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A bill in Congress to spend $25 billion to relieve school overcrowding and improve decaying school buildings is on the verge of reality this fall.

Grassroots leaders are working to be the crucial factor in a debate on HR 4094, a proposal to create the most significant federal role in school construction in the country's history. Their efforts in part have resulted in the bill playing a key role in moment-to-moment discussions between President Clinton and Republican leaders of the Congress on who gets what money and how much under next year's federal budget, according to Inside-the-Beltway advisors.

Groups across the country--including in Hartford, Buffalo, Chicago, and Los Angeles--rallied and met with members of the media in August and September to keep the issue on the front burner. Among other results of their efforts was an editorial in the New York Times.