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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1987)
{ Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, February 18, 1987 Opinion The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Loren Steffy, Editor Marybeth Rohsner, Managing Editor Mike Sullivan, Opinion Page Editor Jens Koepke, City Editor Jeanne Isenberg, Sue Krenek, News Editors Homer Jacobs, Sports Editor Tom Ownbey, Photo Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper oper ated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Sta tion. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Depart ment of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re quest. Our address: The Battalion, Department of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4 111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, De partment of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843-4111. It takes guts “The bottom line is that Texans want a balanced budget without raiding school funds, selling off our lands at a loss and shifting edu cation funds on to the backs of local taxpayers,” said State Demo cratic Chairman Bob Slagle. Though it’s unclear whether Slagle intended his remark to be taken seriously, it’s probably a quite accurate reflection of the aver age Texan’s mindset. Gov. Bill Clements has challenged his critics to publicly admit they want a $5.8 billion tax hike to patch up the state deficit. Though his critics are extremely outspoken about Clements’ plan to tap higher education, health and welfare spending, it’s doubtful they will respond positively to the challenge. and they are all by popi aside personal political ambitions an< essary, measures. Republican or Democrat, they are all politicians, elected by popular vote. It is a rare politician indeed who will set id call for unpopular, yet nec- Preaching morality to kids vm Te stop impending AIDS epidemic decide T the state other tei Because taxes are so unpopular, being associated with a tax in crease is perhaps the greatest fear of politicians. Clements won his position by adamantly denouncing tax increases during his cam paign — yet two weeks into his term he did what was necessary and extended a tax initiated by Mark White. But Clements was so afraid of the effect of his decision that he immediately announced at his State of the State address that the tax was not his, but Mark White’s. Instead of doing what is necessary for Texas, the Legislature is following the unknowing orders of the majority, and, rather than raising taxes or instituting a state income tax, it’s threatening the fu ture of our state by slashing education even more. Most Texans sim ply don’t understand that such a quick-fix manuever will effectively shape Texas’ future into a state of paralysis. Instead of responding to Clements’ tax challenge, critics will con tinue to sit on their hands and lend sympathetic ears to the public’s . cry for a balanced budget, with no cuts in state programs and absolu tely no tax increases. If Texas is to patch up its budget problems and sever its oil-well noose, everyone will have to pay — not just the minorities. Back when I was a legislative reporter and abor tion was a red-hot issue, I discovered something by talk ing to people on both sides of the controversy. For some of them, abortion was not the real issue at all. Sex was, and abor- works air commercials for condoms? Should children have sex education as early as the third or fourth grade or — since most states don’t have sex educa tion at all — should they institute it? Pichard Cohen tion was just another way of arguing about it. Maybe that is no longer the case with abortion, but that hardly mat ters now. AIDS has taken its place. Despite the threat it poses, AIDS has become just another vehicle for arguing about sexual morality. It follows hard on the debate over teen-age pregnancy, in which the real problem is treated as if it were almost besides the point. For some, the issue is sexual freedom; for others, it is conventional values. The plight of teen-age girls becomes almost incidental. mission. pared to the threat posed by Alii Gov. I kills, and it has f>een doing so w ' t ^ U i ating rate. And yet people a PP° v alues at women who wanted a® The S and who have the same refrainl:i6-0 Tue ually ac tive teen-agers now thirj] on Luna have the answet foi AIDS. Fk Gubei values are still the solution. hvo-tfiiu 1 firmed. Cleat Iv, ii this sex-saturatedT . Clemc suddenly turns Puritan, theprK«r na s r rate will fall and the threat o(«PP°^ nl1 would abate. But umil that comes over the mountain, wcilL wou . to deal with AIDS. small cc conferei Of course, there is no debate about AIDS itself. It is simply a deadly disease. But because it is often transmitted sex ually, the debate has centered around what to do about it. Should TV net- Farmers Financial aid doesn't always come through Recently, President Rea gan, in his State of the Union ad dress, noted that Brian A Koontz Guest Columnist the federal government was going to tighten the belt on federal student fi nancial aid over the forthcoming fiscal year. He claims that these cuts will have no detrimental effect upon the collegiate educational system of this country. and deform the Texas Constitution according to their whim? Further more, how could the secretary of edu cation justify punishing those students who choose to remain in school and receive their degrees by denying them financial aid? Gov. Bill Clements, in his state of the state address, indicated that the Legislature will, for the first time, at tempt to offset this state’s deficit by tapping the Permanent University Fund, a fund which has been constitu tionally guaranteed from such uses. The nation’s Secre tary of Education, Wil liam Bennett, has even supported financial aid cuts by claiming that colleges are un productive because nearly one-half of all college students drop out of school before receiving their de grees. And, closer to home, our own Di rector of Student Financial Aid, Taft E. Benson, made the statement in a re cent Farmers Write column that “the purpose of student financial aid and need-based scholarships is to help stu dents obtain adequate funds to meet the cost of higher education, regard less of family financial circumstances.” When will the end come to all the misconceptions, half-truths, and out right lies which are being perpetrated by those in a position to control finan cial aid for the college students of this country? Surely no person who has even the slightest comprehension of the English language could profess a belief in President Reagan’s contradic tory remarks. Moreover, what entity has suddenly given the legislative au thority of this state the right to twist Students who have had the oppor tunity to see (or, God forbid, to com plete) the financial aid form might have noticed certain key concepts of the form which will ensure that the majority of the students in this coun try will never be able to receive feder ally-supported financial aid. For in stance, a key question of the form asks if the applicant has spent or will spend more than six weeks during the sum mer months of the cur rent year and the pre- vious year in their parents’ residence, re gardless of whether or not the applicant paid room and board. If so, applicants are required to submit not only a copy of their most re cent tax return, but a copy of their parents’ form as well. Even if applicants have spent their entire college careers supporting themselves, a shot at fi nancial aid can be forever ruined by living with their parents. higher learning, that is too bad. You say that you are not claimed as a de pendent on your parents’ income tax? Too bad again, since any type of fami lial contact can make your attempts at receiving federal financial aid null and void. If the federal government is so in tent on helping the students of this country, why does it prevent us from deducting educational expenses from our gross incomes? Why is it that exec utives can wine and dine their secre taries, yet college students cannot even write off their tuition? To make matters even more tortuous, schol arships and grants are due to be taxed by the government this year; their claim is that the typical college student is an irresponsible spendthrift who splurges his or her financial aid on cars, stereos and (God forbid again) rent and food. With abortion, there was not the slightest doubt in my mind that it was in extricably linked to the sexual-freedom movement. Before the pill and other contraceptive methods, abortion was seen by some as a way out of the di lemma posed by unwanted pregnancies. To these people, it mattered very much that the same forces that opposed abor tion also opposed the selling of contra ceptive devices and — not incidentally — were energetic bluenoses. What was being discussed, then, was not just a mo mentous theological or moral issue but rather a way of life. This was a cultural clash, pure and simple. There is nothing wrong with el ing values, but there is somefcp plain silly about thinking thattkl ing of morality will deflect anep« experts say is just over thehoriEi that, we certainly will need sex® tion, condom advertisingani knows what else. The immer! : lemma, after all, is not howto®'! lues, but what to do about AIDS By conviction (and politics), Surgeon General C. Everett Koop should be on the conservative side of the AIDS argu ment. (He is a staunch aboration oppo nent.) His problem is that his convic tions are now corrupted by knowledge. For protection from AIDS, he advocates condoms and he wants the TV networks to advertise them. For the same reason, he advocates early sex education. For his troubles he has been lectured on morality and values by, among others, Secretary of Education William Ben nett. Having just announced that grad uation rates fell, Bennett somehow thinks the schools can do for values what they cannot do for math and read ing. don’t hold your breath — tee:i abandon “Dallas” for the witi Secretary Bennett. As with abortion and teenff nancy, the debate over AIDS ducted by people who choose to« symbolic terms. Those who iniii word “values” as if the word tf rhetorical condom are predstl people least at risk. Bennett,fori no teenager who feels compelldI ually experiment or whobelievfi: activity is in consonance with trf The problem is that we can ill-afford the old debate. Abortion and teen-age pregnancy are not trivial matters, but they are almost inconsequential corn- style of his or her peer and others seek to hold the popi most at risk — sexually actiwi people — to conventional sexui| and, in effect, punish them forll sent. With AIDS, the conseu/. norance is hardly bliss. Koop, who’s hardly a hippi agrees. For him, AIDS is nolo® or not just — a symbolofasoctf the way of Sodom and GomoT horrific disease. As surgeongEp wants to do something imn:c save lives. With due respecti who disagree with him Saving lives is the highest valuer* Washington Copyright Group 1986, This magical form, which, in effect, automatically weeds out students whose parents fit in the middle-in come bracket, requests a $7 processing fee, which can be waived if students demonstrate a financial need. Of course, the financial aid form is pri marily designed to determine this. As long as the only people college students have to look up to are pup pets such as Gov. Bill Clements and Taft E. Benson — who gladly propa gate the federal government’s view on financial aid and the education-re strictive actions and policies of Presi dent Reagan and Secretary Bennett — the majority of college students in this country will continue to struggle for what should be available equally and non-prejudicially to all — a quality ed ucation. Brian A. Koontz is a safety engi neering graduate student Mail Call Students With Children All in all, the form is a way to guar antee that only minorities (through special federal and state scholarships) and those below the poverty line re ceive financial aid. If you are white, your parents make $30,000 per year, and if they are currently sending two of your siblings to institutions of Columns submitted for Farmers Write should be be tween 700 and 850 words. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for grammar, style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each column must be signed and must include the major, classification, address and telephone number of the writer. Only the author’s name, major and classifica tion will be printed. EDITOR: I am writing in response to the Feb. 1 1 letter to the editor fromCha^ Bruce Jones. He was wondering if there are any other single parentsoa campus and, if so, why they haven’t formed an organization. I’d like to let Charles and the other student-parents on campuskno* l | A there is an organization forming called Students With Children. The p ’p organization is for all students raising a family — not just those like Cto ! I who are single. Students With Children has had an organizationalmeelif| I the constitution was drafted and officers elected. It is currently in thepi* 1 ] | of being officially recognized by the University. Some of the purposesof ; | group are to share interests and concerns and to provide outings fortk j children and parents. We hope to form a babysitting co-op to gyve memJ an occasional break from the constant demands of parenting. If Charles or other students are interested in joining Students With Children, they should contact the Student Activities Office. It may beat' time before Students With Children is listed as a recognized organizatiof 1 keep trying! We are here to provide support and share ideas. Rachel Kennedy Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the ' ^ for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter misthk J must include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer.