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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1989)
/ Tuesday, June 13,1989 The Battalion Page 5 — Nation in need of Hispanic teachers Educators: Students will be deprived of positive role models ora xn- itaci r ; ia/<J I » Ip is I iw p you .Peo; mil it! ^mii CORPUS CHRISTI — There is a national shortage of Hispanic teach ers at a time when minority enroll ment is at an all-time high, and edu cators say students will be deprived of multicultural role models in the classrooms. The number of Hispanic college students choosing teaching careers is dwindling as they opt for higher paying professions, according to the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. “We are cheating minority stu dents of positive role models who can bolster their pride and self-es teem,” Mary Dilworth, research di rector for AACTE, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. “Our schools must help every student understand what the American heritage is all about. In effect, we also are cheating non-minority students.” According to the AACTE, one U.S. teacher in eight was a minority in 1980. By the year 2000, the ratio is expected to drop to one in 20, un less more minorities are attracted to teaching. In Texas, 20 percent of the state’s teachers are Hispanic, compared to 32 percent of public school students. “There are too many other op tions available to students other than becoming teachers,” said Grace it We are cheating minority students of positive role models who can bolster their pride and self-esteem.” — Mary Dilworth, AACTE research director Hopkins, dean of education at Texas A&I at Kingsville. “We have to im prove salaries, for example, as well as improving the image of the teach ing profession.” But the shortage cannot be solved by trying to draw minority students away from schools of business, law or medicine, Dilworth said. “We simply must encourage mi nority students to pursue their goals,” she said. “With proper role models and motivation, those goals will include careers in teaching.” Texas A&I and Pan American University at Edinburg are seeing school districts recruiting from out of the region. “We all are fishing from a shrink ing pond when it comes to recruiting teachers in South Texas,” spokes man Rodney Davis of the Dallas In dependent School District said. “I don’t know how many (Hispanic) teachers we have recruited from South Texas and the (Lower Rio Grande) Valley the past few years, but we don’t have much luck keep ing them. They stay a couple of years, get homesick, and go back to South Texas.” Nine percent of DISD’s elemen tary teachers and 5 percent of sec ondary teachers are Hispanic, but 31.7 percent of students in the dis trict are Hispanic, Davis said. Some college students choose tea ching regardless of the profession’s financial benefits or disadvantages. “I can touch a person’s life as a teacher,” Rosamar Martinez told the Caller-Times. “There is no way you can do that in business.” Martinez, 24, changed majors while at A&I, leaving behind com puter science and a $26,800 annual salary promised her upon gradua tion. She started teaching in 1987 at Noonan Elementary in her native South Texas city of Alice for $16,800 a year. She said her mostly Hispanic stu dents need assistance jumping from Spanish to English, and she is able to help them make the transition. Hispamcs are projected to be the nation’s largest minority by the year 2000, when they will represent 36 percent of the population, according to the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, D.C. Fros also: mar I °f' for id in: ed v owtr lid. mu: f Ho. dtioi elec- nt. iraor. i i?; in as ks ic sta: t guns ked« idevei iple dren ipose .nvol' : xiati A’Ollfc iwoiF ly on fithd nee: the ie its rs a nel . •Oil!'- tteej itintf find arouj om 1 tos. f ifoflTj via '■ School officials question plan to convert buses AUSTIN (AP) — Public school transportation workers appear dubious of legislation that would require them to convert buses to natural gas power, and their doubt frustrates Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro. “Some of you all have been up set about something you don’t know anything about,” Mauro told a convention of the Texas Association for Pupil Transporta tion on Monday. The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Don Henderson, R- Houston, and state Rep. David Cain, D-Dallas, requires gradual conversion to natural gas power of non-emergency state vehicles, public school buses and city buses. Ninety percent conversion is required by 1998. Some audience members told Mauro the cost of converting school buses, estinj^ted at $1,500 to $2,000 per vehicle, was too high and would burden local school districts and taxpayers. They also said they were un convinced of the safety, conve nience or availability of natural gas as a motor fuel. Mauro said the legislation, which awaits Gov. Bill Clements’ signature, would allow a waiver for school districts that couldn’t afford the conversion. He also said natural gas was less likely to explode during a col lision, could easily be made avail able in pump stations for vehicles and would reduce air pollution. In addition, increased use of natural gas — a bountiful Texas resource — would spur the state economy, he said. “I really don’t think you’re lis tening to me,” Mauro said. “There are school districts with 50 or more buses running (them) successfully on propane and nat ural gas all over the country,” Mauro said. “Don’t start off with a negative attitude. Look at it. If you’re right, tell me to go to hell. You’ve already done that, effectively,” Mauro said, garnering a brief burst of applause. “But if I’m right, you give me a fair hearing, and you burn Texas natural gas,” Mauro said. Afterwards, mechanics, dis patchers, transportation directors and others from many of the state’s 1,100 school districts seemed undecided. “We are not saying that natural gas is a bad alternative,” said Den nis Daniel, director of administra tive services for Winona Indepen dent School District in East Texas, which has 20 school buses. “But, we hate to have it man dated to us in a short period of time and not let the research catch up. It’s too experimental,” Daniel said. But Mike McCIung, president of the group and transportation director of Northside Indepen dent School District in San Anto nio, said 190 of his 255 buses use natural gas. “It has worked for us,” McCIung said. “I don’t think they’re resisting it,” McCIung said of association members. Flaw in immigration laws hurts children of amnesty recipients HOUSTON (AP) — Unless legislators correct a flaw in immigration laws, many children of illegal aliens who have been granted amnesty will remain illegal aliens and have trouble finding legitimate work or attending college, experts say. Amnesty advocates contend this leaves children in the position of having to live off their parents rather than entering the job market after graduation, because it is against the law to hire illegal aliens. “What we are seeing is that whole families are now in worse (financial) consequences because only the legal ized members can work without fear” of being de ported, said Norma Plascecia-Almanza of the National Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Forum office in Austin. Children who arrived in the United States after the amnesty cutoff of Jan. 1, 1982, are considered illegal aliens, even though one or both parents may have qual ified for amnesty. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said they have no estimate of how many children are in the predicament of being illegal aliens while one or both of their parents has obtained legal immigration status by qualifying for amnesty. The U.S. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 offered amnesty to qualified illegal immigrants who entered the United States before the cutoff. Qualified applicants can obtain permanent residency and, after five years, apply for citizenship. borne adults who quanried for amnesty came to tlie United States alone from Mexico and other countries in search of work and sent for their families later. Only family members who arrived before Jan. 1, 1982, also would have qualified for amnesty. The immigration law allows illegal immigrant depen dents of amnesty applicants to become legalized, but the process for applicants from Mexico — the country of origin for most applicants — takes five to 10 years. The situation will force many high school graduates to settle for menial labor jobs, where they risk being ar rested and deported, advocates say. “They will be a sad group of young people in terms of opportunities available to them,” Vanna Slaughter, director of the Catholic Charities immigration counsel ing services program in Dallas, told the Houston Post. INS District Director Ron Parra in Houston said he is hopeful that legislation will be passed to grant relief to families with children in illegal status. Until then, amnesty applicants may apply under the INS “family fairness” policy to try and allow their chil dren who arrived before Nov. 6, 1986, to remain in the country legally. He said few people have applied for the program be cause it offers no guarantees tlie children will not be de ported. “We work at it on a case-by-case basis,” Parra said. “There is no formula. It’s subjective with broad guidelines that allow for discretion.” Teen-age Soviet pianist enjoys basking in American luxuries FORT WORTH (AP) — As Fort Worth was discovering Aleksei Sul tanov, he was discovering a new world — at the video store. He checked out kung fu movies — up to three a day and horror flicks — like “Friday the 13th.” Then he spotted Charlie Chaplin. Yesterday, this boyish Soviet was named the best of 38 young pianists from around the world. He is 19, trying not too successfully to grow a mustache, and possessed of the ex citement that the Eighth Van Cli- burn International Piano Competi tion had charged itself with identifying. Of the six finalists, only Sultanov looked like he was having a good time at the piano. He plays power fully, teasing the audience with body language. His favorite scene, from “The Gold Rush,” is one in which Chaplin sticks forks into his dinner rolls, pre tends they are people and performs the dance of the buns. “You don’t need to speak English to understand Charlie Chaplin,” Su san Wilcox, Sultanov’s host in Fort Worth, said. When Sultanov arrived at the Wil cox doorstep, he’d never heard En glish outside the classroom. “I think his English was good to begin with, but he was afraid to speak it because it was completely untried,” Jon Wil cox, said. So at first they stuck with Russian, relying on Wilcox’s three years of the language at Texas Christian Uni versity and Mrs. Wilcox’s command of Polish. By Sunday, they were up to 25 percent English. And Sultanov understood the meaning of a scream — like the shriek Mrs. Wilcox emitted when she spotted two garden snakes taking a dip in her back yard pool. “He knew I hated snakes. We had talked about it,” she said. Sultanov picked the snakes out of the water . . . and surreptitiously car ried them to his hosts’ bedroom. “At that point, I knew he was part of the family, because he thought that was very funny,” Mrs. Wilcox said. Sultanov was so proud of the prank that when a reporter tele phoned for details, he gave his first English interview. The incident endeared Sultanov to the couple, who have a cat but no children, and they began calling him their “adopted son.” AUSTIN (AP) — The president of GTE Southwest Inc. said Monday his company would be in “deep trou ble” if forced to refund more than $128 million to customers. President E.L. “Buddy” Langley testified before state District Judge Joe Hart, who will decide whether to issue a temporary injunction against the refund ordered by the Public Utility Commission. The telephone company filed a lawsuit fighting the refund and a $59.2 million annual rate reduction, also ordered by the PUC. GTE has said it will begin comply ing with the rate reduction, but that refunding money while the question is in court would have harmful con sequences. The company earlier won a temporary restraining order that put the refund on hold. Hart said he would try to make a decision on the temporary injunc- They knew he was an accom plished martial artist — he has earned a black belt — but it was not until the Cliburn competition that they knew the kind of pianist he was. At their house, Sultanov would never play a piece from beginning to end. “He practices a few bars at a time, slowly so he can hear every note,” Wilcox said. Then he gets on stage and rips through a piece in record time. “We never heard a full piece until the concerts.” tion by Thursday, when the re straining r>rder is scheduled to ex pire. GTE was “in a sad state of affairs” in 1981, Langley said, and he was told: “Fix it.” Since then, GTE has regained the confidence of customers and em ployees, he said. The $59.2 million rate reduction would cause layoffs and reduced state investment, he said. The im pact would be multiplied if refunds are required, he said. The state-paid advocate for con sumers in the GTE case said during a break in the hearing that refunds should be made as soon as possible. “The longer you delay the re funds, the more problem you have in the money going to the right peo ple,” said C. Kingsbery Ottmers of the Office of Public Utility Counsel. GTE had sought an $81.4 million rate increase from the PUC. GTE fights court order to refund $128 million Summer heat is on y our car - Get your car's air conditioning, cooling system and transmission checked now, and help your car keep its cool this summer. I 111 Royal, Bryan / ' (Across S. 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