G.O.P. Bill on Schools Would Set Fewer Rules

Coming two days after Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Senate education committee, released a 1,150-page education bill, the bill by Mr. Alexander, who is the ranking Republican on the committee, will compete with it.

The Alexander bill is described in its introduction as restoring Ӏfreedom to parents, teachers, principals, governors and local communities so that they can improve their local public schools.Ԁ

At less than one-fifth the length of Mr. HarkinҀs bill, Mr. AlexanderҀs legislation would allow states to devise curriculum standards, tests, school rating systems and consequences for schools that fail to meet state goals with far fewer guidelines than are included in the Harkin bill.

Both bills would amend the half-century-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act that governs public schools receiving federal money to support the most vulnerable students.

ӀWhat they are really saying is they donҀt trust parents and they donҀt trust classroom teachers and states to care about and help educate their children, and they want someone in Washington do it for them,Ԁ Mr. Alexander said of Democrats in a telephone interview. ӀI just completely reject that.Ԁ

Congress has repeatedly failed to revise No Child Left Behind, which has been up for reauthorization since 2007. Starting last year, the Obama administration began granting waivers to relieve states from the lawҀs requirement that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Under that provision, a majority of schools in the country were at risk of violating the law.

Mr. AlexanderҀs bill continues the current lawҀs requirement of testing students in reading and math in third through eighth grades and once in high school. All schools must report the scores and show how different racial groups, students with disabilities, those learning the English language and poor students perform on the tests.

The bill would require states to set standards that would allow students to be ready for college or a job Ӏwithout the need for remediation.Ԁ

Neither Mr. HarkinҀs nor Mr. AlexanderҀs bill mandates the content of academic standards. Mr. AlexanderҀs bill also does not prescribe what should be included in a stateҀs annual goals for student performance on tests; Mr. HarkinҀs bill sets more guidelines.

The Alexander bill encourages, but would not require, states to set up teacher evaluation systems. It also does not mandate any turnaround measures for schools that fail to meet state goals, although it does list options including closing a school, replacing the principal or offering higher pay to recruit new teachers.

Mr. Alexander said he wanted to include a provision allowing parents to take public money and put it toward any public school or accredited private school of their choice. He said that he and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky would be introducing an amendment to the bill once it reached the Senate floor to give vouchers to families to use federal dollars to attend private schools.

Some who had seen parts of the bill said that leaving all decisions to states and local school districts and allowing them to set goals could disadvantage students who already start school behind.

ӀThe pressures from local superintendents and Realtors and everybody else to just make schools look good are overwhelming,Ԁ said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that works to close achievement gaps for racial minorities and poor children. ӀAnd it is very hard to maintain a real focus, especially on the kids that have been behind.Ԁ

Others who had not yet seen the bill but were aware of Mr. AlexanderҀs preferences said that the law was meant to set conditions for receiving federal money.

ӀNobody is forcing a state to take this money,Ԁ said Charles Barone, policy director for Democrats for Education Reform, a group that pushes for test-based teacher evaluations and has battled teachersҀ unions. ӀIf they are not willing to do this they should just be honest about it and live without the money.Ԕ

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Obama Promises Internet Upgrade for U.S. Schools

MOORESVILLE, N.C. ׀ President Obama visited an innovative middle school in central North Carolina on Thursday to demonstrate the Internet-based education programs that he is proposing to make available nationwide.

Speaking to an audience of excited teenagers in a steamy gymnasium, Mr. Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to expand an existing program to provide discounted high-speed Internet service to schools and libraries, even if it meant increasing the fees that for years had been added to consumersҀ phone bills. He said the initiative could lead to better technology at 99 percent of schools in five years.

ӀThereҀs no reason why we canҀt replicate the success youҀve found here,Ԁ Mr. Obama said to the studentsҀ cheers. ӀAnd for those of you who follow politics in Washington, hereҀs the best news ׀ none of this requires an act of Congress.Ԁ To further applause, he added, ӀWe can and we will get started right away.Ԁ

Mr. Obama was joined by his education secretary, Arne Duncan, whose department would work with the F.C.C. to revamp the initiative, known as the Schools and Libraries program or E-rate, to provide local schools with Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, among the fastest commercially available. With the federal money that Mr. Obama proposes to redirect for this purpose, schools also could pay for wireless networks throughout their buildings and campuses.

The president singled out Mooresville for its program, which not only upgraded technology but also provided a computer to each student and extra training for teachers. School performance has improved in turn.

Mr. Duncan, speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to North Carolina, said that he had learned of the innovations in Mooresville, a town near Charlotte, because the local school superintendent was a friend. Mr. Duncan said the school quit purchasing textbooks several years ago to pay for the technology. Mr. Obama, he added, wants to Ӏshine a spotlight on best practices and try to take them to scale.Ԁ

To pay for a similar technology expansion throughout the United States, the administration wants to improve the efficiency of the current program, and for telephone customers to pay up to $5 a year extra, or about 40 cents monthly, on their bills.

The Schools and Libraries program is part of the Universal Service Fund, an $8.7 billion program that distributes money for several purposes. Nearly half the money goes to a program that has long subsidized telephone and Internet service to rural or remote areas. About $2.2 billion goes to Schools and Libraries, a similar amount supports phone service to low-income consumers, and $200 million pays for telephone and Internet service to health care professionals in rural areas.

As an independent agency, the F.C.C. does not answer directly to the president, but he nominates the agencyҀs chairman. Any changes to the programҀs structure would have to go through a rule-making procedure and be approved by a majority of the commissionҀs members. Currently there are three members; two seats are vacant.

The program assesses the fees on phone companies, but they typically pass the cost to consumers. The tax is roughly 15 percent on the long-distance portion of phone bills, resulting in a monthly assessment of a few dollars on the average combined home and mobile phone plan.

Schools and libraries that qualify for E-rate support receive discounts of 20 to 90 percent on services and equipment, depending on the household income levels of students and whether the school is in an urban or rural area.

Administration officials say that while the E-rate program, established in 1996, provides low-cost Internet connections to community institutions, the speed of those services is rarely different from those that home subscribers can receive, about 20 megabits per second.

That is fast enough for the average home consumer to stream video, but if dozens of classrooms are trying to view video or listen to digital audio files at the same time, a schoolҀs network will operate much more slowly.

Officials say they also expect private companies to expand their offerings of devices and products like electronic textbooks in response to the expanded program.

Jackie Calmes reported from Mooresville, N.C., and Edward Wyatt from Washington.

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