Field Hearing on H.R. 6, Challenge for the Future--educational Opportunities for California's Youth

A House of Representatives subcommittee hearing addressed the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, focusing on Chapter 1 and bilingual education needs and services in California. Statements were received from legislators, Los Angeles educational administrators and teachers, teacher educators, early childhood providers, and representatives of migrant education programs and migrant and Mexican American advocacy groups. Testimony discussed the following topics: (1) state probation camps that provide rehabilitation and educational services for juvenile offenders; (2) the burden on California, and particularly Los Angeles, of educating large numbers of immigrant children with limited English proficiency; (3) the need for programs to help bilingual paraprofessionals and teacher aides become certified bilingual teachers; (4) need for coordination of education, health care, child care, and other services for poor children; (5) the Equal Access to Education Act of 1993, which seeks to expand Chapter 1 from supplementary basic skills instruction to schoolwide reform; (6) changes in the Chapter 1 funding formula; (7) concern that the proposed clustering of federal categorical program funds will exclude migrant students from services; (8) parent involvement and parent education; (9) recommendations for improving migrant education, related to alternative methods of student data collection, consortium agreements, summer program formula, and eligibility; (10) crime prevention and safety in schools; (11) EDUTRAIN, an alternative charter school for delinquent and high-risk students; and (12) problems in providing quality preschool and child care services in poor neighborhoods. (SV)