EDITORIAL : TOUGH TALK CALLING FOR BETTER SCHOOLS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

U.S.Education Secretary Richard Riley used appropriately tough language this week in his annual speech on the state of American education.

The Clinton administration's top education official declared that action is overdue to improve America's schools, that laws should be changed if necessary to make it easier for states and communities to improve schools and teachers, and that bad schools should be closed or reorganized.

We will have to wait to see, however, whether his words are followed by action.

Our fear is that many people, including many federal education officials, will focus their attention not on the need for action, but on some of Riley's other remarks. For instance, much of his speech was spent expounding on President Clinton's earlier announcements such as for national achievement standards and tax breaks for college tuition (but with strings attached, of course).

Yet, at least the education secretary didn't completely ignore the precept that excellent schools are linked to local control. Meaningful local oversight and control have been ebbing in recent decades - a period in which, not coincidentally, the public has expressed unmistakable dissatisfaction with American education in general, and with elementary and secondary education in particular.

As the administration's point man on education, Riley is talking the talk. But are he and others in the federal education bureaucracy ready to walk the walk? That's essential, because as Riley himself said, it's now time for action.