February 6, 1985

Education Week, Vol. 04, Issue 20
Education White House Urged Meeting With Conservatives
It took a call from the White House, William J. Bennett said last week, to convince him to meet last November with a coalition of conservative interest groups who wanted to hear the views of the leading candidates to succeed Terrel H. Bell as secretary of education.
James Hertling, February 6, 1985
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3 min read
Education President's Disavowal of E.D. Abolition Moves Bennett Closer to Confirmation
The Senate is expected this week to confirm William J. Bennett as the third secretary of education, following the recommendation of its Labor and Human Resources Committee.
James Hertling, February 6, 1985
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4 min read
Education Governors in Six States Propose Funding Increases for Education
Following are summaries of state-of-the-state and budget messages delivered by governors in recent weeks.

DELAWARE

February 6, 1985
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9 min read
Education Kansas City Desegregation Proposal Shelved
School officials in Kansas City, Mo., voted last week to shelve, at least temporarily, a controversial school-desegregation plan rejected by a federal district judge on Jan. 28.

The city school board's decision came a day after U.S. District Judge Russell Clark rejected its plan to consolidate the predominantly black central city school district with 11 predominantly white suburban districts. Judge Clark ordered the board to devise a new plan that would involve schools in the city only.

February 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education O.M.B. Plan Now Said 'Moot'
Within hours after President Reagan told William J. Bennett that he was the choice for education's top post, Mr. Reagan presided over a Cabinet meeting at which the Office of Management and Budget offered a general plan to dismantle the Education Department.
James Hertling, February 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education Agencies Review Louisiana Special-Ed. Grants
Louisiana's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education last week agreed to provide federal and state agencies with information about "possible improprieties" regarding the expenditure of more than $500,000 in federal special-education funds by the state's superintendent of education, Thomas G. Clausen.

Mr. Clausen awarded seven discretionary special-education grants without prior review by the board or its special-education advisory council, according to R. Bruce Macmurdo, the board's lawyer. Mr. Clausen then continued disbursing funds under some of those grants after the board rejected the proposals and ordered him to stop.

February 6, 1985
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2 min read
Teaching Profession Pennsylvania's Alternative Route to Teaching Stirs Interest, Criticism
Last week, 37-year-old Donald Lamar Givler, who describes himself as having "worked in business or trades since I was 14," began a new career as a teacher.
Linda Chion-Kenney, February 6, 1985
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4 min read
Education Governors: No Longer Simply Patrons, They Are Policy Chiefs
A decade ago, if you asked a casual observer of public education to name some "education governors," the inevitable answer was "Terry Sanford," followed by a long pause.
Peggy Caldwell, February 6, 1985
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8 min read
Education Use of Students as School-Bus Drivers Declining
For 30 years or more prior to the enrollment boom of the 1960's, the student school-bus drivers employed in a number of states across the country "were selected, strictly trained, and thoroughly supervised," according to David Soule, pupil-transportation specialist with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At one time, more than 20 states allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to drive school buses, and Wyoming even hired 15-year-olds for a while, according to Hanford Combs, president of School Transportation Systems Inc.

February 6, 1985
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3 min read
Education States Launching Barrage of Initiatives, Survey Finds
An Education Week national survey of education reform suggests that in the last two years, the drive to improve schools has generated an unprecedented level of legislative and policymaking activity in the states.
Anne Bridgman, February 6, 1985
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8 min read
Education National News Roundup
The Peace Corps and Teachers College of Columbia University have launched a fellowship program designed to entice returning Peace Corps volunteers who have completed two years as mathematics or science instructors abroad to teach in the nation's inner-city schools.

The purpose of the program, according to P. Michael Timpane, president of Teachers College, is to help "fill a void" left by potential math and science teachers who have decided against entering the field of education and opted instead for "more lucrative jobs." The program is intended to increase the number of math and science teachers nationwide, particularly those willing to teach in inner cities.

February 6, 1985
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2 min read
Education Appeals Court Confirms Rights of Tenured Teachers
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that a school district's failure to provide tenured public-school teachers with a hearing prior to dismissal violates the teachers' due-process rights under the 14th Amendment.
Cindy Currence, February 6, 1985
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4 min read
Education State News Roundup
When the New York Stock Exchange talks, teachers listen--especially when there is $10,000 at stake.

"We're getting a lot of calls," an exchange spokesman said last week. "The unions are very enthusiastic."

February 6, 1985
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3 min read
Education The High-Pressure World of Superintendents
"No matter how effective I am, by the end of the year at least 10 percent of the people I deal with become my enemies," a West Coast school superintendent once confided to Frederick M. Wirt, a professor at the University of Illinois who has written extensively on the politics of education. "In five years, that means 50 percent of them are enemies."
Tom Mirga, February 6, 1985
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7 min read
Education Research and Reports
Being a "team player" is the most important attribute of an effective school-board member, ac3cording to an $83,500 national study conducted by two Northern Illinois University researchers and funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

The researchers, Musial Harrison and Alton Harrison Jr., analyzed responses to a national survey in conContinued on Following Page Continued from Preceding Page

February 6, 1985
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2 min read
Education People News
Commissioner of Education Ralph Turlington of Florida, who is credited with pressing plans to raise Florida's ranking among the states on measures of educational excellence, is rumored to be thinking of stepping down in 1986 rather than running for re-election to the top education post.

A spokesman for the commissioner, who has spent the last 11 of his 36 years in education as state chief, indicated that Mr. Turlington, 64, would announce his plans in the next few weeks. Declining to confirm that he would choose to retire, the spokesman suggested that the rumor was started by legislators "interested in making a run on the job."

February 6, 1985
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2 min read
Education News Update
The head of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has lifted a temporary ban on workshops designed to familiarize teachers with a controversial wildlife-education program officially sponsored by 33 states.

Project wild, as the supplementary curriculum is known, has been attacked by animal-rights organizations who say the material is slanted in favor of pro-hunting attitudes. (See Education Week, Jan. 23, 1985.)

February 6, 1985
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3 min read
Education No More Rocking While Rolling to School
The students at Henry L. Cottrell Elementary School in Maine won't be listening to that old-time rock 'n' roll anymore--at least not on the six buses that drive them back and forth to school. Far from soothing the soul, the rock music on the buses' radios has raised the hackles of some of the students' parents.

John Seiler, the principal of the elementary school, said that after a number of complaints from parents about the rock songs, particularly Madonna's hit song "Like a Virgin," he had suggested that hard-rock music not be played on the buses.

February 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education District News Roundup
The Chicago Board of Education last week filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against 72 companies that mined, manufactured, or marketed asbestos contained in some of the city's school buildings.

The 596-school system has spent some $6 million to date on asbestos abatement, according to Susan Einstar-Wayne, a lawyer for the board. The lawsuit seeks "an open checkbook" for compensatory and punitive damages that could total in the millions of dollars, she said.

February 6, 1985
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4 min read
Education Shanker Urges National Test for New Teachers
Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called last week for the establishment of a national professional examination for teachers, similar to those required by the medical and legal professions.
Cindy Currence, February 6, 1985
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5 min read
Education Reagan To Seek $3-Billion CutIn E.D. Budget
President Reagan proposes to cut the Education Department's budget by $3 billion, to $15.5 billion, for the year that begins Oct. 1, according to budget documents obtained last week.
James Hertling, February 6, 1985
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3 min read
Education Cleveland Chief, Indicating Despondency Over Disputes, Kills Himself in a School
Claiming that "the purpose seems to be lost," Frederick D. Holliday, the first black superintendent of the Cleveland City School District, killed himself on Jan. 26 in the stairwell of the district's Av
Janet Kolodzy, February 6, 1985
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3 min read
Education States' Plan To Get Federal Cigarette Tax Could Go Up in Smoke
A federal tax on cigarettes that several states are counting on picking up to finance education reform might become a casualty--along with the reforms themselves--of the mounting federal debt.
J.R. Sirkin, February 6, 1985
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6 min read
Education Student Bus Drivers No Longer Safe, Officials Argue
Prompted by an increase in the number of school-bus accidents involving student drivers, the superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., school district has recommended that the system phase out its use of student drivers.
Anne Bridgman, February 6, 1985
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7 min read
Education Reagan, Citing Opposition, Pledges Not To Abolish E.D. 'At This Time'

Text of the Jan. 29 letter from President Reagan to Senator Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, on his decision not to seek abolition of the Education Department:
February 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education Federal News Roundup
Competing civil-rights bills responding to the U.S. Supreme Court's narrow interpretation of the federal anti-sex-discrimination law were introduced in the Congress last month.

Ruling in Grove City College v. Bell last year, the Court held that the civil-rights statute--whose language is similar to laws barring discrimination on the basis of race, handicap, and age--applies only to programs and activities that receive federal aid, and not to the entire institution.

February 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education Opinion Two-Dimensional Math In a Three-Dimensional World
A few years ago, a high-school student attracted national attention by catching an error in the mathematics portion of the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test. The question involved asked students to find the number of exposed faces on a solid, three-dimensional shape.
Marjorie Senechal & George Fleck, February 6, 1985
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5 min read