Like a Dickensian orphan, the Teacher Corps has teetered on the brink of starvation from birth. The program to send federally recruited, federally paid teachers into the nation's worst slum schools came into being in 1965, almost as an afterthought to a larger education bill. Congress left the program's gruel bowl empty of dollars until the following year, then handed it a subsistence diet that was due to run out last week and seemed most unlikely to be replenished.
At the eleventh hour, however, Congress gave the Teacher Corps both operating funds for the present and prospects for a prosperous future. Its...