The Migrant Education Program (MEP) was reauthorized for 5 years, effective July 1, 1995. Legislative changes in eligibility, priority for services, schoolwide projects, student record transfer, the summer funding formula, and consortium incentives make this the most sweeping one-time change in programming for migrant children and youth since the program's inception in 1966. Reduction in the eligibility period from 6 to 3 years, based on a single move, will remove about 200,000 formerly migrant children from the program. However, another revision that extends eligibility to migrant workers and their spouses through age 21 will add unknown numbers of older youth. A major change requires MEP grantees to give priority in the use of funds to migrant children who are failing or at risk of failing to meet state standards, and whose education was interrupted during the regular school year. Migrant educators believe that virtually all migrant students are at risk in relation to performance standards, and fear that this requirement may discourage families from remaining in home states until the end of the school year. The MEP includes other changes: allowing commingling of MEP funds with other funds in schoolwide projects serving migrant children; mandating replacement of the Migrant Student Record Transfer System with new means of counting migrant children and transferring records; mandating development of a new funding formula that reflects cost factors for different types of summer programs; and providing monetary incentives for interstate consortium arrangements that improve delivery of services. Contains seven references. (SV)