January 19, 1983

Education Week, Vol. 02, Issue 17
Education Ohio District Profits From Plan To Collect Unpaid Taxes
While many school administrators watched helplessly this past year as their budgets were cut and their costs increased, one Ohio superintendent of schools reflected on his fiscal problems and came up with an unusual strategy to do something about one of them.
Hope Aldrich, January 19, 1983
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4 min read
Education U.S. Economic Slump Causes Blacks To Cancel Plans for Attending College
As some 2 million high-school seniors across the country make their financial preparations for college, educators are expressing fears that low-income black students--who in the 1970's had begun to be represented in greater numbers in the undergraduate- and graduate-education "pipeline"--will be forced for financial reasons to limit their educational choices or to opt out of college altogether.
Sheppard Ranbom, January 19, 1983
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8 min read
Education Aid Forms in Mail, Board Says
The College Scholarship Service of the College Board, which this month distributed 15 million financial-aid forms to 40,000 high schools, colleges, and agencies, last week urged parents and students to fill out the application forms as quickly as possible.

The printing of student-aid forms was delayed more than two months because the federal government was late in issuing guidelines for the Pell Grant and National Direct Student Loan programs.

January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education Churches Council Advocates Involvement in Public Schools
The National Council of Churches of Christ (nccc), the largest ecumenical organization in the country with 32 member denominations, has produced a discussion guide for its members that is designed to lead to local involvement in education issues. "It is not an exaggeration to say that we have a crisis in public education today," says the Rev. Allan J. Burry, university minister at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and chairman of the committee that produced the guide.

For that reason, says Margaret L. Shafer of the church group, and because it is interested in "mobilizing support for public education, we feel that church people should be in there supporting, encouraging, and working with public-education institutions."

January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education H.H.S. Asks Rule Requiring Notice of Birth-Control Use
Nearly a year after he first made the proposal, Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard S. Schweiker last week said he would publish the final version of a controversial rule requiring federally-funded family-planning clinics to notify the parents of teen-agers who receive prescriptions for birth-control drugs or devices.
Susan Walton, January 19, 1983
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6 min read
Education Special-Ed. Decision Reversed
Special-education students, denied high-school diplomas for failing the state's "minimal-competency" tests, were deprived of their constitutionally protected rights and must be awarded diplomas, a federal court of appeals has ruled.
Don Sevener, January 19, 1983
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5 min read
Education Law Permitting Congress's Veto Is Itself Vetoed
President Reagan last week refused to sign a bill passed during the final days of the 97th Congress that would have strengthened the legislative branch's right to review and, if it deemed appropriate, to veto federal education regulations.

By using the "pocket' veto, the President can fail to act on, and thereby veto, a measure approved by the Congress if the Congress's adjournment prevents him from returning it to the chamber where it originated. Normally, a bill automatically becomes law if the President fails to act on it within 10 days of receiving it. The bill, HR 7336, was drafted largely in response to a confrontation last summer between the Congress and the Education Department over the applicability of the General Education Provisions Act (gepa) to Chapters 1 and 2 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981.

January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education States Draft Laws Against Sex Bias In Education
In the next few weeks, state legislators in Ohio and New York are expected to begin considering comprehensive bills designed to prohibit schools and colleges that receive state funds from discriminating on the basis of sex.
Tom Mirga, January 19, 1983
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6 min read
Education Cities News Roundup
More than one-third of the students in New York City's public high schools are chronically absent, and another 13 percent of the students are absent often enough to require teachers to make extraordinary efforts in order to follow a coherent lesson plan, according to the board of education.

The survey on absenteeism, conducted at the request of The New York Times, also revealed that more than half of the failing grades in high school last spring were given because of school rules that required students to attend a minimum number of hours before they could receive a passing grade.

January 19, 1983
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4 min read
Education People News
Four teachers, all honored as teachers of the year in their states, have been named finalists in the 1983 National Teacher of the Year Program.

They are: LeRoy E. Hay, a teacher of English at Manchester High School, Manchester, Conn.; Harriet Donofrio, a biology teacher at Cape Henlopen High School, Lewes, Del.; M. Gene Ulrich, a science teacher from North High School, Sioux City, Iowa; and Nancy O'Donnell, a third-grade teacher at Perry Elementary School, Perry, Okla.

January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education States News Roundup
Acting on a recommendation of Gov. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Board of Education has approved a computer-literacy plan that would require 15 hours of instruction each year for students in the 7th and 8th grades.

The program, called "Computer Skills Next," was developed by a 16-member committee appointed by the board.

January 19, 1983
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2 min read
Education News In Print
Changing Channels: Living (Sensibly) With Television, by Peggy Charren and Martin W. Sandler (Addison-Wesley, General Books Division, Reading, Mass. 01867; 272 pages, cloth $24.95, paper $11.95).

January 19, 1983
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5 min read
Education Military Schools Are Again Popular With Students
Culver, Ind.--It's not that Bill Linsenmeyer didn't appreciate the opportunity to attend a preparatory school. He just figured that students at Andover or Choate would be more concerned with the proper clothes and proper social standing than with proper academics. "I wanted to go to a school stressing serious academics and hard work," says Mr. Linsenmeyer, 17. "So I chose the most serious school I could find."
Glen Macnow, January 19, 1983
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6 min read
Education Education Committees Chosen for 98th Congress
Congressional leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, in a reorganization of legislative committees for the 98th Congress, have assigned five new members to the House Education and Labor Committee and two new members to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.
Eileen White, January 19, 1983
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2 min read
Education N.J. 'Period of Silence' Halted by Federal Judge
Last week, less than a month after New Jersey's new "period-of-silence" law went into effect, a federal district judge ordered the state's schools to stop the practice of beginning each day with the mandatory quiet minute. The order was to remain in effect until a hearing on the law's constitutionality could be held. A number of states currently have laws providing for some form of school prayer, meditation, or a "moment of silence." Several are also the objects of litigation. (See related story on this page.)
Alex Heard, January 19, 1983
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2 min read
Education Tests Exclude Blacks From Teaching Profession
A growing number of states, in response to charges of widespread incompetence within the ranks of the teaching profession, are requiring teachers to pass tests of basic skills before they are given a teaching license.
Thomas Toch, January 19, 1983
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9 min read
Education More Education Budget Cuts Sought As States Face 'Bleak' Revenue Loss

As 36 gubernatorial terms begin and legislatures across the country convene in new sessions, state budgets--which account for about 47 percent of the funding for elementary and secondary education--face deficits that may rise to well over $2 billion by the end of this year.
January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education Video Game Rooms Zoned in Boston
In Boston, a limited prohibition of video games has gone into effect, despite an attempt by the New England Coin Machine Operators Association to get a court order stopping enforcement of the law.

The policy prohibits video-game licensing in local neighborhood business zones or residential zones unless there has been approval from Boston's zoning board of appeal.

January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education News Update
Federal District Judge William R. Overton has awarded $294,045.50 in legal fees and $55,627.61 in expenses to the American Civil Liberties Union for the lawsuit that struck down Arkansas' law requiring balanced treatment for "creation science" and evolution in the state's public schools.

The aclu sought $1.4 million in fees and expenses. The ruling came exactly one year after Judge Overton declared the law unconstitutional.

January 19, 1983
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1 min read
Education National News Roundup
Officials of predominantly black colleges, stung by overwhelming approval of new academic standards for freshman athletes, have threatened to withdraw from both the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the American Council of Education.

Under a new rule approved by the ncaa at its meeting in San Diego last week, freshmen may not take part in intercollegiate competitions unless they have at least a C average in a high-school core curriculum and a minimum score on standardized entrance examinations.

January 19, 1983
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17 min read
Education Problems Identified in Chicago Schools As 5-Year Improvement Plan Is Sought
An internal study of the Chicago public-school system has found "suspicion and anger" among most teachers, dissatisfaction among three of four graduates of its high schools, and inefficient implementation of desegregation and antipoverty programs.
Charlie Euchner, January 19, 1983
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2 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Computers Column
A network linking microcomputers at 25 Nebraska schools with a mainframe computer at Chadron State College will offer career instruction and guidance starting March 1.

Schools will be able to connect to the Chadron State computer and receive information that will be added daily to a mainframe "bulletin board." Schools will be able to copy any information stored in the mainframe program onto microcomputer floppy disks.

January 19, 1983
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4 min read
Education Busing Will Not Help To Desegregate Chicago Schools, Federal Judge Rules
A federal district judge in Chicago has approved a desegregation plan for that city's school system that will not require mandatory student busing.
Tom Mirga, January 19, 1983
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6 min read
Education Mandate for Most Governors: A Struggle To Fund Education
Officials in states across the country continued last week to announce their fiscal and program initiatives in education for the new legislative season (see Education Week, Jan. 12, 1983). Among the developments:

California

January 19, 1983
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4 min read
Education Federal Role in Ed. Needs 'Structural' Changes
After two years of control over the Education Department, the Reagan Administration "has only one major legislative accomplishment to its credit in education," says a new critique of the Administration's activities published by the Heritage Foundation.
Eileen White, January 19, 1983
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5 min read
Education Private Ed. Corporation Would Bolster D.C. Schools
A District of Columbia task force chaired by a distinguished former government official has developed an innovative concept, being used on a smaller scale in some districts nationwide, to encourage public and private schools within the metropolitan area around Washington to stretch budget dollars and raise educational standards.
Susan G. Foster, January 19, 1983
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4 min read
Education Many States Allow Prayer, Silent Meditation
The constitutionality of laws requiring or allowing prayer or periods of silence in schools continues to be debated in legislatures and courts. But some opponents of such practices believe they will continue regardless of what legislatures or courts do.
Alex Heard, January 19, 1983
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3 min read
Education Ruling Ends Detroit Teachers' Contract Dispute
While public-school teachers in Detroit last week received a ruling that ended their six-month-long contract dispute, teachers' strikes continued in four school districts in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

In the California, Pa., district, where teachers struck at the end of September, administrators and substitutes began holding classes for seniors. Other students remained out of school. And in three Ohio districts, administrators, substitutes, and nonstriking teachers kept the schools open.

January 19, 1983
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3 min read
Education High Court Hears Arguments Over Texas 'Residency' Law
A Texas law that permits public-school officials to deny admission to students who reside apart from their parents in order to attend better schools was challenged in arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
Eileen White, January 19, 1983
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2 min read
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