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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1986)
Monday, March 10, 1986/The Battalion Page 3 State and Local (as official predicts 95% will pass Teacher skill testing begins today Associated Press JAUSTIN — About 205,000 Texas Slathers will be sitting on the other deof the desk Monday as they take Ireading and writing test to deter- Ijine whether thev will keep their State officials say about 10,000 ay' fail the test or a make-up exam Te offered in June. Those who nnot pass will lose their teaching rtificates — and their livelihoods. Commissioner of Education W.N. jirbv said Saturday, “Well, I’ve said | along that I think 95 percent of teachers are skilled and ded- ;ed and so I feel very good that Iteachers will perform very well. ‘I’m convinced that when every- is all said and done at the end s summer, there will not be more than five percent of the people that haven’t demonstrated they have the basic skills necessary to teach.” Kirby, along with other officials of the Texas Education Agency who hold teaching certificates, also must take the test. The Teachers Examination of Current Administrators and Teach ers (TECAT) was mandated by the public school reforms passed by the Legislature in 1984. Kirby said he did not think a rul ing by a South Texas judge would affect the test. Friday, State District Judge R.L. Eschenburg of Jourdan- ton exempted a veteran teacher from taking the test because she earned her teaching certificate be fore the reform law was passed. “That still leaves some 200,000 minus one to take the test,” Kirby said. Gov. Mark White, who spear headed the reform package, also predicted that most of the teachers would pass. “There’s an enormous amount of pressure brought to bear upon them (teachers) because of the test, but they’re going to do well,” White said. The Texas State Teachers Asso ciation unsuccessfully challenged the test in court, arguing that local school boards should decide if teach ers are competent. The reading part of the test in cludes identifying the main idea and details in reading matter, distin guishing fact from opinion, using and selecting reference sources and comprehending a job-related vocab ulary. The writing portion includes capi talization, punctuation and spelling, proper English usage, identifying errors in sentences and writing a brief composition. On Saturday, the State Board of Education approved emergency procedures for school districts that lose teachers due to the test and are not able to replace them. Provided the school can prove there are no eligible replacements available, instructors failing the test may be given a one-year temporary permission to teach the 1986-87 school year. The temporary certifi cate may not be renewed. In Advance MSC Council will choose committee leaders tonight By JEANNE ISENBERG Staff Writer The last slate of nominations for unfilled leadership positions n the MSC Council and MSC lilted St ;ommittees will be presented to insurgto he Council at its 6:30 meeting to- light. Denis Davis, MSC president, ays about 20 positions still need :obe filled. The Council also will address he two budget problems con- /iwfiiiiBfrontinR the Memorial Student ononia _ 6 „ w i • Lenter — Gov. Mark White s or dered 13 percent budget cut and ly subset the recent money losses suffered by MSC Town Hall. The MSC budget was ready for approval when White issued his lereisal order. With the Texas A&M t a revo Board of Regents’ approval of a 7 inientinf percent cut in the University’s she is ii i accouit the Re; i Marcos y when ers on onserval liegn-pol me conn :o sit by i don’t laybe budget, Davis says, the MSC must consider the possible approaches to the re-arrangement of its 1985- 1986 budget as well as its 1986- 1987 budget. Town Hall has had losses on its Broadway program and several other programs this year, Davis says. MSC Director Jim Reynolds said last week that all the MSC committees’ budgets would be analyzed to see whether Town Hall’s losses could be covered without cutting programs from any of the committees. The Council also will discuss several programs to be presented by the Program Review Commit tee, Davis says, and will listen to reports on recent programs, such as SCONA and the Miss TAMU pageant. End-of-year rebound in oil prices predicted ABILENE — The head of an oil association said Sunday he thinks the price of oil will rebound to $20 to $22 a barrel by the year’s end, but before it does, the number of oper ating wells may drop below a 1971 low. Although Bud Scoggins, Inde pendent Petroleum Association of America president-elect, believes prices will start rising before the year is over, he says the upturn probably won’t help the diminishing number of operating wells. “The rig count last week was 1,248. It’s been dropping from 50 to 70 units per week,” Scoggins said. “At the rate we’re going, in about six weeks we will drop below the all-time rate of drilling since World War II, which was established in 1971” when the year’s average sunk to 971 active rigs. “1 hate to say it, but I believe there’s enough downward momen tum built into the situation now that 'alias paper says blacks excluded as jurors list for oup, Associated Press ard tor '.dm DALLAS — Dallas County pros- tors routinely manipulate the ra- composition of juries through le- challenges that allow lawyers to imiss prospective jurors without [ise, the Dallas Morning News re tted Sunday. In a copyright story, the News said that as many as 90 percent of qualified black candidates are rou tinely excluded from felony juries. ■The newspaper said its eight- month investigation showed that jrosmitors manipulate the racial makeup of juries by the use of pe- ■emptory challenges. In Texas, frosecutors and defense attorneys each have 10 such challenges in non capital cases. those of tl* mr essarihKf ,1015, M •uspape'^ I ap/ij | tueh ftW l tor AoWj an fM" (S3 per 11 A/dJonatj Legal experts say the study’s findings show that pros ecutors systematically exclude blacks from jury duty. —Dallas Morning News Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade said his prosecutors do not exclude prospective jurors solely because of race. But he said race sometimes can be a factor in whom they dismiss. Blacks constitute 18 percent of the county’s population, but they made up fewer than 4 percent of jurors on 100 felony juries the newspaper studied. A black had a 10 percent chance of being selected for a jury, while a white had a 50 percent chance of being chosen, according to the News. The study found that of the blacks struck from juries by peremptory challenges, 92 percent were barred by prosecutors, 4 percent by defense attorneys and 4 percent by both sides. According to the News, several le gal experts said the findings showed that prosecutors systematically ex clude blacks from jury duty. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that systematic exclusion of an identifiable group of jury candidates is unconstitutional and has over turned criminal convictions on those grounds. Wade, who is retiring this year af ter 35 years as district attorney, said the newspaper’s findings might be the result of a large number of blacks saying they have personal knowledge about the cases or have reservations about assessing the maximum sentence. Go to AggieCon SK 17 FREE ?!? “ Find out how al the mandatory Workers' Meeting Tues. March 11 7:00 p.m. 404 Rudder SCHULMAN THEATRES or 2.50 ADMISSION 1. Any show before 3PM 2. Tuesday - All Seats 3. 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Coupon ^ ees ^ ^ zza 693-5533 $2.00 off any small pizza -Please indicate coupon is beirtg used before ordering. even if we had an upturn in prices tomorrow, the rig count would drop below that 1971 low,” Scoggins added. Scoggins said his organization is seeking a temporary moratorium on the plugging and abandonment of wells to lessen the industry’s trou bles. The measure would allow tem porary plugging, so operators could re-enter a well and bring it back into production when the energy eco nomic climate improved, he said. About a hundred members of the West Central Texas Oil and Gas As sociation listened to Scoggins’ re marks at the opening session of the group’s annual meeting. “Unemployment in the industry is rampant. . . . Every time the price drops a dollar a barrel, 25,000 jobs are lost just in the state of Texas,” said Scoggins, who heads about 15,000 independent oil and gas pro ducers. Gary Stevenson’s Love and Buick Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament It takes two! Two for fun! Two for love! And two for Gary Stevenson's Love and Buick Mixed Doubles Tennis 'Ibumament March 15-16 at the Royal Oaks Racquet Club! Local winners will win $100 cash each Winners ad vance to the regional Love and Buick playoffs in Dallas National winners will win the use of a new 1986 Buick Skylark for one year! Register today at Royal Oaks Racquet Club. Deadline is March 12. Rules L Amateur teams only 2. Players must be 21 years old or older 3. All entrants must complete and sign the official entry and release forms at Royal Oaks Racquet Club. 4. The entry fee is $30 per team. For more information call Tommy Connell, 846-8724 Gary Stevenson’s QUALITY- Pontiac • Buick • GMC • Subaru sot S. TEXAS/BRYAN/779-1 ooo • OPEN UNTIL 8 P.M CHECKING Our promise is simple: Open a Commerce National Bank checking account with $100 or more and keep a hundred dollars or more as a mini mum balance each month and your checking is FREE ICKING And, you will enjoy unlimited checking. 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