Wednesday, February 8, 1984/The Battalion/Page
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Public school systems
better, President says
United Press International
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Pres
ident Reagan said Tuesday his
back-to-basics policies have
stemmed the decline of U.S.
public schools and he belittled
Democrats for saying future
progress depends on increased
federal spending.
In speeches to a conven
tion of school principals and at
a GOP luncheon, Reagan pro-
claimed that Republicans “are
the ones with courage enough
to call for basic reform.”
The president stopped in
Las Vegas on the way to his Cal
ifornia ranch, where he
planned to stay through the
weekend. His stay could be in
terrupted, however, by devel
opments in Beirut, where the
Lebanese Army and Moslem re
bels have engaged in the heavi
est fighting since the 1975-76
civil war.
“We’ve traveled far in im
proving our schools,” Reagan
told the National Association of
Secondary School Principals.
But, he added, “I don’t believe
there is one principal in this
room who wouldn’t agree our
journey hasjust begun.”
“We cannot allow our chil
dren to continue falling be
hind” students of other nations,
such as Japan or the Soviet
Union, he said.“Instead, we
must insist that all American
students master the basics —
math, science, history, reading
and writing — that have always
formed the core of our civiliza
tion.” Dismissing those who in
sist more money is needed to
bring about lasting educational
reform, Reagan said progress
cannot be measured in dollars.
He said the alarming decline in
the quality of education came
during a decade during which
spending on public education
doubled.
“If money alone were the
answer, the problem would
have been shrinking, not grow
ing. And those who constantly
call for more money are the
same people who presided over
two decades of unbroken edu
cational decline,” he said.
His criticism was directed
at Democratic front-runner
Walter Mondale, who has the
endorsement of the nation’s
largest teachers’ union and
whose education proposals
hinge on billions of dollars in
additional federal aid.
The White House described
the speech as non-political, but
Reagan picked up on the same
theme an hour later at a $5()0-a-
person GOP fund-raiser, where
“We cannot allow our
children to continue
falling behind” stu
dents of other nations,
such as Japan or the
Soviet Union, Reagan
said.
he said Republicans “are the
ones with courage enough to
call for basic reform” in educa
tion.
Voters, he said, must rec
ognize “that it is the Republi
cans who have a bold vision of
the future.” After spending 10
months decrying a modern-day
crisis in education, Reagan dis
played a changed tone in his
speech to principals, saying the
quality of public schools is im
proving.
“Just as our schools were in
decline during the bad days, to
day they’re playing their part in
the national renewal,” he said.
While asserting that his
“back to basics” crusade, ini
tiated last spring, has begun to
stem the decline in educational
quality, Reagan emphasized the
continuing need for tougher
academic standards and “good,
old-fashioned discipline,”
“I can’t say it too force
fully: to get learning back into
our schools, we must get crime
and violence out,” he said.
“We must teach our sons
and daughters a proper respect
for academic standards, for
codes of civilized behavior and
for knowledge itself —not for
the sake of those standards, not
for the sake of those codes, not
even for the sake of that knowl
edge, but for the sake of those
young human beings.”
SG to consider written
requirements proposal
By ED ALANIS
Stall Writer
The Student Senate will
meet tonight to discuss a bill
that would require professors to
provide course requirements to
students in written form.
According to the 1983-1984
Texas A&M University Regula
tions, the basis for computing
final grades in a course must
only he announced to students
during the first week of class.
The announcement may be in
written or oral form.
Because many students miss
the first class meetings because
of registration and drop-add
problems, and because oral an
nouncements can be misinter
preted, a billhas been intro
duced to the Student Senate
requiring instructors to provide
in writing the basis for final
grade determinations.
The senate also will discuss
a proposal to place large maps
of the campus in some of the
main buildings, such as the Me
morial Student Center. The
maps, similar to those in shop
ping malls, will aid visitors a
new students. Funding for t
project has not been det<
mined.
Old business will inclui
updates on the Zachry Cro:
walk Bill and the Midler
Grade Policy Change Bill. Bo
of these bills have been lockt
up in committee since last s
mester.
The meeting will be at 7:^
p.m. in 204 Harrington.
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United Press International
AUSTIN — Rep. Frank
Madia, D-San Antonio, said
Tuesday he would like to see
the 27-member state Board of
Education replaced by a full
time three-member board that
would administer education
much the same way as the Rail
road Commission regulates util
ity rales.
But the proposal, made at a
meeting of a subcommittee of
H. Ross Perot’s Select Commit
tee on Public Education, was
generally greeted with skepti
cism.
“I’ve got two no’s and one
maybe,” said Madia.
Perot’s full committee is ex
pected on March 1 to recom
mend sweeping reforms in the
state’s public education system.
The Texas Legislature will ad
dress the recommendations in a
special session, probably
early June.
Madia said if the Legislature
wants to upgrade education by
making changes in middle man
agement areas of education, it
must also look at the top man
agement.
“I’ve got serious concerns
with a 27-member board that’s
too bulky and meets only once a
month,” he said. “I don’t think
that’s sufficient.”
Madia said he envisioned an
|* education agency run much the
same way the Railroad Commis
sion or Insurance Board is ad-
j ministered.
The three education board
members would be elected at-
j large in a statewide election, he
said, and would function as
| “lobbyists for education.”
| The current board — elected
by congressional districts —
■ spends too much time dealing
with local issue, he said, and is
too heavily influenced by spe-
| cial interests.
But Madia said his plan,
which has not been formalized,
was not intended as criticism of
Texas education commissioner
Raymon Bynum or board mem
bers.
Civil rights
complaint
filed
c %
s
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United Press International
AUSTIN — A former
schoolteacher who claims racial
discrimination caused her to be
losptalized for hysteria has
a civil rights complaint
tgainslthe Austin Independent
khool District, court records
showed Tuesday.
Former sixth grade teacher
Christine Reid said discrimina-
ion began when she was trans-
erred from one elementary
school to another in 1981.
Reid said school officials dis-
riminated against her by refus-
ng to give her keys to the
chool building, declining to in-
roduce her at an orientation
ession and questioning stu-
lents about her teaching ability.
I In October 1981, she said she
developed “severe physical and
emotional symptoms including
emmorrhaging and hysteria,
eid said she was hospitalized
for eight days and resigned in
bvember 1981.
She said she was refused full-
me employment in 1982.
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