Senate likes education goals
WASHINGTON IAI') —Thu Clinton administra
tion won Senate approval Tuesday of legislation to
implement national eduction goals and ensure that
students are adequately prepared for the "jobs of
tomorrow."
"Those hills will benefit America's most valuable
resource - our children." Senate Majority Leader
George Mitchell. D-Maine, said He predicted the
result would be "a (letter country, (with from an is o
nomic and social perspective."
Meanwhile, on a third school bill, the Education
Department accepted a House committee's < orn
promise that earmarks to the poorest children n
share of education dollars for the disadvantaged •
but not as much ns the administration had sought.
The Senate voted 71-25 in favor of the Goals 2000
bill, the centerpiece of the administration's leg
islative agenda for education.
The separate School to-Work Opportunities Act,
approved by a 02-5 1 vote, authorizes .$;t()0 mil
lion in state grants for partnerships lietween high
schools and businesses to help students who do not
go on to college The bills now go to separate con
ference committees that will work out differences
with the House
" ffiis is lure education’ (fiat offers hands-on
learning to help students envision and plan lor the
jobs of tomorrow " said Sen Paul Simon. D III
i Inef sponsor of the work-opportunity plan
Ijilxir Set rotary Holier! Reich noted that both meu
suros passed with Republican support "There is
no partisanship when it i omes to schools, when
it comes to kids," he said
As the Senate acted, the House Education and
ljibor Committee voted -41-1 to target new money
approved for the so-called Chapter I program for
disadvantaged students to the poorest school dis
tricts In fiscal 1995, that would total about $700
million of the $7 billion the administration has pro
posed for Chapter 1
Ninety-three percent of the nation's school dis
tricts and 66 pen ent of all public schools ret eive
some Chapter I funds because the funds are spread
so thin, the poorest distru ts have insufficient mon
ey to serve all their high-poverty s< bools, the Edu
cation Department salt!.
file department had proposed targeting 50 per
i ent of the Chapter I funds That would have hud
the efft-t I of redui mg federal education dollars to
about half the counties
I bis is us strong .is we t ould have gotten," suit!
Education Undersecretary Marshall Smith He said
the deportment would press its original proposal
when the hill goes to the Senate
The Goals 2000 vote comes five years after the
nation's governors and then-president Bush agreed
to six national education goals The legislation
would write those goals into lass It also would
nuance efforts to develop voluntary national stan
dards in key subject areas and provide S400 mil
lion in grants to states and Ux.nl governments that
want to reform their education programs
"There is a real yearning in this country for
change in education,” Education Se< retnrs Richard
Riley said
He said the measure provides a framesvork for
helping teachers, schools and parents bring about
the kinds of changes needed to promote a world
class education for every < hild in America
The Senate, by a vote of 59-34. defeated an
amendment that would have cut off federal funds
to programs that distribute contraceptives to minors
without parental consent An alternative, telling
those agencies to en< mirage family participation in
control eptive distribution programs, was approved
'll 2
Senators also defeated r)2 4 1 an amendment that
would have laum hud an experiment to give poor
students a i hoii e of attending publit or private
si hoots
The House version of Goals 2000 would require
states to develop standards in such areas ns cur
riculum content and to ensure that all children have
an equal opportunity to learn The Senate measure
would encourage those standards
The Senate hill also would encourage si hool dis
tricts to allow students a brief period of silence
for reflection, and would deny federal money to any
s<.hool district that prohibits "i (institutionally pro
tected prayer."
The six national edui-ation goals state that b\ the
year 200(1
—All i hildren will arrive at si hool ready to learn
—The high si hool graduation rate will ini reuse
to at least 90 [ien ent
—Students will master challenging subject mat
ter
—U S students will be firs! in the world in math
and science
—All adult Americans will he literate and able
to compete in a global economy
—Every school will lie free of drugs and violence
Florida State researcher
learns how to make taxol
using common chemicals
TALLAHASSEK. Fin (AP) —
A Florida Stale University
chemist tins figured out how to
use i ommon chemicals to make
taxol. a ( am er drug until now
extracted only from the scarce
Pacific yew tree or the twigs and
needles of similar plants
"It's a scientific, research
breakthrough," researcher
Robert Holton said Tuesday "It
may also l>e important for cancer
patients not only now • but in
years to come."
The taxol now being used
comes from the Pacific yew in
old-growth forests home to the
endangered spotted owl. at cord
ing to Saul Schepnrtz. who over
sees treatment research at the
National Cancer Institute in
Hethesdn. Maryland
Hut an alternative method
using the twigs and needles of
similar plants has been perfect
ed and should be approved
sometime tins year. Schepartz
said.
That method, discovered by
Holton nearly three years ago.
involves about four different
chemical reactions it's known
as semi-synthesis.
Total synthesis - the laborato
ry production of taxol from com
mon chemicals - involves some
40 different chemical reactions
and takes about two weeks,
Holton said
"It's a significant lab accom
plishment." Schepartz said He
estimated at least a dozen labs
nationally had been working on
taxol synthesis.
"There's intense interest in
it." he said
Holton's twm synthesized the
drug Inst month nnd got word
Monday that the Journal of the
American Chemii al So( iety
would publish articles about the
process.
"We did it We re tired."
Holton said, adding that many
of his colleagues had called the
total synthesis of taxol an
impossible challenge 'It's like
( limbing to the top of a moun
tain that's never been climbed
Imfore.”
Holton's achievement “may
enable researchers to devise
more-effective, less-toxic drugs
of the taxol class and could thus
have a significant effect on can
cer treatment." said Samuel
Hroder, director of the National
Cancer Institute.
Hroder has called taxol the
most important cancer drug in
15 years.
It has shown the most promise
in the treatment of ovarian and
breast cancers in women who
have not responded to treatment
with other drugs It also has
shown promise in early trials
against certain lung cancers.
It takes the txirk of about three
full-grown trees to produce
enough taxol to treat one cancer
patient.
The trees thrive in the shade
of the same dwindling old
growth forests that are home to
the threatened northern spotted
owl. Lawsuits to protect the owl
habitat have brought logging to u
virtual halt on national forests in
the Northwest, where most of
the yews are found
FCC extends cable revenue freeze while it conducts review
WASHINGTON (Al’j Thu Fedurul Communic alums
Commission is extending thu frou/.u on i ablu TV rev
enues to May 1 r> while it ( undue ts n review of the prit us
charged for service
A revenue freezes imposed last year during implemen
tation of new rules was due to expire Fob 15
Hut nn outcry last fall over changes in how cable com
panies hill customers - which resulted in charges that
many people received higher hills - led the agency to
reconsider its rate rules.
The agency is expected to review its rules this month
and officials said extending the revenue freeze would
make it ensiur to implement unv new regulations
At the same tune, local communities are in the process
of < edifying their hx al i able companies as monopolies,
a prix ess that permits them to regulate basic c able ser
vice
As of till! end of January, systems hove been < unified
for 7,500 of the nation’s 33.000 communities with cable
Commission offic oils said the revenue freeze also
extends the time for the remaining communities to ac t
Rote regulation cannot be enforced until local com
munities have received FCC certific ation that the local
cable company operates us a monopoly and thereby is
covered by the new law.
It's up to the local authority to enforce the law gov
erning charges for basic service - the package of channels
comprising local broadcasters and government and pub
lic access c able channels.
The FCC enforces the section of the law that dictates
how much a company can charge for channels beyond
basic service But the commission will not take any
ac tion until it gets subsc riber complaints
By extending the freeze, the KCC is trying to maintain
a stable pricing situation until local communities are
prepared to enforce the law.
Many questions have surfaced since cable companies
announced billing changes in September to comply with
the new cable law
Variations in channel packaging and equipment
charges caused individual bills to go up or down, but the
freeze prohibited companies from collecting any more in
overall revenue than they had six months earlier.
Consumers who believe the changes caused excessive
charges for cable channels beyond the basic package cun
generate FC.'C action against the company by filing a
complaint with the commission.
The National Cable Television Association, mean
while. has chafed under the revenue freeze, with officials
estimating that it has cost the industry 52 billion.
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