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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 2003)
June 30, 2003 )3 6:46 at rized use of motor* Harvey. 13 8:54 a.m. Warm 2611 Texas. Cliarje 13 8:54 a.m. War® 2611 Texas. Charge 3 11:29 p.m. Accidert jn, 102 UniversityDi,[ ?ain to left knee. 3 12:09 p.m. War® il 1 Texas. 3 12:32 p.m. War® 19 Sandy Point. 3 1:08 p.m. Burglaiyd ig, 1101 Rock Prarif aken. 3 12:25 p.m. War® 0 E. 26th. 3 2:29 p.m. War® 07 Maloney. 3 2:25 p.m. War® 4 Luther. 5 8:48 p.m. Major am 1 2154/Rock Prarii t of pain, bloodynost 5 8:37 p.m. Failure!! 117 Holleman. to jossession. 5 8:13 p.m. Sexui! 100 Block Luther, i 12:03 a.m. Weapons Holleman/Eleanoi t. i 12:43 a.m. Ding oxicated, 400 Marion ! arrest. 5 2:09 a.m. Driving intoxicated, J Diversity. 2:01 a.m. Aggravated 17 University. Head 4:07 a.m. Burglaryol m, 1810 Holleman. 7:07 a.m. Burglaryof 2815 Longmire, reo. 9:12 a.m. Burglaryol !, 2905 Normand, ital camcorder andtri- 9:28 a.m. War®! Walton. 10:01 a.m. Bufl ation, 3939 SH fi tal camcorder tak 10:19 a.m. Deceased 04 Rock Prarie. 11:54 a.m. Burglar) :le, 2701 Longmii! eo. 12:15 p.m. Burglar) :le, 4708 Camargo ar detector. 1:03 p.m. Burlgaryoi 2220 Texas. Taken: is, cell phone, wallet IDs, stereo. 1:17 p.m. Burglaryol 1800 Treehouse flayer. 3:08 p.m. Warranl ) Augustine. 5:59 p.m. Burglaryof 405 Summit. Taken: 4:43 p.m. Warrant George Bush. 7:22 p.m. Resisting ng, failure to idenli er. One arrest. >:40 p.m. Burglaryol 2701 Longmire layer, tools. :14 p.m. Major acci- A/Valton. Complain! :53 p.m. Injury toi v/invalid, 2611 1:24 p.m. Warranl Iniversity Dr E. M :38 p.m. Liquor i, 313 S. College 12:29 a.m. Liquor i, 313 S. College 2:43 a.m. Failure !o ' S. College. One 30 a.m. Warrant ounty. 43 a.m. Warrant wy/Glade. 5:32 a.m. Public 1400 University. D:34 p.m. Making able to a minor, 77. One arrest. ':46 p.m. Minor in arking Area 77, :43 p.m. Minor in arking Area 77. 11:43 p.N' nduct (exposure) in possession, 7. 1:51 p.m. Theft, iken: S25 from 3 Opinion The Battalion Page 5 • Monday, June 30, 2003 Funding public education No Child Left Behind Act, budget cuts worsen primary and secondary schools E arlier this month, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the nation's report card, released its results on the read ing proficiency of students across the nation. It found that when it comes to reading, American stu dents simply don’t do well. Only about one-third of fourth, eighth and 12th-graders read at their appropriate grade level. And while the 31 percent proficiency for fourth-graders is a slight improvement of a 2 percent increase from four years ago, the proficiency of high school seniors has dropped by 4 percent. Education Secretary Rod Paige is quoted by CNN as saying, “There are no scientific answers as to why our high school sen iors have performed so poorly on this reading assessment, but we’re still searching for solutions to these daunting challenges.” Is America’s pathetic record on financing primary and second ary education a scientific enough answer? Education spending is always a popular way to garner votes during political campaigns, but little seems to come of these promises. In 2000, the George W. Bush campaign adopted the long-held Children’s Defense Fund motto “Leave No Child Behind” as a slogan to illustrate how much Bush cares about edu cation in America. The motto was even adopted as the name of education reform legislation Bush signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002. However, like every other education-related promise, little will come of this law unless government officials prove that they are serious about change. If students are to succeed, schools must be provided with adequate resources to properly teach them. Education funding must not be one of the first places govern ment officials cut spending, and “accountability” must not be an excuse for the government to skimp on its obligations to American students. The No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes the accountability of schools. Students in schools that do not perform well are free to transfer at the expense of their original school. This policy, however, does little to help students. It only makes the situation of schools worse. John Wilhelmi, principal of Marshall High School in Portland, Ore., told The Washington Post how this policy affects his school: “For every 30 students we lose, we lose a teacher. You lose teach ers, and you cut programs. You cut programs, and you attract fewer students. It’s a vicious cycle downward.” The state of Texas is also guilty of forcing school districts into a “vicious cycle downward.” Schools that perform poorly on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test get their funding cut as well, which is the exact opposite of what should happen. 's the poorer districts that are not performing well. Making them poorer by cutting the money supply makes absolutely no sense. JENELLE WILSON It’s ridiculous to think that poorly performing schools will improve with less money — they didn’t have enough money to begin with. Yes, schools should be accountable for their students’ per formances, but it is not solely the school’s fault. The state and the national government are to blame for poorly performing students. Schools need more money; it’s as simple as that. Schools need money to hire more and better teachers. They need money to reduce class size. They need money to provide programs that will prepare students for the real world. Schools need money that does not seem to be forth coming. While the No Child Left Behind Act increased federal funding for schools by 40 percent, the funding still accounts for less than 10 percent of K-12 spending nationally, according to The Washington Post. This leaves schools susceptible to large budget cuts when states need to free up some money. Due to the current economic crises faced by state governments, more than one-third of states are cutting school financing by mil lions, and in some cases — such as California — billions of dollars. These budget cuts will only make the situation worse, and unless the national government does more to help American students, millions will be left behind. Without better funding, there is no way the No Child Left Behind Act’s goal that every student be proficient in reading by 2013 will be met. Right now, that goal is nothing more than a pipe dream. Politicians need to stop talking about education funding and start doing some thing to improve the situation of millions of American children. They need to put their money where their mouths are. They Jj need to stop cutting money for schools and educational programs; otherwise, American students will continue to fail. Jenelle Wilson is a senior political science major. Graphic by Grade Arenas. Bush’s decision on generic drugs praiseworthy O n June 12, President George W. Bush announced the implemen tation of new FDA rules that improve consumer access to generic drugs. For Bush, such a move is very significant as he has not always supported generic drugs over their patented counterparts. As governor of Texas, he signed into law House Bill 2571, a 1997 law that made it tougher for doctors to prescribe the generic blood-thinner Warfarin over its brand- name equivalent, Coumadin. With this in mind, Bush should be commended for supporting these new measures, which prevent drug com panies from blocking other manufacturers seek ing to sell low-cost generic drugs. Currently, a 17 to 20 yearlong patent is awarded to a drug company that develops a new drug. By giving this company the exclu sive right to sell the drug, the patent helps pro tect the corporation’s investment in it. Patents also provide pharmaceutical companies with an incentive for developing new medicines. When a patent expires, other companies can sell generic versions of the drug. Because those manufacturers don’t have the same development costs, they can sell their product at substan tial discounts. The entry of the generic drug into the market also lowers prices by increasing com petition. Lately, however, drug corporations have been increasingly dissatisfied with their 20- year monopolies: the longer they can dominate the market, the longer they realize multi-billion dollar profits. Drug manufacturers began pre venting generic drugs from entering the market using loopholes in the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984. Ironically, the law itself was designed to encourage inexpensive alternatives to drugs whose patents had expired. The most common approach was a lawsuit. When any drug maker tried to enter the market with its generic drug, the original manufacturer would sue under the Hatch-Waxman Act. This action guaranteed a 30-month delay in which a court would solve the patent issues and the company could further monopolize the market. Afterwards, the original company could file another suit over a second patent violation, however minor, and gain 30 additional months. In fact, a study by the Federal Trade Commission noted that of the eight major drug companies that filed a suit since 1998, five alleged a breach of three or more patents. Compare this to the fact that only one out of nine companies did so before 1998. The new regulations, then, could not have come at a better time. They limit the brand- name drug company to one 30-month freeze. The rules also prevent companies from obtain ing patent extensions for trivial innovations, such as new packaging or new pill shape. Issuing a patent extension for such paltry dif ferences was not only unfair to the consumer, but it belied the very principle of originality upon which patent rights are based. AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company that developed the hugely successful anti-heart burn medication Prilosec gives a perfect exam ple of such tactics. The patent for Prilosec hav ing expired in 2001, AstraZeneca filed a new patent claim describing how Prilosec could be added over applesauce as a powder, aiding patients who have trouble swallowing pills. Any generic competitors would then have to prove that their versions, too, could be sprin kled on applesauce. As rudimentary as it sounds, the “applesauce test” would require more testing of the generic drug, resulting in more delays that would prevent more patients who could swallow pills from receiving cheap er medication. Some say that the rules are not helpful since it is healthier and safer to take brand-name pharmaceuticals. This is blatantly incorrect. A generic drug has the same active ingredients as the brand-name drug and is shown to work identically in the body. Furthermore, the FDA holds generic drugs to identical testing stan dards and verifies that they are equal to brand- name drugs in strength, quality and purity. The new regulations will be very beneficial. According to the FDA, the typical prescription cost for a patented drug is $72. The cost for its generic equivalent is only $17. Overall, the new rules are slated to save American con sumers $3.5 billion annually. Bush's regulations then are a step in the right direction. They not only protect the interests of consumers, but uphold legitimate patent rights as well. Midhat Farooqi is a senior genetics major. MIDHAT FAROOQI Affirmative Action only encourages racism The continuation of Affirmative Action is a defeat for all who have worked for racial equality. Rather than saying that all people are equally capable regardless of skin color, the Supreme Court sent the message that they do not feel that minorities are able to perform competitively. Once again, the Democratic Party's attempts to keep minorities impover ished, ignorant and dependent meet with success. Equality will never be found by giv ing some additional advantages over others for no reason other than superficial reasons, nor will racism be overcome by telling people that race is an important factor or that any race is greater than any other. Affirmative action will have no positive social ^percussions in this or subsequent decades, but it will do much to fur ther the cause of racism. James Floyd Class of 2006 Deregulation is likely to be abused in practice In response to Michael Ward's June 25 column: Michael Ward admonishes us all to not worry, don't panic and trust the school administrators to make the right deci sions. Well, there's the question, isn't it. Do we really trust school administrators to make the best decisions? Aside from various Vision 2020 initiatives which people may or may not agree with, there is a deeper, more important issue: Since when has any bureaucratic entity ever reined in its own spending? Answer: It hasn't. We see this all the time in government on the federal and state level, as well as MAIL CALL in large corporations. It's the same cycle here: the economy is good for a while, so there is more spending; then, later when A&M runs out of money, what does it do? Why, lament that there is not enough money for programs and raise fees again. I recall a Battalion opinion article from last semester that asked students to vote against a wasteful Rec Center fee increase. That's just typical of what any bureaucracy does: never a thought of cutting costs, only of raising spending. Of course, we used to have a control on this spending in the form of regulat ed tuition. And I liked that it gave fiscal boundaries school officials could work within. Now the boundaries are much larger and prone to error, and there are no controls. "Demand" for the educa tional product, or lack thereof, will not stop administrators from being less fis cally responsible than they were forced to be before. To me that's the main issue. From the book Black & White World www.CoxAndForkum.com Jonathan Drum Class of 2001
