Citizens Commission On Civil Rights

Students from low-income households are not getting the same challenging schoolwork as other children, despite a federal law designed to bridge the learning gap between the haves and have-nots, a civil rights panel contended Monday.

Students from low-income households are not getting the same challenging schoolwork as other children, despite a federal law designed to bridge the learning gap between the haves and have-nots, a civil rights panel contended Monday.

Describing the Clinton administration's civil rights record as positive in tone but lacking real accomplishments, a minority-rights watchdog group will issue a report today urging the White House to develop a more aggressive plan to combat racial discrimination during President Clinton's second term.

Describing the Clinton administration's civil rights record as positive in tone but lacking real accomplishments, a minority-rights watchdog group will issue a report today urging the White House to develop a more aggressive plan to combat racial discrimination during President Clinton's second term.

President Clinton and federal lawmakers must provide stronger leadership and funding for civil rights because of "new dangers" that 30 years of progress may be eroded in the courts and Congress, a bipartisan panel of former federal officials urge in a report to be released today.

Although President Bush has made more progress on the road to racial equality than his predecessor, many of his policies have contributed to an increase in racial tensions and conflicts, the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights charged Wednesday. The bipartisan panel of 14 former government officials commended Bush for working to enforce voting rights and fair housing laws. But it said that the Administration needs to improve its record in other areas.

Citing what it called a "complete breakdown" of civil rights enforcement under the Reagan Administration, a group of former government civil rights officials Tuesday urged President-elect Bush to create a Cabinet-level task force to examine discrimination in housing, employment and education.

Arthur Flemming, an aide to every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan who was known for his thoughtful approaches to welfare, Medicare, integration and other key social issues of his age, has died of congestive heart failure. He was 91. Flemming was a Republican who worked for Democrats and Republicans. His true commitment was to the causes he believed in--helping to make the American dream come alive for all citizens, regardless of their race, religion or national origin.

William L. Taylor didn't necessarily look the part of a leading civil rights advocate, a matter he addressed in his memoir under the heading "A White Guy Like Me," as in: "What leads a white guy like me to spend his life working on behalf of black people?" Growing up Jewish in Brooklyn while the Holocaust raged in Europe helped shape his future, he wrote. Another early lesson in civil rights came from following the "career and courage" of Jackie Robinson as he broke major league baseball's color line in 1947.

What exactly is President Bush trying to achieve on civil rights? Against the backdrop of the racial controversy that cost Trent Lott (R-Miss.) his job as Senate majority leader, Bush's own intentions have come under closer scrutiny.

None of the Great Society ambitions has been frustrated more bitterly than the dream of narrowing the education gap between poor children and kids who go home to more comfortable beds. Since 1965, Washington has poured more than $120 billion into that effort through Title I, a massive program that pays for extra instruction for low-income students. Nearly half of all American schools, and one-quarter of all students, receive services (such as tutoring and remedial instruction) under Title I.

Time is running out, Education Department officials say, for the states to turn around about 8,000 of the nation's worst-performing schools in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Federal reforms require that, during the academic year beginning this fall, states must force drastic measures on schools that are chronically failing to teach low-income students--steps that could include firing all the administrators and staff, or sending students to other public schools that are making better progress.