4A
Friday, September 9, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
School system does not deserve failing grade
HEATHER KIRKWOOD
Those quick to condemn American education often overlook the positives.
We have become so accustomed to listening to the litany of what is wrong with U.S. education that we have forgotten what is right with it.
Undoubtedly, you have read the statistics about how kids from other countries, such as Germany and Japan, outperform U.S. students on academic tests designed to compare educational systems. The problem is some of the greatest features of our educational system cannot be expressed in multiple choice form.
One of the greatest things about our system of public education is that it is inclusive, not exclusive. This has not been easy to achieve, and indeed many strides will have to be made to improve the inclusive nature of our schools. Why would we want to run
the risk of undoing something our society has worked so hard to achieve?
In our public schools, all sorts of students sit in the same desks, with the same teachers, the same tests and suffer through the same homework. It doesn't matter if the student is Christian or Jewish, Black or White, brilliant or slow, blind or deaf.
For those of you who are running to get your pens and paper to jot notes to the editor, hold it. I know that studies show all sorts of disparities between suburban and inner-city schools.
Part of the immeasurable success of our system is that our kids have to learn to live in the real world, which includes all sorts of people from all walks of life.
Think then what will happen if, in the rush to find a quick fix, we begin to separate children according to religious affiliations or academic abilities? All of a sudden disparities that we now know to be a result of social problems will be blamed on educational programs.
School choice is the buzz word making the rounds these days. I don't have any problem with the concept of choice, but I have deep reservations about how choice in education might be carried out. What does it really mean?
Competition to attract students and freedom for education to create innovative learning strategies can be good, but only if all children have access to the same choices. Achieving this will require much more than handing parents a school tuition voucher.
Cost becomes a factor when low income families want to consider sending their children to the best schools. Even if families are given vouchers, what would prevent private schools from simply raising their tuition?
Transportation is another problem. If low income parents want to choose a school on the other side of town, will taxpayers be willing to fund transportation as well?
If school choice is going to be the savior of education, then it must consist of school choice between public schools. Public schools are required to serve everyone. They will not be
able to price themselves out of the range of "undesireables" or promote a set of values that one group thinks are the best. Transportation should be provided that would allow families to realistically consider all the options, and geographic zoning should be relaxed so families don't feel obligated to only choose from magnet programs.
And as parents evaluate choices in education, they should remember the best education, the best motivation to learn, starts with them. Even in the worst of school situations, parents can make an incredible difference.
Heather Kirkwool is a Wichita junior in magazine Journalism
VIEWPOINT
Getting people back on job should be goal of welfare
Following the resolution of the healthcare debate,the next major item on the agenda for the president is welfare reform.
Many states have been making their own initiatives for quite some time. Ohio, for example only offers
are smaller, the chances of the parents or parent returning to the work force are much greater than with larger families, where the need for child
WELFARE LIMITS
Ohio system limits the amount of aid to two children, encouraging
parents to keep families small and go back to work.
care eats up the parents' time and the family's budget. The results from Ohio are confirming this correlation.
money for two children when providing welfare assistance for families. This encourages assisted families to keep families small. And when families
Programs like the one in Ohio encourage people to return to the work force and should form the bulk of Clinton's upcoming proposal.
LOU MULLIGAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Fans are held hostage by greedy ball players
The Major League Baseball Players Association continues to hold sports fans hostage because it feels that a $1 billion salary cap is unfair. The players' fear
is founded or understanding of what a salary cap is.
competitive and at the same time benefit the players by raising the average player's salary to $1.4 million from the current $1.2 million.
The proposed salary cap will still enable players to sign multi-million
BASEBALL STRIKE
In a study paid for by owners and players, it
Players should stop accusing owners of being greedy in asking for a salary cap and look in the mirror. Play ball, gentlemen.
was found that in 1991, the players' union made 78 percent more money than the net profits claimed by all
dollar contracts but also will give owners a form of cost certainty enjoyed by almost every other industry. This will allow small market clubs to remain
26 professional teams. It's time for players to look in the mirror and ask who the greedy ones really are, then give back our national past time.
LANCE HAMBY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
JEN CARR Business manager
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
News ... Sara Bennett
Editorial ... Donella Heame
Campus ... Mark Martin
Sports ... Brian James
Photo ... Daron Bennett
        Melissa Lacey
Features ... Traci Carl
Planning Editor ... Susan White
Design ... Noah Musser
Assistant to the editor .. Robbie Johnson
Editors
Business Staff
Campus mgr    Todd Winters
Regional mgr    Laura Guth
National mgr    Mark Masto
Coop mgr    Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr    Jen Perrier
Production mgrs    Holly Barn
    Regan Overy
Marketing director   Alan Stigle
Creative director    John Carlton
Classified mgr    Heather Niahus
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Illinois should also include their email address.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bible doesn't tell him so
In an article by David Zimmerman, Christianity is presented as a means of satisfying one's need for finding a meaning in life. Nothing shocking here, the majority of mankind has turned to some form of religion since the beginning of recorded history. I would like to offer another alternative, a life of introspection coupled with an intense aversion to the path of least resistance.
Pay particular attention to the word "toward." I am not suggesting any concrete answers exist. Contrary to the scenario Christianity presents, life is not a series of situations with right or wrong answers, 10 commandments and a book are insufficient to create peace on earth.
Put another way, I believe the meaning of life may lie in the searching one does. Spending time every day, trying to figure out who you are and what you want out of life, which differs for every person, inevitably leads an individual toward self-acceptance.
My main objection to Mr. Zimmerman's suggestion is that in turning over one's life to religion it seems commonplace to also relinquish one's thought and reason; I am not satisfied with my questions being
answered by the statement, "The bible told me so." Accepting religion as the answer to all is the equivalent of cheating on a test. No studying is necessary because you already have the answers, but the one who studies is knowledgeable, while the other is blind to his ignorance.
Andy Carter
Topeka junior
More than 90 percent of the student kitchen employees are foreign students, mostly nonwhite from Asia, China, Africa and South America.
Their visa forces them to campus employment, with off-campus employment requiring a special permit from immigration, both hard and risky to seek.
A front page article in the Sept. 6 Kansas quoted that parents' willingness "to give their children money" reducing their need to work, students' not having "learned time management" to fit work with studies and students' reluctance to work during mid-terms and finals as reasons for the shortage of part-time student employees in residence hall cafeterias, making their service less efficient and more expensive.
This picture by management is either ignorance or unwillingness to face unpleasant facts.
Halls at fault in lost jobs
And they pay $4.75 to $5.25 per hour for the same jobs residence hall kitchens speak so positively of paying "$4.35 per hour, 10 cents above minimum wage."
They were given hard split hours of a few hours at a time, like clock-in at 6 a.m. and clock-out at 8 a.m. for breakfast, again from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch and similar for dinner; hours most American students won't care to wake up for.
About two and a half years ago, immigration started an experiment for the next three years to let foreign students work off-campus with a lenient permit to be given directly by the school (KU), as different from getting one from the immigration.
This slowly led to a shortage of residence hall student kitchen help, which, as noted, is more than 90 percent foreign students, caused by their plight of visa conditions.
Off-campus restaurant jobs let you have blocks of hours, even eight or 12 hours at a stretch, enabling you to get your job over with and attend to studies.
T. S. David Graduate student
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES
But it is important to remember that Americans still live in a dangerous society armed with tens of millions of largely unregistered weapons.
Supporters of gun control should not take excessive comfort from the inclusion of a limited ban on assault weapons in the 1994 crime bill. The ban covers only 19 kinds of rapid-fire weapons. There are 600 similar weapons still on the market. The road to firearms sanity is a long one, and the partial ban was worth passing for tactical and symbolic reasons. It was another step in getting Congress in the habit of responding to the broad public demand for gun-free streets.
So what are the next logical steps to keep Congress on its cautious but encouraging path? Opinion polls indicate that after the Brady Bill, the most popular gun-control measures are a ban on cheap handguns and a one-gun-amoum limit on gun purchases.
Gun control can go on
The New York Times New York
NAFTA's looking good
How has the North American Free Trade Agreement worked out for the United States? Quite well, thank you.
Latest Commerce Department statistics show U.S. exports mushroomed 16.4 percent in the first half of 1994. And Mexico passed Japan as the second largest consumer of U.S. products. Only Canada consumes more U.S. goods. ...
Remember Ross Perot's "giant sucking sound" as he predicted NAPTA would destroy American jobs? Sounds more like jangling cash registers lighting up all across North America.
During the NAFTA debate last year, this newspaper predicted that NAFTA might be the only way the domestic economy could grow itself out of the new taxes and regulatory mandates Bill Clinton had put in place. All Americans, including the president, can take comfort in the results of its passage.
Meanwhile, the economy and stability of Mexico continue to improve.
Sunday Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Among the legislation that will be considered when Congress returns from its Labor Day recess is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The bill, which protects homosexuals from job discrimination, should be passed.
It corrects possible injunctions in the marketplace; yet it creates no special rights or quota systems.
Americans profess that anyone can get a job and that careers hinge on ambition, talent, education and hard work.
Labor bill smart move
American Statesman Austin, Texas
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin