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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2004)
nati TTai; at m disin stre; besi-p Iasi- der H consii )iesi Opinion The Battalion Page 11 • Wednesday, January 28, 2004 Unraveling Chet Edwards tudenn should vote Aggie Edwards to represent them in District 17 & non. M J d bjh* & • v is-. ' lym ■ . * 'X, , v >. - , me ^°A ile most Texas Democrats are still cursing House Majority Leader Tom Delay and company for unjustly redrawing district lines. Congressman Chet Edwards, a primary Republican tar get for ousting, has put the ordeal behind him. \ Now serving his 14th year in Congress, Edwards is more interested in dealing with issues that affect his current district, as well as looking ahead to additional concerns held by the newly created District 17, of which Texas A&M and Brazos County will be a major component. Edwards announced on Jan. 15 that he will run for the District 17 seat, and in November of this year, A&M students should seize the opportunity to elect not only a former Aggie, but a congressman who has proven his dedica tion to central Texas and the United States. Edwards’ current district includes Fort Hood, home to 42,(XX) soldiers and the largest active-duty U.S. Army post in the United States. He said he is sad dened that he will not get the opportunity to represent Fort Hood after this term, but considering his Congressional JOHN DAVID BLAKLEY record regarding troops and veterans, all may be assured that Edwards will continue to give military needs more than mere lip service. He recently received the National Security Leadership Award from the American Security Council and was named Legislator of the Year by the Association of the U.S. Army, an award Edwards said he is especially proud of. Mm .iPE ... A&M students should seize the opportunity to elect not only a former Aggie, but a congressman who has proven his dedication to central Texas and the United States. One does not have to dig too deep to find out why such honors have been presented to Edwards. In the Nov. 8 Democratic Response to the President’s Weekly Address, Edwards called for increased funding for V.A. hospitals and improved healthcare for injured troops returning from Iraq. He also brought attention to the Bush adminis tration's proposal to cut $1.5 billion in military construction funds for housing and healthcare for troops and their fam ilies, which would deny daily necessi ties to those who are dedicating their lives to their country. Edwards has also earned a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, which recently set out the appropria tions bill for 2(X)4. One particular fea ture of the bill is emblematic of Edwards’ dedication to the people of his district. He managed to add $6.9 million to the legislation for transporta tion, education, water and community development in central Texas. “Improving our roads and trans portation system and protecting our quality of water,” Edwards said, “tire crucial infrastructure investments to ensure our economic growth and quali ty of life in central Texas.” When in Washington, D.C., con gressional leaders too often forget about those back home. But Edwards’ track record has proven that he will not fall into such a trap. This conviction should be the goal of any elected repre sentative, and Brazos County deserves such dedication. Healthcare is also among Edwards’ chief concerns. Last month, he intro duced the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Reduction Act into Congress. The bill will allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies, resulting in lower drug prices for seniors. Though most fail to realize the con sequences of a huge national debt, its effects are felt in every community through increases in the cost of buying a home and building a business. Fiscal irresponsibility leads to future genera tions — including the student presently in college — having to pay off debt. As a sponsor of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Edwards knows that fiscal responsibility, not reckless spending, helps Americans today and down the road. Edwards has said the failure of an administration to be fiscally conservative and the resulting rising debt, is analogous to the govern ment charging huge expenses on the next generation’s credit card. When Brazos County decides who it wants representing its interests, it should not come down to politics and partisanship. What will matter is expe rience, a track record that shows gen uine and heartfelt concern for con stituents at home and dedication to the United States and those who serve in its armed forces. With these attributes in Edwards’ comer, any candidate run ning against the congressman will be in for quite a race. John David Blakley is a sophomore political science major. iro ead, ;ers ndt erformance-based pay ot ideal for teachers MAIL CALL spot irl ardfr;| rsa| o the! geo 1 here has been much debate recently over whether or not teach- 1 salaries should be par tly based on their stu- idle dems' progress in standard- ■d tests. Many teachers are htfully outraged by the a that their incomes may affected by standardized t scores and childrens' nions of their classes. Currently, teacher salaries are Ised on experience and education, ubbielough it may seem natural to base nces'lsalary increase on the performance )f|a given teacher, student grades y not be directly related to their cher's ability. This could hurt cer- teachers more than others — ^ardless of their teaching ability by giving an insufficient raise to e of them, and more than what [deserved to others. "You have to be convinced that [u can, in fact, measure the gress that students make in a ar, and that you can fairly tie it to teacher," said Michael Allen of ie Education Commission. One of the main problems with the ;ument Allen presents and the pro- sal for teacher salary increase is ether the progress of the students illy be measured accurately and ectively by the standardized tests tv in place. While it may seem that ndardized tests are efficient and a ictical means for knowledge com- ison, they are not particularly stan- "dized from state to state, nor are y fair for students from lower |ome areas and schools. Ilf this new pay scale is indeed ling to be set in place, the school istricts and their locations need to )e taken into account when the Ichers are being observed and the ‘"'il scores are being calculated. LAUREN ESPOSITO If the teacher is in a lower income area, the test scores of their students may not, historically speaking, be as high as the scores of those students residing in more affluent school dis tricts. One cannot help but wonder if the teachers who took on a challenge by try ing to bring quality educa tion to a poorer area are going to be penalized for doing so. If teachers' pay is based on student perform ance, this scenario seems feasible. If that is the case, teachers will not want to work in these specific regions, knowing that their pay will be significantly less than it would be in other areas. It will then become even harder to staff these districts, which only hurts the children in these areas in the end. The National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union, does not support tying teacher pay to student scores, said Tom Blanford, associate director for teacher quality. Such a plan could ignore the kind of performance that doesn't show up in test scores, such as a teacher who prevents a child from dropping out or one who inspires excellence in poetry. With the teachers’ increase in pay being primarily based on test scores, it would give them no reason to interact with the students in any other way than to just cram basic material into their heads in prepara tion for a standardized test. This is not the type of education that is helpful for children in schools now and in the future. The teacher who is able to reach the child, and unlock his or her imagination or a dream is more worthy of a pay raise than one who can make students retain point-specific information. On the other side of the argument is the idea that many other profes sions are in the same boat as teach ers, and their pay is based solely on their performance. "Lawyers do it, engineers do it, business people do it," said Louis Gerstner Jr., the Teaching Commission chairman. "All profes sional people ultimately come up with methodology to judge the dif ference between great performance and mediocre performance. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we can't do it." Although Gerstner makes a point for pay-based performance, judging such performance and the pay that would accompany it would be sub jective and arbitrary. According to the Teacher Quality Bulletin, a survey done by Public Agenda found that 51 percent of parents want teachers in their dis trict to receive monetary rewards if their students consistently perform well on the tests. Would the parents also want the teachers' pay to be docked if their stu dents did not perform on a standard ized test at a level that they chose? It comes down to the fact that if the students put forth a sufficient amount of effort, their teachers would receive a raise at the end of the year because, in theory, the stu dents will then do well on their stan dardized test and demonstrate the ability of the teachers at their school. But even if the students do score well, and the teacher is able to get a raise, there really is much more to rating a "quality" teacher than a few standardized test scores, and that should be taken into consideration. Lauren Esposito is a senior English major. Visitors send thanks to 'good Samaritans' On Dec. 5, at 5:30 p.m., 1, along with my wife, Rose Marie J. Nagle, were passing through College Station. I am a native Texan, and I have been doing research on the Nagle genealo gy. I wanted to visit Nagle Hall, which was named in honor of my grandfa ther’s brother, James Nagle, who I believe was Dean of Men at Texas A&M in the early 20th Century — affec tionately known as “Uncle Jimmy.” Thanks are in order for three proud Texas Aggies who witnessed Mrs. Nagle’s fall when she broke two bones in her left arm and were extremely helpful in directing her to Beutel Health Center, where, unfortunately, she was n’t able to receive medical treatment. We were given directions to an off- campus emergency care center, which we were unable to find. We would like to thank the other good Samaritan whom we asked for directions at a red light. She said, “Follow me” and took us to the front door of the emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital. Due to Mrs. Nagle’s intense pain, we were remiss in getting names and phone numbers of those good Samaritans. If you were one of these people, please call us collect at (505) 352-2419. John F. Nagle II & Hose Marie J. Nagle Humane treatment not priority for Saddam In response to Sommer Hamilton’s Jan. 26 column: Ms. Hamilton grossly misrepresents America’s position in Iraq by implying that, only now that we have captured Saddam, does the Bush administration have a “fresh incentive” to return con trol of Iraq to the Iraqis. Our intentions in Iraq have been clear from the beginning, and they included the establishment of a free and demo cratic Iraq. It would appear that it is the world community, represented by the U.N., that now has an incentive to disallow freedom and democracy in Iraq. Claudia Roth’s statement is under standable, but this “top human rights official” fails to realize a major differ ence between Saddam’s behavior and that which he will receive from the newly-freed Iraqis. Namely, a trial, which I believe he failed to grant to the thousands he slaughtered over the years. While it is certainly within their pre rogative to do so, it is not required of nations to grant humane sentences to the inhumane. J. Stephen Addcox Class of 2005 & 1-134 mi'.nra inMl-ffltSYnfllflt