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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1994)
Opinion Friday, March 4,1994 The Battalion Page 7 PRO CON nv Should public schools remain under state control? T he plight of the public school sys tem has finally turned the heads of politicians at the state and na tional levels. They are ac knowledging a problem which has been evident to parents and educators for years. "The public education prob lem has reached critical mass," said Rep. Ron Wilson, D- Houston. "What we have doesn't work." Unfortunately, school reform is only now becoming a legitimate issue on po litical platforms, even though cries for change have been heard for some time. New and radical education ideas are be ing discussed and even endorsed open- hy- Charter schools — which allow everyone with good educational con cepts to access public education fund ing if they can attract students — are gaining support from Gov. Ann Richards and President Bill Clinton. Gubernatorial candidate George W. The state has heaped so much regulation onto the shoulders of teachers and administrators that it makes it hard to teach, and the safety of our chil- j dren is diminishing. I Bush has proposed a plan to allow local 1 school districts to take over policy de- f velopment, educational goals and pro- ^ cedures. There has even been scattered i support for the voucher..system, which gives poor children thoppportunity to attend private schools. All these plans have one common theme. They all take the control of schools away from the state and give it to those at the local level. Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing: the government has failed when it comes to public education. The state has heaped so much regu lation onto the shoulders of teachers and administrators that it makes it hard to teach. "Each year I teach less and less," said one English teacher at a Texas public school. "I'm teaching for a test, the TASP, rather than teaching [the stu dents] English. The TASP is not an achievement test but a minimum skills test. The brightest students just aren't being challenged." The safety of our children is dimin ishing as well. Violence is rampant in these state-run institutions, and it's get ting worse. It isn't too hard to under stand the effect such disturbances must have on a student's education. "What relevance does Shakespeare have for a kid who has to think about being shot all the time?" asked the teacher. Government has had a lot of time to reform education, but it has never hap pened successfully. President Clinton, who supported public education throughout his campaign, refused to send his daughter to a public school once he entered office. If he doesn't trust the public school system to edu cate his child, why should we? The elected politicians who control education cannot possibly care for our children as much as parents arid educa tors at the local level. The state has proven it can't do the job. Let those clos est to the problem do the fixing. P eople are beginning to question the state's in volvement in public educa tion. While there may be a lot of valid com plaints about state regula tions, moving control to the local govern ment level is not the answer. If Texans want to localize public education, they should bring it directly into their homes. Because when it comes right down to it, if kids aren't getting the encouragement and support that they need from home, then it isn't go ing to matter a bit whether the state or local government has control of the school. But since the actual educational sys tem itself requires some sort of govern mental control, there are several impor tant reasons why public education should remain under the state's author ity and not become part of the local government's jurisdiction. First, people aren't interested in lo cal government elections. Sad as it is to say, the majority of American citizens who actually vote only vote in national and maybe state elections. The Cy-Fair School District in Flous- ton recently held elections to determine if a year-round school calendar would be implemented. This topic of lengthy debate saw only 22 percent of the vot ing population care enough to make it to the polls. Guess what happens with the everyday issues of the school sys tem — there is usually around a five percent voter turnout. Second, because local governments cover smaller areas, there is a greater danger of segregation and unequal fi- Local governments cover smaller areas, and there is a greater danger of seg regation. The state gov ernment is more likely to support a larger spec trum of ideas. nancial resources. The State Legislature spent two years fighting over the "Robin Flood" plan, which forced richer school districts to share their resources with the poorer districts. Viewed in this light, the idea of moving public educa tion to local control sounds like a ploy to manipulate the public school system in a suspiciously private school-like manner. The problem with private schools is that they don't have to accept every body. The state may not be the ideal regulator of public education, but at least they educate all students, includ ing the poor and problem children. Furthermore, the state provides services like free and reduced meals, special ed ucation programs and English as a sec ond language classes. For these special programs to work, it is necessary to have a large financial backing. The state government is big ger, and has more money than local governments. Since the state govern ment has authority over a larger, more diverse segment of the population than local governments, it is more likely to support a larger spectrum of various ideas. Putting education in the hands of the local government will only lead to greater segregation, less emphasis on special programs and unequal access to financial resources. Roy L. Clay is a senior history major Jenny Magee is a sophomore journalism and English major r i thought you WAfJrep ^ E>ecoN£ a teacher \NoT J-oiM THE y I pfp Day in Snook broadens perspectives Students gather, gain insight on group relations T his is the true story of 40 peo ple picked to live in a room in Snook for 24 hours. Find out what hap pened when we stopped being polite and started being real. The group was initially told that we were all students at U-ACT University, an acronym standing for University Awareness for Cul tural Togetherness. Participants were designated red, green, blue or yellow, and were given nametags accordingly. We quickly realized that the color of our nametags correlated with the different groups represented in society. The color groups separated and then act ed out what their group color represented. As a red, I was told I was a leader, tradi tionally in control of student politics at U- ACT University. I was stereotyped as per ceiving myself to be superior and tending to be aloof toward other colors, but that I was rarely rude to them. Reds historically had the majority of the wealth and political power in society and were named the elites. Our group leader had us choose two candidates to run for student body presi dent. We then had to choose a way to rep resent our group to the rest of the colors. The reds chose a hump-it, a format I found to be ironically appropriate, considering that it is the student leaders on this campus that make up the hump-its anyway. One by one, the other colors presented themselves. The greens banded together and were very loyal to those within their group, but it soon became apparent that they felt oppressed by the reds. The blues were extremely interested in studying and making the most of their aca demic education, but it seemed little else in terested them. The yellows were an unusual, difficult to define group, and there were only about seven of them. They were freest to create the kind of culture they wanted, but ended up being the most oppressed because of their difference and small numbers. One group not visible was the "fouos." Posted around the room were various "No Fouos" signs, but no one seemed quite sure of what a fouo was. Later, we realized they represented the groups that go unrecog nized physically, namely homosexuals and different religions. After the color presentations, the candi dates for student body president were an nounced. To some surprise, there were two red candidates and one other candidate of a different color, but two groups had been entirely excluded in the nomination process. Needless to say, the reds won. Everyone then divided up into several preselected student organizations. The organizers had already chosen what groups we would be long to, and I was put on the student sen ate. We quickly elected officers, and all were reds, because the reds outnumbered tire other colors in the group seven to six. The representatives from the green and yel low groups showed very vocal opposition to what looked like dirty politics. The blues remained pretty silent, but every now and then would pass around notes telling us how they had more important things to do than argue about whether the election process was fair or not. So what happened? The blues and greens near me refused to talk to me be cause I was a red. When the spirit commit tee came to us for funding, the reds got their way without regard for anyone else's feelings on the matter. Is this realistic? Probably, to an extent. What was interesting was seeing people who would normally be grouped as reds crying out in defense of their rights and opinions as greens and yellows. Or seeing those who might normally be greens mak ing an effort to oppress the other colors. Not long after the raging arguments be tween colors and committees started, the advisers had us form one big discussion group, forget our colors and discuss what had happened. People were able to drop their reserva tions about talking about race issues, and really discuss things that bothered them. Topics ranged from what we're supposed to call people of other races to why McDon ald's has that stupid commercial implying that a young African-American man has reached the height of his success by getting a job at a fast food restaurant. As people talked the night away, a sense of group unity began to form, despite all of our different colors. We became comfort able with one another, and we respected each other, despite our differences. It seemed we created the ideal that society as a whole has been striving toward for so long. Too bad the people who really needed to E>e there didn't come. Lynn Booher is a sophomore English and psychology major LYNN BOOHER Columnist Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorial board and are not necessarily the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns and letters express the opinions of the authors. The Battalion will print as many letters as space allows. They must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, style and accuracy. Contact the opinion editor for information on submitting guest columns. Address letters to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Mail stop 1111 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Fax; (409) 845-2047 Columnist's use of slang word not racist I would like to address all of the indi viduals who wrote letters concerning Roy Clay's use of the word "huerra." First of all, why must we always read racism into things when a nationality is stated? Just because Clay's column men tioned a single incident where a single His panic person made a derogatory comment doesn't mean that he believes or is trying to make others believe that all Hispanics make these type of comments. There are in dividuals of all nationalities and sexes that make harassing remarks. Clay was simply "stating the facts in the case." Secondly, to Javier Gonzalez-Maese, who wrote in complaining that the word is spelled "giiera" not "huerra," I would like to say that "Javier" can also be spelled "Xavier," and "Stephen" can be spelled '"Steven." Finally, I would like to address the meaning of the word "huerra." Since Span ish is not my first language, ITl trust your definition of the word. But in all languages there is a manipulation of words that exist — it is called "slang." A perfect example of this is the Spanish adjective "mojado." It lit erally means "wet." But if said in Texas, California or other southern border states, it means "wet back," which is a derogatory meaning directed primarily against Mexi cans. Being of Mexican descent myself, I have experienced this word a few times, but I can tell the difference between someone calling me "wet" and some one calling me "wet back." Similarly "huerra" means "light-skinned" in most Spanish-speaking countries, but in this part of the country it has taken on a second slang meaning. I hope this has cleared up your percep tion of the use of the word "huerra" in Tex- Mex language. Stephen Whaley Class of'95 Poor showing at ball game. Silver Taps Tuesday night the men's basketball team played in a big game that shaped the way the conference standings will turn out. The team needed a big lift from a packed house, but they only got a half-full crowd. As it turned out, Baylor outscored us in double overtime. It's never fun to see your team lose, and it wasn't fun as I realized our chances for a SWC championship had became very slim. The game'ended at 10:10 and Silver Taps was starting at 10:30, and as I watched those Baylor fans celebrate, I knew I was still proud to be an Aggie. I was sure that the 3500-plus that did come to the game would attend Silver Taps, but as we left the, game many people went home as the bells from Albritton Tower called us to Silver Taps. Silver Taps had one of the smaller gatherings I can recall. For those of you who came to the game, it's great you came out to support the ath letic program, but it's hard to believe 30 minutes couldn't be spared to attend Silver Taps after staying for two overtime peri ods. Aggie spirit is about being there for all Aggies. We are the team Aggies, all of us. See you in G. Rollie on Saturday. Gig 'em. Scott Jeffcoat Class of'95 Nudity on TV more natural than violence I'm writing in retort to the opinion that there is something wrong with nu dity on television. Even if this is just some ploy to increase Nielsen ratings, it shouldn't be about that. The production companies are merely capitalizing on the American immaturity when it comes to the subject of sex and nudity. The U.S. is one of the few "modern" countries that still has the 18th century mentality towards sex. If we look to Europe and countries like Argentina and Brazil, this subject would not even be debated. There, nudity is embraced because the public is secure with its sexuality and accepts it. Nudity does not take away from a TV show, because if television is to be viewed as a viable art form, it must be real. Nudity is real. How many of us have never seen a naked man or woman? And after all, what is wrong with seeing a naked human being? Are not our bodies beautiful? As for the argument that children may watch these programs, why must we train children to be embarrassed of the human body — don't they possess one as well? And don't they see the beauty of it as well? If a thing is beauti ful, it is inherently beautiful — it doesn't take age or maturity to appreciate it. This country's public has an unnatur al stigma towards sex and nudity. This stigma does not appear when depicting other scenes from our lives like the vio lence in these television shows. For some reason foreign to my logic, violence is more easily accepted as "proper view ing" than sex or nudity. I would rather our society learn how to make love and be secure with their sexuality and their bodies than know how to kill, main, tor ture and cause pain. We should all look at what we are and think about how foolish it is to censor something that we all are at least once a day — nude. Rene F. Aguiluz Class of'97
