u s« Battalion niej ^The choice of a new generation? tings ^chool voucher Page 9 • Tuesday, March 23, 1999 Wt good idea RK (AP) . ame s, CBS '^ e *s man, education 11 ad a 6.0 o'M d ] 3 sharf.Hn he0c,u tfro mlas!!« 1)0,5 k we cav s\'stem in 1 in theRn:1M [, nii ed 5, CBS' '■ta | cs is i' 1 rogramminsF need of tell the stmP pi0venKM11 strength nd -mn P no y had any: e 10 ievo 10 some blow ^ ' ' ain lH ’ Brandon MULLEN happen tha!|h llc V n u 7 g ch( ol vouchers, tour F^fBchool vouchers would give / , i re S lc tarpnts the money to choose 1 l ’ ,u ■v ; vhether their children go to public chpol or private school, t ie tour ^-j&rhe argument in favor of a 1 ' s ’ 1116 ’ouchers system rests on the theo- game post' y a iat vouchers would improve 1 !rorn ^ he current education system by e Temple: nipioving learning, increasing the nt highe (ptjons for poor families and creat- de 1 slant ng a system of “parent’s choice.†itate receiver These benefits exist only in the- it from Cor.: , r y j n reality, school vouchers ia. vould further damage an already .veekend P veak education system. Michiga" ' frhe National Education Associ- tchup, wr ition (NEA) is a major opponent to vn 12 peri- he voucher system and cites a uucky thnll'iumber of reasons and examples is the pet vhy vouchers would fail, lolds in the Ipne reason is vouchers would uogram, ahot improve the education stu nts 994,000 : lents receive. The NEA used Mil- s the pertvaukee. Wise., to support their ar- igram amogument. Milwaukee has been i at the tirnhsing a voucher system for the past ;ix years. : Research has shown that during | daat period there has not been any Cl J Ithlnge in the academic level of Indents using the vouchers in Ltpmparison to students in the pub- V] school system. 1 ‘ Not only does a voucher system . FIs. help students, it widens the ed- ano(hers!rongv£ t j on .g a p t i iat a i reac iy exists. As the troit, and fc/\ p U t n, “Vouchers would help the id three hits, at p ie expense of the many and take s, astheTige®j er j ca i3 ac k to the days of separate and ;ors 3-2 Moni JrH ,q ua i_†who led tl ie »;vidence of this effect can be seen in he education systems of Great Britain, hile and the Netherlands. According to NEA, the voucher system in these ntries has “widened the educational between the children of the well-off II the children of the poor.†lAfter many years of working to level he educational playing field, it would tot be reasonable to institute a system hat would work against this progress. iree striked And a voucher system in the U.S. would hurt the students who need the most help. Despite the claims of “parent’s choice,†the ultimate choice belongs to the admissions department of the private schools. NEA President Bob Chase said, “No voucher system guarantees that every child who applies will be selected to at tend the private school.†It is unreasonable to expect presti gious private schools to admit students who do not fit their status quo. Private religious schools already reject two-thirds of their applicants. The NEA states that “the ablest, easiest to educate students would use vouchers to attend private school. More difficult and expen sive to educate children would be left in public school with even fewer advocates and resources.†In addition to admissions criteria. Chase also said, “No voucher system covers total tuition costs.†Those students who are below the poverty line would still not be able to af ford a private education. Therefore most of the vouchers would be used by stu dents who currently attend private schools. The NEA estimates “ [it] would cost $5.2 billion a year in additional tax spending to provide vouchers for the stu dents already in private schools.†This twisted Robin Hood system that gives back to the rich is un-American. The additional tax money should be fo cused on improving the education of those students who are forced to accept public schooling. School vouchers should not even be an issue. The American public has re peatedly voted vouchers system down across the country. And the two current systems in Milwaukee and Cleveland were passed by the state legislature, not by the public. Ultimately the education system in the United States needs to be over-hauled. The current system does not provide the GABRIEL RUENES/The Battalion level of academic excellence that should be expected. It also has no way to guar antee that schools in one state are com petitive with schools in another. So a stu dent’s education in Paducah, Ken. may not be equal to a student’s in Plano, Tex. But those who believe a voucher sys tem would help are mistaken. A voucher system in the United States would only intensify the current problems. It would not improve education. It would not pro vide opportunities. It would only benefit the students who do not need any assis tance. Brandon Mullen is a senior history and English major. in his four;' gave up ts in five ins , who apps starting, i the first and: nson’s ilez singled lore and -1 lead in S| scored twice eat industry, USDA should Kazan’s award will not erase ‘maintain stricter sanitary rules pain, rift caused in Hollywood r A FOOX little girl lies i doubled ** -*-on a lotto and :>ed ’ weak fice fly dR lirid hred. She nth the ge^nnot stop Reed helr^rowing up. for three irJfir stomach lyan pitefehn ts, and her L ISA st save, ^tily can } nly watch as >ht swiftly wastes away in front L * J )f |h e ir eyes. liirvURDoes she have AIDS or can- TNo, the disease is a much C0(L 11Ore i ns i d i° us one an d it is car- ^ ifld by the food American soci- ’, Iowa (riity is consuming. It is E-coli poi- vas hired Toning. Iowa’s bast®t he meat industry and its co- after poi ts - the poultry and fish in- Missouri lustries - need to clean up their s best shOHlis and clean up Americans’ lament, ood. r Indiana [While one little girl dying is a )avis, whof'ragedy, few people might really newed. ale note. However, when the ord of dHgures in question become larg- most viewer, the question becomes more wa history’ erious. the Hawkk bn Spoiled: What is Happen- e Univek ng to Our Food Supply and Why tgham #V<| are Increasingly at Risk, the cansas in Author, Nicols Fox, notes that be- a 78-68 wpen 200 and 500 people die the NCA^ very year from E-coli poisoning als lastThklone. Most of these people are iwa is Children. took his »E-coli is a nasty disease that, So 1), l pome instances, attacks the a No. l.- topy, ravages it and is capable of sity of W>; ating away a person’s heart, jty of Te^BBut it is not the only food- to toP' 1 ' ■borne illness that exists. There are a variety, including salmo nella and mad cows’ disease. Most of these diseases flour ish due to a combination of dirty, diseased animals being sold to slaughterhouses, the meat not being cooked properly and the efficient but unsanitary conditions that exist in the food industries, Fox said. The conditions that lead to people dying from these diseases are not difficult to find or hard to imagine. For instance: An animal gets sick, but in stead of being killed, the animal gets sold as food for the un knowing masses. “Consumers are endangering their lives when they go out to eat and they should take precau tions/' The conditions in the slaugh terhouses are hardly pure and sanitary, despite check-ups by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Perhaps it is wise to ask how a government agency could al low the unsanitary conditions that lead to death to continue in the food industries. Robin Cook, a graduate of Co lumbia University Medical School and a fiction writer, claimed the USDA and the meat packing industry are allies in the struggle to keep the public un aware. He said that the USDA offi cials overlook many of the dis gusting things that happen to the meat on the way to the food market. The meat could be dropped on the floor amidst the blood and other body fluids from the cows and steers. It could be dis eased to start with, something officials are supposed to inspect, but perhaps overlook. Regardless, it is obvious that the USDA needs to take stronger action. In the mean time, con sumers are endangering their lives when they go out to eat and they should take precau tions. Some might choose not to or der meat at all when dining at restaurants. A less drastic mea sure might be to make sure the food is cooked properly and is not served cold, which should eliminate some of the risk. But more importantly, some thing needs to be done to stop these murders. For these deaths are deaths — people dying due to the carelessness and greed of others. Society needs to be more aware of the little girl, lying on her bed, swiftly dying. Lisa Foox is a senior journalism major. CC T thou § ht I the X black list was Hattie McDaniel and me. †Whoopi Goldberg’s quip may have garnered a few Aaron laughs at Sun- MEIER day’s Oscar ■*■■*^*■1* ceremony, but the story behind the joke is no laughing matter. The honorary Oscar presenta tion is usually a time for audi ences to head to the bathroom or raid the refrigerator before the announcement of Best Picture. This year, however, the biggest question was not “Shakespeare or Private Ryan?†it was “Will they or won’t they applaud for Elia Kazan?†Kazan, director of such cine matic wonders as On the Water front and Streetcar Named Desire, was selected by the Acad emy to receive an honorary Os car for lifetime achievement. The trouble is in the ’50s, Kazan “named names†to the House on Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) chaired by the infamous Sen. Joe McCarthy. The Academy has handed its highest honor to a coward and thereby soiled the award’s in tegrity. Kazan is the Linda Tfipp of the Cold War era — a person who sold out friends and col leagues for the sake of patrio tism. With the clear liberal ten dencies of the movie industry. Kazan naming names was like shooting fish in a barrel. Whether or not the people Kazan identified as members of the Communist Party truly were communists has never been the issue. Simply being named by a person who testified in front of HUAC ended the careers of many of Hollywood’s top creative minds. In Kazan’s attempt to save the country from what many be lieved was an international com munist conspiracy, he sold out one of the basic principles of this country and the artistic commu nity as a whole: the freedom of thought. Whether communism was bent on global domination is not the issue. The idea that promis ing careers could be ended just because one man suspected an other of communist leanings is a travesty to the justice system of this country. Guilty by Suspicion is more than a phrase to describe the Mc Carthy era. It is also a movie star ring Robert DeNiro, one of the presenters of the honorary Oscar to Kazan. The movie depicts DeNiro’s character facing charges of communist association. Even though DeNiro is a friend of Kazan and owes much of his early beginnings to the di rector, how easily DeNiro aban doned the ideals extolled in the film. The other presenter of the Os car, Martin Scorsesee, director of such films as Raging Bull and Good Fellas, also followed the path of hypocracy DeNiro walks. Scorsesee is a rabid proponent of the exiled Dali Lama of Tibet. The Lama was forced out of Ti bet by the Chinese government because his Buddhist beliefs did not comply with the communist government, a story eerily remi niscent of McCarthy-era politics where communist beliefs no in line with the American govern ment were forced out of their jobs. During Sunday’s telecast of the Oscars, the camera intention ally showed images of stars such as Ed Harris and Nick Nolte sit ting with their arms folded across their chests staring at Kazan in defiance, while other stars such as Helen Hunt tried to offer the director a standing ova tion. However, no matter what the people at the Dorothy Chan dler Pavilion may have tried to do, whether it be an organize silent or a verbal protest, it will not make up for the lives Kazan ruined. The blacklisted men and women had their lives taken away from them and most were never able to recover. So while Kazan stood bn stage accepting an award, people whose lives he had ruined know that they have been slapped in the face twice, once by Kazan and another time by the members of the Academy who gave the Oscar to a coward. Aaron Meier is a senior political science major.