STILL WARMER
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
83rd Year, No.95
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Wednesday February 21, 1973
Some Deans Say Student Grades Are Rising
See Story Page 8
Kansas Photo by BILL JONES
Handicapped Request Curb Cuts on All Sidewalks Representative of KU committee testifies . . .
City Commission Sees Lack of Communication
By CHUCK POTTER
Kansan Staff Writer
City Commission candidate Gene Miller charged Tuesday night that former city collection office supervisor Robert L. Beach had been "railroaded" out of office.
Speaking at a meeting of the Lawrence City Commission, Miller requested that a grand jury be impanelled to investigate a disappearance of $2,840.73 in city funds last
Beech pleaded no contest Feb. 9 in Douglas County District Court to a charge of misuse of city funds. He is currently free on $1,500 bond.
"I don't think he (Beech) has the missing $1,500," Miller said. "He told me he doesn't have it. He it's not charged with them, I just misuse of city funds. Apparently someone did something wrong, and he's taking the rap for it.
Miller, of 305 Arrowhead Drive, told the commission that a recent article in the Lawrence Daily Journal-World implied that Mr. Miller had been hired at $1,500 from the city finance department.
"Obviously somebody here got money besides him. This body should use its influence to impanel a grand jury to try me." "Oh, you haven't happened and possibly p慰 this man."
City Manager Buford Watson Jr. said that an auditor's report last year showed $2,640.73 to be missing and that the city had a higher amount from the Traveler’s Insurance Co.
"Beech pleaded mote contend and is now a convicted felon," Watson said. "I couldn't get it right."
Miller charged that Beech had not had adequate legal counsel and had pleaded no contest because "he thought it might be the easiest way to get people off his back.
"I arm of the opinion that he is not guilty and is being railroaded."
Commissioner Chuck Fisher said, "If there has been a miscarriage of justice, it will be one that we must look at."
Fisher then moved that the commission request Court Attorney Milton Allen to
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Few Candidates File for Senate; Deadline Today
The deadline for filing for Senate and class officers is 5 p.m. today. Candidates may file with Sterling Hall. Subtitle III: Attendance. Attendance, chairman, or in the Student Senate office.
Only 26 candidates had filed for the 93 open seats in the Student Senate by 5 p.m.
Senate candidates need only pay a $5 filing fee with their declaration of candidacy. Class officer candidates must submit a petition signed by 50 students with a declaration of candidacy. Declarations and petition, 105B Kansas Union.
Filings as of Tuesday were: School of Architecture, no candidates for two seats; Business, 1-3; Education, 2-12; Engineering, 4-5; Fine Arts, 1-5; Graduate, 0-18; Journalism, 2-3; Law, 3-2; Pharmacy, 0-21; Social Welfare, 2-22; University College, 1-4; North, 1-4; Nunemaker, 4-0; Oliver, 0-5; and Pearson, 6-0.
Inquiry of City Funds Sought
By CHUCK POTTER
Kansan Staff Writer
Lawrence City Commissioners announced Tuesday night their conclusion that there is a lack of communication between the commission and the community. The conclusion was part of a report on five city-wide meetings held last year.
i meetings took place in October and November and were called by the commission to investigate public sentiment on changes in the structure of the commission.
"It's not the number of people on the commission, but the willingness of the people to take responsibility," she said. "We're not communicating with boards and commissions as well as we should. We plan to have more meetings with them."
Commissioner Nancy Hambleton said the commission had concluded that there was a need for a better means of communication because it could not be a one-way street.
She also said she did not think the membership on the commission should be allowed.
COMMISSIONER Chuck Fischer, who said he was "president the distaff side," said he considered area representation an important issue.
rather, responding to statements by commissioners Hambleton and J. R.
"I behoves the commission to get people to come up with a petition to get this matter on."
Fullman that the issue could not be placed
bailout until 1974, urged immediate action
Commissioner Jack Rose said he did not think a significant public interest in area representation had been evident in the series of meetings.
"The city would be better off if we would elect a mayor as mayor and stay with five commissioners," Rose said. "The mayor could not vote except to break ties. That situation would create strong leadership for the commission."
The commissioners agreed that area residents should become more involved
"Don't just come to commission meetings when you are upright about a zoning change or something else," Hambleton said, since when you don't have an interest in it."
ROSE SAID the commission was con-
demned to investigate a Citizen's Advocacy
Bureau to help solve the problem.
The board would be composed of former city commission members and other qualified persons in the community, Rose said. There are about 20 former commissioners in Lawrence. Rose said that they will continue to enlarge the group to no more than 50.
The duties of the board's members would involve gathering information and opinions, assisting in the creation of good will for the city and, specifically, investigating the possibility of establishing a city "goals program." Rose said.
The commission plans to meet with the former commissioners within the next two months.
"The board would be intended to provide a mechanism whereby the diversified talents of citizens could be employed in the operation of city government," he said.
Commissioner Chuck Fisher moved that the specifications be put into the form of an ordinance and that the matter be referred to by the board. The motion was unanimously approved.
IN OTHER business, the commission beard a plea from Roger Williams, an education assistant in the geology department of the University of Kansas, to provide access to public sidewalks and public buildings for handicapped persons.
The commission also adopted a resolution ordering the construction of an $45,000 building.
$1 Million Loss in Aid Possible
Lawrence, Lloyd Davies of 1645 W. 19th St.
read a prepared statement to the commission requesting that the decision be either tabled or withdrawn. Davies recently formed a citizen's group to oppose the sidewalk plan.
COMMISSIONER Jack Rose told Davies and the audience that he "had no desire to table or withdraw the plan" and that the commission would proceed with it.
Davies said an opinion poll conducted by his group showed that 75 per cent of the property owners in the district to benefit from the sidewalks opposed the plan. The commissioners, however, voted 5-0 to go ahead with the plan.
In other business, the commission:
Kansan Staff Writer
By GARY ISAACSON
Arngersinger said that National Defense Education Act fellowships would also take a substantial cut. This cut will also cost the student instructional allowances, he said.
—Appointed James M. Harrell, 1329 Rhode Island, to the Traffic Safety Commission to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Ward Thompson Sr.
also receives $2,500 to pay for the student's fees and tuition. The difference between the stipend and student expenses goes to the college's academic programs and other expenditures.
Nichols said that although a specific figure had not been computed, he expected the biggest losses to come in student aid and graduate stipends.
The University of Kansas will lose about $1 million in federal aid in fiscal year 1974/75. President Nixon's proposed budget is accusered to the senator, Nicholls Raymond Nichols said Tuesday.
"Without federal funding, the center at kU and those in other schools across the country were unable to participate."
When a national defense fellowship comes to the University, Argersinger said, the federal government normally pays a stipend to the student. But, the University
Henry Snyder, of the office of research administration, said that funds for KU's language and area studies program would also be eliminated.
ALTHOUGH SOME agencies that sponsor research programs may have the same amount of funds, Snyder said, these funds are being reallocated to other areas. Therefore, funding for research has diminished.
—Decided to meet with members of the Building Code Appeals to discuss the Mining Rule.
this program, which supplies funds for equipment for undergraduate studies, he
William Argersinger, vice charger for research and graduate studies, is working on an analysis which is expected Friday, Nichols said.
"We have been using $40,000 to $60,000 a year for this program." Nichols said.
In regard to a possible appeal to Congress for reinstatement of these funds, Nichols said that he would notify Kansas's commissioners about the situation at the University.
"Federal funds from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have already been cut in half and may be gone entirely by next year," he said.
—Approved on first reading an ordinance calling for annexation of about 79.5 acres located at the southeast corner of 31st and Iowa streets into the city limits.
NICHOLS SAID funding for the undergraduate equipment program had been cut for this year and next. The government matches the University dollar for dollar in
Nixon's budget would phase out the National Direct Student Loan program. Nichols said the loss in federal aid for this program would be about $700,000.
ARGERSINGER said all of KU's research programs would be hit hard by the loss of federal funding. He said at least six training programs at KU that provided financial support for students and faculty would be cut completely.
Israelis Raid Arab Bases
The attack by land, sea and airborne forces carried the Israelis to the Syrian-Lebanese border 112 miles north of the Israeli-Lebanese frontier, a spokesman
TEL AVIV (AP)—Israeli troops launched their deepest ever ground raid into Lebanon early Wednesday, striking at Arab terrorist bases in the north of the country, the military announced.
"Dozens of guerrillas were killed," and six skurailas were wounded, of them only three.
Police in Beirut, Lebanon, said
See ISRAELIS Next Page
Roomy Classrooms
A tour of two Kansas school systems, Powhattan, which will spend $124 a student this year, and Spring Hill, which will spend $624 a student this year.
Kansan Staff Photo by ED LALLO
deteriorating buildings. The Powhatan school building seemed to be less crowded and students seemed to have more educational aids. Teachers in Spring Hill were meeting to protest the firing of a teacher for using profanity in the classroom room and to discuss what they called low salaries. This is a spacious classroom in Powhatan.
Kansas Senate Prepares for School Finance Battle
By ERIC KRAMER
Kansan Staff Writer
A court order to restructure the financing of Kansas public schools has left a good many legislators and educators in a state of confusion.
The problem is not new. For years books have been written about the inequality of financing schools by local property tax. Students who live in districts that contain poor schools have been getting better education than students in poor districts for a long time.
The Kansas Senate Education Committee ended weeks of work Tuesday when it voted to send a new school finance plan to the Senate floor today.
The new plan is an amended form of a bill written by the Joint Interim Committee on Environment.
Educators and sociologists have been writing books about the problem for years. The Supreme Court of California finally decided to consider the problem as a constitutional issue. It ruled that the local property tax to finance public education was a violation of the equal protection under the laws clause of the 14th Amendment.
Johnson County District court rulcd Aug. 30 that the financing plan used in De Soto violated Michele Caldwell's right to equal protection under the laws. The court gave the Kansas Legislature until July 1 to develop a new school finance plan.
But there are problems in such a plan. Price levels are different in different parts of the state. It is cheaper to educate a student in a large school than it is in a small school. And this could create more equality than the courts have asked for.
It has been suggested that a statewide tax be collected and given back to the districts on a per pupil basis. Hawaii does it that way.
So, the battle in the Statehouse is over two houses. The governor give some degree aid to the poor children.
Both plans were considered by the
S. B. 92 contained a 1½-percent income tax to help districtists share their share of the school budgets. The governor has vowed to veto any increase in the state income tax. However, the Republican caucus, which has a majority in the legislature, has endorsed
Education Committee. One plan was designed by the legislature's Joint Interim Committee on School Finance; the other, by Gov. Robert Docking and his staff.
The governor has attacked the committee bill because of what he calls a tax increase. He has also accused the Republicans of obstructing state programs to finance their proposal.
The committee says that it now has enough money in the state budget to finance the education plan and all other existing programs. The committee also says the education matter first and then look at
See Related Stories and Pictures on Page 7
S. B. 92 on the condition that the income tax be made onicial on a local basis.
The committee action Tuesday amended the bill to allow for an optional 50 per cent income tax surcharge instead of the mandatory 1/2 per cent income tax.
The governor's aides have refused to say that the bill if it contained an optional income tax.
new programs that are seeking state support this year. A tax increase, they say, will come if any of these new programs warrant it.
In the Michele Caldwell case, the Johnson
Actually, both plans will spend about the same amount on education in Kansas. The question is who will pay the money and to which schools it will go.
County District cited a Kansas Law Review article that suggested plans for school financing. The article, written by Robert J. Jones for the Spring 1972 edition, listed four kinds of equality for school districts.
The first method would be simple to simplify the same number of dollars on each student
In theory, a school district draws up its budget and divides the amount of money needed among the students by the amount of property they own. If there is little valuable property in
The second would spend the same amount on each student after adjusting for the efficiency of the size of school and for the price level in the area.
The third method is what is called "power equalizing." This makes the amount of money spent on a student dependent on the local tax payers' willingness to support education. The "power equalizing" is equality of tax base power.
the district, the budget will be low or the amount the tax payers pay will be high
The amount paid on each $1,000 of property valuation is the sum of the following and valuation:
Power equalizing in its purist form would make a district's expenditures per pupil equal to that of any other district that paid the same mill levy.
The fourth method would spend money on children according to their educational purpose.
The committee bill is basically a power equalizing plan. A pure power equalizing plan would collect money from the rich districts and give it to the poor ones.
The committee bill does give state aid to the poor district according to their willingness to pay and gives no state aid to the rich districts. A pure plan not only would cut off state aid to the rich districts but also would collect money from them to give to the
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