Jackson, Miss., voters have again defeated a $29.7-million school-bond issue.
It was the second time this year that a school-aid measure failed in Jackson, the state’s capital. In February, voters defeated a $42-million capital-improvement and school-bond issue.
The bond issue needed the approval of 60 percent of the voters to pass, but it received support from about 52 percent. Voter turnout was light because of massive flooding in the city.
By a voice vote, the Florida House of Representatives decided to strike the enacting clause on a bill that would have replaced a required high-school course on “Americanism vs. Communism” with a course that presented a comparative view of world economic systems. The parliamentary maneuver effectively killed the bill in the House.
A bill still under consideration in both the House and Senate would provide $1 million for the 1983-84 school year to introduce a course in “Fundamentals of Democracy” that would be taught in addition to (but would not replace) the controversial course in “Americanism vs. Communism.”
But with only three days left in the legislative session, education officials said last week that it was “very unlikely” that the bills would be brought out of appropriations committees and discussed on the floors of the House or Senate.
