NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006
4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
▼ EDUCATION
New grants get green light from government
BY BEN FELLER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — In a rare venture into curriculum, the Bush administration on Tuesday declared which high school programs are "rigorous" enough to qualify students for college aid.
The designation is important because only college freshmen and sophomores who complete a rigorous high school course of study can receive certain new grants approved by Congress.
The Education Department typically avoids endorsing or rating coursework,a politically sensitive area that states control.
But in creating the math and science grants for poorer students, Congress ordered Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to judge which high school programs are challenging.
Spellings, under pressure to get the program running in every state by the fall, announced a range of ways for students to be eligible for grants over the next two years.
She deferred for now to programs that states already consider rigorous, either based on the nature of the coursework or the sheer number of courses that students must take.
But in future years, the criteria will get tougher to better reflect what colleges demand of students, Spellings said in a letter to governors and state school officers.
The grants are open only to students who already qualify for low-income Pell Grants. Some students may be shut out simply because their schools don't have sufficient offerings.
"We can't know that every single student will have had the opportunity to take these courses," said assistant education
secretary Tom Luce. "But we believe we set up enough options that it's likely that a vast number of students would have had the opportunity."
opportunity. The grant program is also open to college juniors and seniors who maintain good grades and are pursuing a degree in math, science, engineering or foreign languages in high demand.
An estimated 500,000 students will be eligible this fall.
Students will qualify if they:
—Have an advanced or honors high school diploma, as offered in at least 19 states.
Completed the courses of the State Scholars Initiative, a congressional backed program requiring students to take four years of English, three years of math, three years of lab science, three and a half years of social studies, and two years of a language other than English. Fourteen states have the program now.
grain flow.
—Finished a set of courses "similar" to the State Scholars curriculum.
—Taken at least two Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses and passed the tests in both subjects.
States may also submit their own idea of what a rigorous course of study means, for review by Spellings. Those are due by June 1.
Starting this fall, grants of $750 will be available for college freshmen and $1,300 for sophomores. Juniors and seniors can receive up to $4,000 a year.
Congress has approved up to $4.5 billion for the program over the next five years.
the next Republican lawmakers approved the program in December as part of a bill that otherwise slashed almost $13 billion in college spending.
SAGO MINE
Dale Sparks/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bennett Hatfield, President and CEO of International Coal Group, testifies at the Rockefeller Physical Education Center on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College during the first day of the Sago Mine disaster hearings, Tuesday. Members of the families of the Sago Mine miners testified about the lives of their lost loved ones.
BY VICKY SMITH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reason for explosion remains uncertain
BUCKHANNON, WVa. — "Did our dad have to die?" Peggy Cohen asked Tuesday as mine safety regulators opened an emotional public hearing on questions still surrounding the January disaster that left 12 men dying deep inside the Sago Mine.
Family members of the other miners followed her to the microphone, some clutching framed photos of the victims.
"We assure you, Mr. Politicians, that we're not going to let this rest," said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was among the victims. "We know in our hearts that this can be corrected. It needs to be done immediately, it needs to be done now. And it's on you."
Four months after the blast, officials from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, West Virginia's Office of Miners' Health Safety and the company that owns the Sago Mine began testifying about the disaster in a two-day public hearing.
The miners' families wanted to know whether lightning caused the blast inside the mine that killed one of the crew, why it took MSHA 11 hours to start
the search for the trapped crew, and how the false news spread that 12 of the 13 trapped men were alive when all the men but one, Randal McCloy Jr., were dead.
With government investigations underway, Groves wasn't expecting many answers.
The testimony Tuesday centered on the mine's safety record in the year before the explosion and whether state and federal officials had appropriately enforced regulations.
Kevin Stricklin, MSHA's district manager, defended the federal agency's enforcement efforts and talked about how MSHA and mine owner International Coal Group had been working to make the mine safer since ICG took over.
"I do think the mine did seem to be improving in the fourth quarter of 2005," Stricklin said. "It wasn't a perfect mine, but we were working to make a better mine than what it was."
State and federal investigators have not determined precisely what caused the explosion and were expected to press ICG officials on Wednesday to explain why it believes a powerful lightning strike triggered methane gas in a sealed off section of the mine.
HEALTH Flu pandemic strategy focuses on preparation
WASHINGTON - A medical reality is complicating federal preparations for the next pandemic: Flu spreads in ways that make it extremely unlikely the U.S. could avoid being hit.
Even shutting U.S. borders against outbreaks abroad offers little reassurance, because people can spread flu a full day before they show symptoms. With 1.1 million people legally entering the country every day, that means a super-strain
would probably be incubating here by the time it was diagnosed abroad.
The government's latest national response plan acknowledges the difficulty as it warns that states, cities and businesses shouldn't count on a federal rescue if a superstrain of influenza strikes
and that people may have to rely on creative if not scientifically proven ideas such as staying 3 feet away from co-workers and not shaking anyone's possibly contaminated hand.
President Bush last fall announced a $7.1 billion strategy to fight the next flu
"This would really be a road map," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. "It will cover both the government and non-government actions that are being taken to plan and prepare for any potential pandemic."
pandemic, focusing largely on public health preparations such as how to rapidly produce a vaccine once the next super-flu strikes. On Wednesday, the White House will formally release Step 2 of that strategy — a list of actions that different branches of government need to take to prepare.
The incremental step is
drawing political attacks that the Bush administration isn't moving fast enough.
"Other nations have been implementing their plans for years, but we're reading ours for the first time now. These needless delays have put Americans at risk," Sen. Ed-Ward Kennedy, D-Mass., said.
Infectious disease experts hope the new details being released Wednesday will help businesses and local governments better determine what they should be doing -and what federal aid they can expect if a pandemic strikes.
The Associated Press
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