EDITORIAL
New education plan
lacks needed input
()n Thursday. President Bush will unveil the edu
cation plan he hopes will actually give merit to Ins
i laim of being the education president Hie plan has
both good and had elements
The good part of the plan is that it proposes a fed
eral program of research and development to invent
new kinds of public schools Looking into ways to im
prove and < umpletelv rearrange sc hools is a good idea,
and spending money in tli.it area is long overdue
The bad part of the plan (.ills for more nationwide
testing of students and for basing finam ial support for
sc bools on those test results
Public schools should not have to compete for
monev to educate It is fine to sa\ the best si bools
those doing the best job of educating children
should be rewarded In theory it should make si hoots
work harder to educate their pupils
Hut the pole \ ut rewarding si bools with the high
est average test scores presents some possibilities that
need to be looked into
Lust ol all the ini entivc for administrations to fab
ricate test results, or focus their entire curriculum on
improving test scores, would iise dramaticnllv under
the Hush plan
Anothei potentially negative result ol the Hush
proposal could oct ur if schools try to ( ater to brighter
students in order to bring up the test sc ores Hush has
proposed the implementation of a parent-choir e si bool
system where parents could choose where their i till
dren go to school
t'niter this plan, parents would pick the "best
si bools lor their ( hildren, so si bools w ith the best rep
utations would be in high demand and be able to pii k
and i boose who thev enrolled
A system set up in this manner would put all the
• bright" kids ill the well-funded si bools while the
"slower" kids would be dumped into poorly-funded
programs
In simple terms the Hush proposal would allow a
system that discriminates against the i hildren of less
educated" people to perpetuate itself l.aisse/ faire.
survivel-uf the fittest business practices have no place
in publii education
Public, education is for everyone, not pist those
u ho ex< el
Hush's in'uh appointed education secretary. La
mar Alexander, has said education reform rails tor ait
• •ntindv new system and not just a rebuilding of the ex
isting one t herefore. Alexander wants to go direr tlv
to the people and bypass the education establishment
litis is lini1 in print ip It* Hut Alexander should consul
el that while the "people" should get what they want,
ignoring the input ot people who have devoted their
lives to ediu ating the youth of this i ountrv is idiotic
H\ ignoring the edtuation estiiblishment. the Hush
plan also does not properly address problems that
those m the education system have been complaining
about for v ears
• Why not start out the reform movement bv im
plementing a longer si hoot dav epual to those ill other
countries such as Japan?
• Instead of spending so much money to tome up
with new schools, why not put some of that money
into existing, underfunded programs’
• People in public si bools have been say ing for
years that education needs to get back to tire funda
mentals
• Most importantly, why doesn't the education
president propose to do something about reforming the
sy stem that grossly underpays the people w ho are edu
cating ds youth?
After all you gel what you pay for
Oregon
The Oregon Da* . t • e-\t ’ •• : ,;t- M - )d> tfv. ,g*> * ■ Jay «•*- apt during 014m
*«*eh and «.« a! os t)y the Oregon 0a<(» E^cm';! Publish.-g Co at the University of
Oregon Eugene Oregon
The ? • .•peraled independently f the Un oersity *vnh offices on the third
lic-o' ot the Eft; Memonat Union and is a of the As-..,. 1 atod Ptens
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A-ny f '.* }<■•■ - • %
jllhanr**}
j40.NO, VOU pON'T LNPLR5TANP/ TH/5 15
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HATES TAX £5/ IT'5 A CRUS APE 1
LETTERS
Whose truth?
Warning Misreading tins let
ter i.ould Im' harmful to your
health Swallowing heavy met
a! tan kill, or if you an1 biltn
glial on golpe so mala
In thu April lsstio of l uU‘lil\
thoro is a foaturo artu lo ontitloii
Hitler ami the ()< i nil \a
/ism, Reincarnation ami Koi k
Culture b\ Su/anne M Kim
She was apparently movod In
signs of tho nso in Satanism in
tho Now Ago Movement (Juot
mg from hor artii lo eiuapsu
l.itos a part of hor reasoning
"So. in c omlimatlon. w o soo
that m tho I S today wo havo
tho frontal aspiM t of Satanism
.is roprosontod In teenagers' in
i leasing attrar lion to It. and we
soo tho more subtle form
emerging from out of the god
doss regions of noo pagan Now
Ago
"lor both, the bottom line
whether one drosses it up in
fungian terminology, or
si raw Is a pentagram on an un
derpass in the suburbs is the
Satanic (ommandment In do
whatever mu' wants and to ex
perieiue evervthmg extolling
personal power and its final
agent the Devil over subnns
stun to moral law
Refusing to consider oneself
.1 sinner is the common ground
of both And ImiIIi varieties, as
witnessed by the suicide relat
ed above and U hitmunt s < olio
tpii.il and know ledgable refer
ences to Nazism are no more or
less than the current blossom
ing of the Nazi legai \ come
home to roost in the good old
l S.A.”
Tools sa\ there is no (aid and
the C.rateful Dead sa\ there is
no e\ il All of us want to be
free and it is said. Aon shall
know the truth and the truth
shall ill.ike \ou free
Norman Kvnnuk
Kugenr
Altered states
t )ur met hanic al machines of
war proved their effectiveness
in Operation Desert ‘storm An
othei machine also demonstrut
ed its power the propaganda
mar lime employed bv the Pen
tagon to manipulate the media
Hv using press pools, a thinly
disguised form of censorship,
tiic military sui cessfully cun
trolled virtually nil the news
coming from the Persian C.ulf
Aside from <i lawsuit brought
forth In a handful of publica
tions. media resistance to the
reslric tions w as palhetii
Perhaps |ust as frightening
was the public s support of
censorship Polls showed most
Americans were in favor of
tightly (ontrolled information
with main actually advocating
even stricter government regu
lation
Support was probably hot
stered by Pentagon t laims that
manipulation was iuh essarv to
protect American lives Tutor
tunatelv their amis were not
nearly so pure
Many stories were censored
to prodtu e a more palatable
version of the war One report
er saw his piei e altered to read
"proud where he had de
si rlived returning pilots as
giddy \nothei v\ ritei saw
officials delete a section of Ills
story detailing how many air
men wall bed pornographic
films to prepare- lor (tombing
r.iuis over lrai|
Protection of lives w.is also
used to pistils censorship dur
mg the invasion of Panama K\
idence has surfaced indicating
that the military holds footage
from helu opter gunships slum
ing civilians luring gunned
down .is thev ran panic ked
through the streets of Panama
City
This unsanili/ed version of
the war will probably never be
seen bv the public: and like
wise we will probabK never
know what really happened in
I iesert Storm
Censorship is un American
Kron Wit/el
P re-journalism
Unprofessional
The only option Mike Colson
should have at tins point is to
withdraw from the ASCI) pres
idential elections Colson's at
lions are those of a pathological
liar Me has consistently lied m
public
I would also like to mention
Colson s slanderous ad in the
l.mcr.ild (April 11! Kven if
then' is no rule against 111is in
the ele< lions rules, there ought
to he Not only was this ad an
attempt to degrade his oppo
nent, (ennifer Hills, it was also
a blatant lie
Whatever happened to his
dedication to .1 (lean cam
paign7 What Colson has done
and said to the 1 'niversity 1 om
munity is not onk unprofes
sional. hut morally wrong 1
would strongly advise Colson
to drop out of the rai e and also
resign from his position as li t
i hairman A Cniversity should
not harbor 1 orrupt politicians
such as (lolson
Tomorrow’s senators are to
day's college student politi
i tails
Mike Colson Kxperienced (in
lying) I )edii ated (to dirty
play) Accessible and unprofes
sional
Kelly Skudlarirk
Kugene
Running down
[.eutiership is taking a stand
It seems someone recently
wrote those words on these
\er\ pages and yet, in the
midst of election races. 1 < an
see no no one standing
l our members ol the IF'U are
currently trying to convince us
of their leadership abilities,
four people who want to take
the reins of the ASUO Kxecu
live as our University faces
drastu budget i uts as well as a
\ ai lets of soi lal issues
The members of the IFU .ire
refusing to i lean their own
house and deal with the note
tampering issue They are tail
mg the students as ssell as
shirking their elected duty
(budgeting for the coming
year)
The FMf' Hoard, another ha
s en for exec utive candidates,
has conveniently postponed
making a del ision on the smok
mg issue and the Affirmative
Action recruitment issue until
after the elections
How can any of them claim
the abilits to take a stand7 May
be these candidates should try
standing before running
|oe (.rube
Knglish Philosophy
Wednesday. April 17. 19!)l