti-violence
programs, intervene with troubled youth, establish security procedures for
schools and give parents an annual report of drug and violent incidents at
their children's schools."

Clinton already outlined most of the new plan last January in his State of
the Union speech. It would renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
which provides, on average, about 7 percent of states' education spending.

Rep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa., chairman of the House Committee on Education and
the Workforce, said he agreed with the goals of the administration's plan
but not with its methods.

"The administration's proposals trample on our nation's long and proven
traditions of local control of education," Goodling said in a statement.
"They would impose Washington solutions to local problems."

Under Clinton's proposal, one new part of the act would make participating
school districts do away with the practice of "emergency certification,"
through which teachers instruct subjects such as math or English when they
have not been certified by the state to do so.

A recent Education Department survey found that a third of the nation's
teachers said they either lack degrees in the subjects they teach or did not
spend enough time training in them.

Diane Shust, a lobbyist for the National Education Association, said the
teachers union's members back the proposal.

"Teachers should be teaching in the subjects in which they are certified,"
Shust said.

The administration also wants schools to end the practice of letting
teachers aides supervise classrooms on their own. An Education Department
survey suggested that 41 percent of aides at participating schools spend at
least half of their time in the classroom without a teacher present.