Page 4 Portland Observer, February 4,1982
EDITORIAL/OPINION
M,lll0nsf0r El Salvador war
____________________________________ __________________________
Where is the leadership?
Neither the Governor nor the Legislature
has dem onstrated the leadership and
responsibility necessary to meet the State’ s
.deficit in a sane and human way.
The deep budget cuts proposed by Governor
Atiyeh would badly cripple many helpless and
defenseless people in the face o f a serious
depression. They w ould cripple the State’ s
education system and natural resources for
years to come. This is not a responsible road to
take.
The Legislature does not know what it
wants. The Democrats have tried to avoid deep
cuts in higher education and human services by
fin d in g other sources o f money -- a small
surcharge on the income tax, a reduction o f
property tax relief. They have been unable to
get the votes necessary to do anything.
Now comes the time to compromise. Here’ s
bettina the Legislature gives in and the people
least able - the poor, elderly, young and sick -
w ill be the ones to suffer.
1
Bill threatens rights of all
The United States Senate has succeeded --
quite easily with a 58-38 vote -- in passing an
anti-busing measure that would prevent courts
from using transportation as a desegregation
tool.
This bill is more than a trend o f the times --
a trend toward the restriction o f civil rights o f
m in o ritie s and void in g past c iv il rights
legislation and p o licy. It is a step tow ard
allowing congress, and perhaps later the White
a llo w in g Congress, and perhaps later the
White House, to remove the civil, human and
Indoor meet gets new life
This weekend’ s Oregon Indoor Track and
Field Meet was a smashing success w ith its
first sub-4 mile and upsets o f stars Carl Lewis
and Alberto Salazar.
The new track and its potential for record
setting should bring back the crowds that once
witnessed this fine event.
Those who made the track possible through
their donations and labor must be thanked and
congratulated for their service to the youth o f
our community.
It was rewarding to see local high school and
college youth competing and succeeding along
with world class athletes.
SOME ECONOMIC PROGRAM
FIRST HE MAKES US AS POOR AS
XHURCHMICE, THEN HE GIVES U S
CHEESE !
Letters to the Editor
Social programs do not belong with states
To the editor:
In President Reagan’s State o f the
Union address, he proposed that by
1984 the states assume control o f
over 40 social programs. The H is
panic Political Action Committee is
against this concept.
H istory has already proven that
state governments do not respond
equitably to the needs o f all o f their
citizens. W hile Oregon might be an
exception, not all states will make
an effort to implement the policies
o f equal opportunity, fair housing,
civil rights, or equal educational ac
cess.
President Reagan, by giving re
sponsibility o f these programs to the
states, without sufficient funds, will
be setting states up for failure. Our
own state legislators are currently
struggling to balance our state bud
get and are having to cut back im
portant funding for human services
and higher education. I f states re
ceived limited funds for programs
and tried to implement current fed
eral program s, these programs
would be destined to fail.
This destiny to fail will encourage
states to spend limited federal dol
lars meant for direct services on
other projects such as newer and
bigger public service buildings, or
merely supplementing existing state
program s. This would be a total
abuse o f these dollars. They very
abuse President Reagan is trying to
avoid.
The H ispanic P o litica l A ction
C om m ittee recommends that if
these programs arc administered by
the states that the following be iden
tified specifically for each program:
program d ollars, program goals,
target populations to be served, and
im plem entation procedures. This
would assure that women and m i
norities have equal access to these
services in every state.
Gale Castillo
President, Hispanic
Political Action Committee
Portland Observer
» IM II»
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Publishers
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The Reagan Administration plans
to send, immediately, $55 million in
m ilitary assistance to the govern
ment o f El Salvador, to be followed
by over $110 million by October 1st.
Officials say $25 million is needed to
replace helicopters and other a ir
craft, about half o f El Salvador’s air
power, destroyed in a guerrilla a t
tack on an airbase near San Salva
dor last week.
Adm inistration officials said the
increase in military aid is to support
the ruling ju n ta , to resist guerrilla
demands fo r a negotiated settle
ment. and to build toward a general
election in M arch. Guerrillas reject
the idea o f an election during a reign
of terror that prevents broad pan ici-
pat ion.
The Reaaan
Reagan administration con-
con
tinues to see the El Salvador conflice
as "communist subversion" rather
than a struggle for human rights.
Last week the adm inistration pre
pared the way for added aid by cer
tify in g that the ru lin g ju n ta is
making "concerted efforts" io pro
tect human rights and has achieved
"su b stan tial c o n tro l" over its se
c u rity forces that are accused o f
slaughtering its people.
The strength o f the guerilla forces
is increasing, as is government vio
lence. Raymond Bonner, a corres
pondent for the N ew York Times,
and a Washington Post reporter, re
cently saw the charred remains o f
dozens o f bodies in M o zo te and
nearby villages in M o razo n p ro
vince. Survivors said government
soldiers had killed 733 peasants,
mostly women, children and old
people.
This past weeekend 20 civilians
were pulled out of their homes and
murdered in the capital city, San
Salvador.
Apologies
O U r appologies to M a ry Jean
Berry for the typographical error in
her poem. H is Eyes B eheld the
Prom ised L an d , published in our
M artin Luther King special. The last
line was not part o f the poem.
Can Prophet do the job?
(Continued fro m page ! col. 6)
o f those students to Jefferson High
School pushed Jefferson's minority
population over 50 per cent.
Unkept Promises
lations issued thereunder.”
Transfers also shall:
"M eet the condition that the per
centage o f m in o rity students in
either the originating or the receiv
ing school which will be increased
by reason o f the transfer shall not in
the year in which the transfer is first
made exceed 30 percent."
D uring the summer o f 1979 the
District was investigated by the O f
fice o f Civil Rights in response to a
complaint filed earlier by the O re
gon M in o rity Educators O rganiza
Conflict grows, tempers flare
tion. The District was found in non-
com pliance by Region X but
The philosophical c o n flict be
with political pressure properly ap
tween the policy and plan extends to
plied the W ashington. D .C . office
the School Board members them
found that although " th e burdens
selves.
placed upon the Black students un
The "integralionist" philosophy
der the District’s voluntary plan are
is represented by Frank McNamara.
disproportionately greater than the
The only Board member remaining
burdens imposed on w hite stu
from the “ old board" days when ra
dents," the district was still not in
cial policy was made almost exclu
non-compliance.
sively by Blanchard and Board
Among the reasons given for this
member Jonathan Newman, he still
finding was (hat Superintendent
clings to the philosophy set by that
Blanchard had reported that the
regime. M cNam ara repeatedly rais
District "now actively recruits white
es the moral and legal issues o f de
and Black students to participate in
segregation, expressing his belief
its desegregation p ro g ram s" and
that children should be educated in
" a ll A lbina area students are now
an integrated setting to prepare for a
assigned to a middle school, so 351
multi-ethnic world,
Black transfer students will no long
M cN am ara expresses fears that
er be involuntarily bussed under the
(he increase o f Black students in
Administrative Transfer program ”
schools that had been previously de
O f course the middle school was not
segregated (reached a student popu
adopted by the School Board until
lation o f less than 50 per cent minor
the following April (the finding was
ity) will bring about legal action by
made in July o f 1979) and Tubman
the Justice Department or open the
did not open until the fall o f 1980. It
district to a successful lawsuit.
was, and still is, located outside the
M cN am ara discusses these con
community.
cerns whenever the Black communi
The apparently serious considera
ty ’ s concerns are discussed— whe
tion o f the Board o f placement o f
ther the placement o f Tubman M id
Tubm an in Southeast Portland or
dle School or the right o f students to
other district locations brings the
attend neighborhood schools.
p o ten tial reopening o f this com
McNamara's detractors arc quick to
plaint, as docs the District’ s failure
recall that he expressed no concern
to attract white students to predom
over the forced bussing o f hundreds
inantly Black schools.
o f Black children, that he supported
Same old policies
the idea that whites could not be
forced to bus, and he apparently
The increasing percentage o f
disregarded
his integrationist philos
Black students in traditionally Black
ophy
when
closing o f Adams and
schools exacerbates a widening con
W ashington/M onroe (over the op
flict withing the School Board over
position o f the community) pushed
racial policy.
Jefferson over the 50 per cent mark.
The Board discussions leading tc
the "Comprehensive Desegregation
Plan" o f A pril, 1980, were frought
w ith tension and h o stility among
Board members and between some
Board members and Dr. Blanchard.
For this reason, although the new
plan was a definite departure from
the previous practice o f involuntary
busing for Black students in an at
tempt to achieve numerical desegre
gation, the existing policy was not
addressed— and it remains.
The policy still on the books
states:
” . . . that this School Board:
1. Acknowledges the affirm ative
duty o f this School D istrict to re
duce and elim inate racial isolation
o f m inority children in its schools
and to achieve and m aintain a ra
cially integrated educational p ro
gram for the benefit o f all students
o f this School District.
2. Declares the achievem ent o f
these goals is a matter o f high prior
ity for this D is trict.. . . "
The policy directs the Superinten
dent to:
"Encourage increased enrollment
in the adm inistrative transfer pro
gram to the fullest extent p ractic
able, with particular emphasis on re
cruitment o f new transferees in the
early elementary grades (K -6 )___ ”
The tran s p o rta tio n policy still
states:
" T ra n s p o rta tio n shall be p ro
vided by the D istrict to a student
who is a nonresident o f the attend
ance area o f a high school in which
the percentage o f minority students
exceeds 30 percent and who attends
a program there which is open to
D istrict-w ide enrollm ent pursuant
to paragraph 6 o f Board Policy ad
opted M ay 27, 1975, page 200.1 o f
the Board Policy Book and the regu-
M c N a m a ra ’ s philosophy places
him in direct c o n flict with Board
M em ber H erb Cawthorne and v ir
tually all o f the Black community.
C aw thorne believes Black parents
should have a right to choose whe
ther th e ir children should attend
school in their neighborhood or
transfer. The only way the "right to
choose" can be realistic is i f the
neighborhood schools are on the
same academic level as other
schools. Having inferior schools in
the neighborhood forces parents to
make choices without adequate op
tions; not providing a space in the
neighborhood school for every child
causes heavyhanded recruiting and
is tantamount to force. Cawthorne
rejects the idea that Black children
cannot learn in m a jo rity Black
schools.
The position o f Caw thorne, the
Black United Front and those com
m u n ity org an izatio n s that have
taken a fo rm al position were ex
pressed by Dr. Derrick Bell, Dean of
the U n ive rs ity o f Oregon Law
School:
"T h e fact is that (the) Brown (vs.
Board o f Education, U .S. Supreme
Court decision) nowhere ordered in
teg ration by the numbers, by the
percentages. That kind o f integra
tion has always been simply a means
o f measuring whether school boards
who were dragging their feet were,
in fa c t, doing anything tow ards
complying.
" T h e cases u n ifo rm ly held that
plans that emphasize education even
to the detrim ent o f racial balance
were approvable under the Consti
tu tio n ----- To require in one way or
another that Black parents send
their children to a school to effect
integration is as wrong and as dam
aging, I suggest, as was the pre-
Brown school boards’ requirement
that Black parents send their ch il
dren to segregated schools. In each
instance it is the coercion by that
group in our society that has the
power against that group in (he soci
ety that does not have the power.
" I suggest to you that the most ef
fective way o f in teg rating the
schools in this com m u nity and
across this country is: slowly but
surely remove the long-held belief
(hat Black children cannot learn and
that Black schools are ineffective."
M id d le ground is held by B ill
Scott who has said that (he Middle
School should be located in the
Black com m unity, (hat the u n ila t
eral actions o f Joe Rieke and then
Frank McNamara in postponing the
renovation o f Eliot were probably
improper; and that he will support
the Eliot site if no belter site sur
faces. Scott is not considered a
" h a rd -lin e " vote on either side o f
the desegregation issue. Philosophi
cally favoring desegregation, he has
been able to understand the con
cepts underlying the com m unity's
emphasis on education,
not
integration.
The School Board w ill discuss
these issues this spring in an attempt
to bring their policies and plans into
line.
On the side o f " c h o ic e ” and
quality education will be Cawthorne
and Steve Buel. Bucl, a teacher, is
the board member who has most
closely
follow ed
the
recom m endations o f the Black
United Front in his votes.
The integrationist position will be
held by M cNam ara with Joe Rieke
close behind — his vote determined
in large part by the direction from
which he believes "litig a tio n ” will
come.
Dean Gisvold and Charlotte Bee
man, new members who were not on
the Board during the desegregation
decision making are unknown enti
ties. Both have expressed concern
that Tubman not be permanently lo
cated until the desegregation issue is
settled. Ms. Beeman has not as yet
demonstrated any understanding, or
interest, in the Black position,
The overriding question is: Can
Matthew Prophet bring order out o f
chaos? W ill his e ffo rts bring him
into conflict with the Black commu
nity?
W ith Tubman on hold, little has
been accomplished by the C om pre
hensive Plan except the option for
Black students to return to their
neighborhood schools. There is little
demonstrated progress in Black hir
ing; the suggestions o f highly paid
expert consultants are largely ig
nored; teacher training is voluntary
and is planned by uninformed build
ing principals; there is little academ
ic progress.
The Black com m unity appears
united
behind
the
" q u a lity
education" point o f view and fear
that the Board may attem pt to
return to the practice o f forcing
Black children out o f their
neighborhoods to fu rth e r a " o n e
w a y " desegregation p o licy. Any
threat o f a law suit at this time will
not address segregation, but w ill
attack the d is crim in atio n against
Black children in the area o f
academic
o p p o rtu n ity
and
educational result.
Can ba do the Job?
t an Dr. Prophet settle this issue
in a way that w ill provide q u ality
education for children and satisfy
the desires o f the Black community?
O r w ill the d istrict continue to
play with fire in its effort to please
itself? W ill sentiment for the past
prevail, or will the Portland school
district provide " E q u ity fo r the
Eighties” ?