VIEWPOINTS
EOITORIALS. OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Breast cancer becomes
part of national agenda
■ OUR OPINION: The
disease is not a women's
issue, it affects everyone
()f tin? wommi now
attending the University,
250 of will die from breast
tam er: 022 more will be
diagnosed with the disease
and live Breast ranter can
not be prevented, but early
detection assures a higher
rate of survival,
National Breast Cant er
Awareness Month was
designed to increase the
number of early detections
that will save the lives o!
thousands of women each
year What began as a grass
roots movement in the mid
1980s has become a part o!
our national agenda. Breast
cancer has come out of the
closet What remains to be
changed, however, is the
perception Unit breast r an
ter is a women’s issue.
Mum.iii nature otten
allows us to ignore issues
that do not afftK t us <iin*i t
iy Senior citizens rarely
protest student financial aid
cuts, and University stu
dents won't 1h> marching
toward city hall when
Medicare is slashed by the
Senate Youth often adds to
that apathy as we delude
ourselves into believing we
will live forever
As sm h, our cry for
change rises only when our
lives or our way of life are
threatened. Men overlook
breast cancer because
women are 20 times more
likely to develop breast can
cer than men. and young
females disregard it her a use
women older than 40 are at
a higher risk for the disease.
We simply dismiss it as
"somebody eise’s problem,”
Until recently, the mission
to move breast cancer off the
nation's back burner has
been staffed pi imaril) bj
women, many of whom are
surviving the disease.
The Senate rei ently chan
neled $200 million for
breast earn er research
through the Department of
Defense, one of the largest
allotments for the disease to
date I he credit for that
increase belongs to the
advot ates for breast cancer
research and treatment who
have lobbied tirelessly for
change
Breast cancer will
undoubtedly affect all of us
in our lifetimes
According to the Ameri
can ('.am er Sot iety. one out
of every nine women will
develop the disease, hat h
year 186,000 American
mothers, sisters, daughters,
lovers and best friends hear
the words. "You have can
cer." Awareness month's
purpose is to insure the
diagnosis is not followed by.
And H s loo late.
It's often the women in
our lives who Ihk onw our
primary parents the ones
who keep us safe \V<*, as a
society. rely heavily on
women economically and
emotionally. They are often
the leaders of our con
sciences and our corpora
tions.
Breast cancer deals a
painful blow to hundreds of
thousands of American fam
ilies. Mach year, more than
46.000 women leave behind
the ones who shared life
and love with them
National Breast Cancer
Awareness month is a testa
ment to the thousands of
women who looked beyond
their personal tragedies to
make a difference in the
lives of others, its greatest
achievement would l>e to
give all of us a wake-up call.
For more information on
breast cancer, call 1-800-4
CANCKK.
?r* Ohqcm t/nmukn « outftifwii <u»*i v*c«gfc f r*a»»- ^ mt !***» pat* *<*3 ?s*sui#> *.-o
?Tv*w$jry Owing tf* uarvrm t*» Bw Orogon 0**y f >•*»**« Co ?jx *f thg Uf**ervf» at Oropv
*■«*** Or«g»n A * »» *'»«M t^e f trm mS t%*>»?«» *K*f*Wj**y d ©* >WMrHly wo*
0***** *i S«**» XDolilfrbUivntMtaiUmon
UwgnBf f«c**a»ni ifse opiw d b» fn»iH twa i*yn«j cmmm !*#«*«? p* <$**
•on (H trm catvmnt
11* I nwiM i% phut* pasmtf I** &****& ttmovgl»ta* of tapan 9 pOMKndt** t*» ii»
!#**» (•€».*< f*4rtJ tOom
H»**8'‘fil I*»H» i c* ?***<wft 0*l; j* O*r*«to* As&ury
»*t»« (Ottar 0*3» l ong
C««M»«fv ¥irniam(3wi.^ «*ftv A£*t»i«-u*j| u**vuteu'« M*to
H»ffc*f lOtKABM Otfy l-C"® ***** HigiM ftNWft U* 1 Sum &W WCTO**
AthtwHt* *»»» 1 . *•- «r-\ ■. Jo»s-:*, Ci.'l*. Qow£ ;
'sr*w a**,--** a*** i*u«**tf ajftv VxMti 0»* Nfe Sci»m«*a Ow* Ntrwti
r«t*rt*i*»MVU#fk»*«H AAr»lfe*M *:**<*«? a?*?:* h^iAnru amtU*-# n**v
*• &•#» UC***n hdWg *«l« flHlMU M*0 H*** **&>
0* lM» JMltOfeOn ftjfev
Itttarttf i>r*J *>>1 S«*i nftn jam to*«r 0**cy Jm* M &c*«3 A«*m Cvmu igh*n Piw»
Aj (onU’V l.jfffHltt MfUkrtv^
Coft 0*10 Story K*«xr» ; «pl cto# tog* &** teftl to* Qimne Misfed »>**< V*« ■•-. »*
P*o*eg»*#*y V0rt*s« Uj«r*<H>>rTW* , «**» Rs^M ...» Mk*.0» &»«<* f IN W' . \
**3to* U*t*«so Sterna
ixrr« OoA tti
&***»»! Mtllfll jyJl ««*’
H*tiry Ur Mi ft* Anm Armk* U* ?■*»& ln»t» »0i X«r. C«r V**, i^pv
XiMnlO« M% ifO»' S4J*f« Mi.fwi Jperiy WUlort. lam ‘T1*UIfcH 1i»m Vumfeflw*
©rw»to«»o« W».-'*w H<n\ ,-U'--ayp' ' -/«J A Me 1 a*tm- .-.:yv/u;'
t*HiCVfc«w C«>« Jonto. T»» *.r»gN Uaty Me 41U Cl*i» ScMinka >.<•» -BBan
A**Ort Stormo. s***?i» *m*»n Mk Nw< >3w^J
l»l *«l C^Cxm* U4*I***UV Jvtif COfWOly
Dk«kil«lMMi .«fl XtAnfaM. Johrt long
Ihvom m*»ii £>ii#iif A£*t'ti«>*g mj/i.’
I*» mt (Wt» W Mt2 Clitic Uurtiiw) MI 4J4J
Ift.p
wJUHAk «>?VT I***'
I ’V *#w | #
°*u
\
11
r 'tvi rJ
CNTfHTAJVtWsjT
State should give school choice a chance
When II iatom to edut ition, most
child ran are captives of a govern
ment-run school assigned to them
•m i ording in geography
The great tragedy of the government school
monopoly is that it denies opportunity fur edu
cational excellence to children who mast it the
most The children of poor and working-class
parents
Upper-middle class and wealthy parents
already have a school choice" of sorts They
i an buy botnet in areas served in outstanding
publii schools, or they ran w rite a < h« k to a
private m hool
For example. President Clinton and his wife
Hillary send their daughter Chelsea to
Washington's exclusive Sidwell Friends Si hool
rather than subjei t her to some of the nation's
worst school systems liood for the Clintons
But for those who are not so fortunate, pri
vate school tuition often is I my on d reach Thus,
parents will likely have to send their children
to si hools they know will fail to provide a qual
ity education
The met hanics of school choice an! less
important than achieving a practical result that
makes sure all parents, regardless of economic
circumstances, hat e the opportunity to do what
they deem host for their children's education
Vouchers, charter st hools, diret t payments to
schools or lav i redits all an- viable options
The crucial element is to make existing per
pupil taxpayer subsidies portable among a wide
variety of public and private schools, without
qualifu at ion.
This is the only sure way to make si hools
fully accountable to parents and to taxpayers at
large Schools that fail to deliver a quality edu
cation in a secure environment would stand to
lose their subsidies
Critics claim school choice fundamentally is
anti-public st hoot On the contrary, the strong
performance incentive of school choice would
result in lietter schools overall — both public
and private Schools would have to compete to
serve a larger pool of potential students
This likely would spark some degree of spe
cialization among schools, in» reusing the diver
sity of education options Some schools might
emphasize m iences, some the arts and still oth
ers vocational skills The possibilities are end
less.
Some critics also claim comprehensive
school choice would violate the First
Amendment by providing students with
finances to attend religious schools. This admit
tedly is an unsettled legal issue
Vet government already provides significant
funds to individuals to attend religious educa
•1 Jl'IIl
tional institutions tlirougii student loan guaran
ty's, (II Hill funds, Poll Grants and. some
would argue, the tax-exempt status granted all
religious institutions As lung us any aid is tied
to the individual student and choice programs
do not favor any particular religion, there is no
real First Amendment problem.
Limited experiments with school choice,
using both public and private money, are yield
ing encouraging results.
The 'll private choice programs affiliated
with the Arkansas-based Children's
Opportunity Foundation are educating nearly
H.000 students and another 13,000 are on wait
ing lists powerful testimony to parents'
desires
The OOF Foundation reports many instances
of children who have blossomed academically
and socially once removed from basket-case
schools and given a chance to succeed. A
Milwaukee. Wis., choice program is forcing the
public school system to improve, despite
protests from the American Civil Liberties
Union and other obstructionists.
Him? in Oregon, State Superintendent Norma
Paulus claims lo support choice — hut only
choice among s< hools approved by existing
education authorities, such as the [tend
Community School. The Bend school is a
worthwhile experiment, hut Oregon parents
deserve act ess to a much wider range of choic
es.
Congress could make it much easier for states
and communities to enact their own choice pro
grams simply by allowing federal money, which
is sprinkled throughout state and local educa
tion budgets, to be used for choice programs.
lhe state, for its part, should embark on a
school choice experiment for students currently
Assigned to the dozen worst-ranking public
schools. Since these schools already are demon
strable failures, a choice program could hardly
make matters worse — and more likely would
force dramatic improvements.
Considering what's at stake for the students,
it worse than folly to continue to send kids to
st hools that will leave them entirely unpre
pared for adulthood. It's destructive.
Hie burden in the school choice debate ought
to 1h* on those who insist on a status quo that so
miserably fails children who most need a
chance.
Hill Witt, a Hepublican businessman from Port
land, is set-king the GOP nomination for Stork
Hatfield's Senate seat.