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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, August 12, 1986 A cow most sacred Shouting his battle cry that no cow is more sacred than cre ating no new taxes, Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis brought his ever-cutting budget axe down on the Permanent University Fund and the Permanent School Fund — the lifeblood of educa tion in Texas. While Lewis’ slash-now, think-later approach to fi nancial matters may temporarily solve deficit woes, it could cause future problems that outweigh monetary shortages — ed ucational shortages. Lewis is urging that the House Appropriations Committee take a total of $ 1.1 billion profit from the two funds’ securities transactions of the past five years and channel it into funds for other state programs. But the purpose of the funds is to create a money-generat ing investment as a source of revenue for Texas A&M, the Uni versity of Texas and public schools. By depleting these funds, Lewis is advocating a threat to education over increasing taxes. In his determination that there should be no scared cows when the budget hacking begins, Lewis has overlooked the greatest sa cred cow of all — his stubborn opposition to the inevitable tax hike. More dangerous than the actual loss to Texas education is the precedent the measure sets. The capital in the permanent funds was designed to be untouchable. Texas cannot afford to dip into these vital holdings any time it is faced with a financial crisis. Without money to preserve the quality of Texas educa tion, future budgetary havoc can only increase. Lewis claims that opponents of the plan are “so paranoid they don’t want anything to happen.” We are not opposed to ac tion, but taking a hefty slice out of education funding merely to avoid a sales tax increase is not a rational solution. The Lewis plan, when coupled with the committee’s recom mendation to cut $220 million from 1987 spending for universi ties, poses a serious threat to the financial stability of Texas edu cation. Texas has been striving for greater quality in education. Pro gress has been made, but much remains to be done. Cutting funding now only can impair educational integrity later. Lewis should realize that fighting a tax increase at the ex pense of education is not worth it. The Permanent University Fund and the Permanent School Fund were established to pre serve this vital financing — that’s why they’re called permanent funds. No one relishes the idea of a tax hike, but the future of qual ity education is worth paying for. The Battalion Editorial Board Saving public schools one student at a time William F. Buckley Jr. We interrupt the national search to establish what, if anything, Associate Justice William Rehnquist said to citizens ap proaching a poll ing booth in Ari- zona 10 years before he became a member of the Supreme Court 15 years ago to report an enterprise that gives one of those Fourth of July tingles that occasionally remind us that: a) the United States is a pretty special place; b) it could be a lot better. The story begins with a highly suc cessful New York businessman, Gene Lang, who was asked to address the eighth grade graduating ceremonies in the high school he had attended. He prepared one of those petty speeches, what one might call Horatio Alger Boi lerplate, about how glorious was the fu ture of the young American graduating from junior high. But on the way to the ceremony he surveyed the figures. Of 100 children who enrolled in New York City high schools, 25 will graduate. And only one-half of them will qualify to go to a city unversity. Lang threw away his speech and said to the students: Here are the statistics you face. Now if you bring yourself to overcome the odds, I will pay your col lege tuition. He is now financing the col lege tuition of the overwhelming major- ity- Peter Flanigan, a cosmopolitan banker associated with the firm of Dil lon, Read and sometime assistant to for mer President Nixon, pondered the story and came upon an extraordinary anomaly. Whereas 75 percent of public- school children don’t graduate, 96 per cent of those that attend the Catholic- run schools do graduate, and three- quarters of them go on to college. Is this accomplished by expelling all backward or unruly children? It turns out that the parochial schools expel a smaller per centage of students than the public schools send to correctional institutes. Well then, surely there is a line 10 miles long of applicants for admission to parochial schools? Negative. There are hundreds of empty seats: The parents — or rather the parent in most cases — don’t have the money. An organization called Student/Spon sor Partnership was born. Individual New Yorkers are invited to sponsor a student selected by the administrators of Cardinal Hayes High School (for boys), or Cathedral High School (for girls). Requirements: The selected stu dent must not be a genius (they can take care of themselves) or an imbecile (waste of any school’s time). They must come from a single-parent home, the parent on welfare. The sponsor contracts a) to put up $1,500 per year for the student; b) to make himself (or herself) accessible to encourage the student and to keep an eye on the student’s progress; and c) to consult periodically with a special coun selor whom the schools bring in to mon itor the student’s progress, get him out of bed if he is playing hookey, advise him on his work and make provisions for extra work as required. Now the ethnic mix in the schools we speak of is indistinguishable as between the Catholic schools and the high schools. Roughly, it is a 55 percent black, 45 percent Hispanic. One-third of the students attending the two Catho lic high schools are non-Catholic. The program, which will be tax-deductible, is non-sectarian. It is a brand-new idea, but already the Student/Sponsor organi zation has lined up sponsors for 20 boys and 12 girls beginning next September. The program is being administered by Cynthia Haueter, 333 E. 68th St., Apt. 5E, New York, N.Y. 10021. Some spon sors who cannot afford the $1,500 put up a part of it, the balance coming from someone else, the question of who will act as the personal sponsor left open for solomonic dispensation. So there we are. There is the ugly res idue left in one’s thinking on this mat ter, namely why on earth are the high schools doing such a lousy job, given the identical raw material? But the invita tion is not to unfair comparison, rather to the satisfaction of knowing how, by relatively small exertions, individual liv es can be changed. The difference be tween graduating from high school and going on to college, and dropping out at age 15 or 16, can mean the difference between a lifetime spoiled and a lifetime consummated. Flanigan recalls that many affluent New' Yorkers drive right by the Bronx every day. They have it within their power to pull an individual human being aw'ay from the ghetto. And the problems of New York are, in this respect, not different from the problems of other great municipal cen ters in America. Copyright 1986, Universal Press Syndicate ■lis sum eshmen w ; tradition a t Fish Ca An Frida 11 leave 1 ssembly n< itional fou Be. Whe Ires ity to start after e school awhori ci Ree' ector, said fork. The c |a< ontact with (his yeai violators IS Liberals not of free speech on campus Les Csorba III, executive director of Accuracy in Academia, in the Aug. 9 Human Events claims that radical liberals have overrun col lege campuses and are suppressing speakers’ right to free speech. Csorba quotes Loren Steffy Dr. Sidney Hook of the Hoover Institu tion, who says that there is no free speech on many campuses for anyone who expresses views contrary to the “mi litant minority.” He also refers to Secre tary of Education William J. Bennett’s warning that “Instead of promoting tol erance, freedom of inquiry and the ac- quistion of knowledge, campus radicals nowadays tend to see the university as a kind of fortress at war with society . . . .” These statements are not the startling revelation Csorba makes them out to be. Nor are such actions limited to militant minorities. Texas A&M proves a good example in refuting the AIA director’s assertion. In Spring semester 1985, Battalion pho tographer Tony Casper was physically assisted by cadets in leaving the Quad for taking pictures of the Bloody Cross exercises. Earlier in the same semester, Stu dents Working Against Morons in Power (previously Students Working Against Many Problems) threatened to sit on the Memorial Student Center grass. Thousands of dedicated Aggies prevented these “radical leftists” from commiting such an atrocity, but in the rally that followed, SWAMP essentially was prevented from voicing its opinions. When SWAMP members had the mike, the “audience” was hissing and holler ing and generally keeping the noise level above 120 decibels. Hearing what was being said was impossible. The only break in the perpetual droning was when Rep. Joe Barton took the stand. But Barton, the epitome of knee-jerk Reaganism, only expressed the views of the crowd, condemning SWAMP for its attempted actions. I he resulting roar of approval only served to drown out SWAMP’s attempted rebut tal. Regardless of political views, these scenarios are not something A&M should be proud of, just as Jeane Kirk- patick and Caspar Weinberger being harassed at Berkeley and Harvard are not something those schools should brag about. If Northwestern University supports professors who rush the stage and dump blood on Contra leaders who have been asked to speak, then it de serves all the condemnation Bennett, Hook and Csorba can muster. But Csorba’s attempt to typecast po litically active students on campus as leftist radicals “who erect illegal shan ties, threaten college administrators, or ganize pledges of resistance, punch campus security officers, harass patri otic student journals and, most notably, shout down conservative guest lec turers” is an insult to the integrity of all college students — liberal or conserva tive. To say that the primary college “poli ticos” are leftist is simply inaccurate. Numerous studies have found, as would be expected in Reagan’s America, that a majority of right-wing conservatives dominate campus political activity. To be conservative is not to be inactive. A&M, known for its ultra-conservatism, had the highest voter turnout of any col lege in the nation during the last presi dential election. Hardly the proper be havior for a campus that, by Csorba’s definition, should be a wasteland of po litical concern. But suppression of free speech is not a liberal or conservative atrocity — it is an act of immature intolerance. It’s Csorba’s job to blame liberals for all the wrongdoings on college campuses, but these incidents can’t be limited to one political affiliation. Nor can it be said the suppressors are all “militant” and radical. Certainly this wasn’t the case at A&M. Instead the problem stems from peo ple who can’t stand to hear speakers voice contrary opinions on matterstlii feel strongly about. College shouldk place for inquiry and acquistion knowledge, but this can’t happenifon!iR|- a n C h liberal or only conservative speakersiBhleuter allowed to air their opinions. Baring < It takes a balanced dichotomv Institutioi Batsii and branc from stai Monday I had quest: ■ “What i do if som< Bross th< opinions for true acquistion of knov edge to occur. To maintain thisdelicaif balance, listeners must realize thaitt eryone has the same right to free sped | X1V , be they liberal, conservative orapoi ical. Csorba has hit on an important lem on college campuses, but he pin this one just on liberals. If speech going to be free on campuses, stuctaJ Rep. Bked, “W ■ill come ■her sta I The o public he; [resentec Clebur lexas ir holding c Gibson and professors are going to have toh B-one on velop greater tolerance for opposing two on b viewpoints got be br te vote i Loren Steffy is a senior journalism 01* White op jor and the Opinion Page editor for banking! The Battalion. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of l exas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Michelle Powe, Editor Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor Scott Sutherland, City Editor Sue Krenek, News Editor Ken Sury, Sports Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is ;t non-profit, self-supporting newsfu- pet operated as u community set vice to l exas A&M and B ryan - College Sta don. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of tht Editorial Board or the author, and do not netessaril) ret)- resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, nicm or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through frith) during l exas A&M regular semesters, except for holith) and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.7} per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full y ear . Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University. College Station, U 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station. 7 X 77$4l POS TMASTER: Send address changes to The Banal- ion, 2J6 Reed McDonald, Texas \&‘M l Diversity, College Station TX 77843. ra Gibsoi j would all la banking. USTIf om Cen ined up ii proposal i north of tl dement of “If we c lo be btiili jrea, the i kn. Gonz old a Bur tearing. “ of Central 'waiting to I T he rot; l 5 WHICH CONSTITUTE fHL 'G'mdcrf Teal rcnUPlVlPUAf wwer ? 0^ FUF *-."vomiAb(" FXU6, H^STINC, WHTT ANFYlAtfT Z, fttNQOI&r as cHief-JUsnc-C 5. FKINKINt) V/Oo WATtK & 1 I **** • •• •