May 31, 1989
Peggy L. Haynes, president of Concerned Citizens for a Safe School Site, said last week that nearly 600 parents in the rural community had agreed to keep their children out of the school.
The center is based at the Columbia University School of Public Health in New York City. Its chief mandate is to publicize beneficial approaches to aiding disadvantaged children under the age of 6.
Actually, it was the actor Paul Newman portraying the brother of Gov. Huey P. Long, the legendary "Kingfish," for an upcoming film. Segments of the movie were being shot at the state capitol--a skyscraper built during Huey Long's tenure and the site of his assassination in 1935--during a weeklong legislative recess.
Mr. Barker, whose six-year tenure as speaker was the longest in state history, was removed from his leadership post by a vote of 72 to 25. Critics said the Muskogee Democrat's heavy-handed style had angered many of the chamber's 101 members.
Observers described the move this month as a victory for the slate of school-board members elected last fall on a promise to lead the district in a new direction. Veteran members had opposed Mr. Porter's candidacy.
Next fall in Chicago, however, the first new Catholic school in more than two decades will open. Old St. Patrick's school will serve a downtown parish recently replenished by an influx of young professionals.
The test of students in 14 nations found that, in all countries, girls' writing achievement was higher than boys' on all tasks. In most cases, the differences were small, with the gap between girls' and boys' performance in the United States among the smallest.
The court left open the possibility that the child could be taken from the custody of his parents if they refused to send him to school.
The union leader has guided the New York district through the initial stages of one of nation's most far-reaching reform plans.
The decision marked a setback for school districts in the state, which have been battling with police departments over assets seized from convicted felons. (See Education Week, June 22, 1988.)
Seeking a way to encourage parental involvement at Jose Valdez Elementary School, a largely Hispanic school located near the offices of his television-production company, Philip R. Garvin has come up with a novel approach: paying for each 1st-grade teacher to take pupils and their parents to dinner at a local restaurant.
The measure, given final approval this month, revises a statute that had allowed teachers to use physical force in order to maintain discipline or promote students' welfare.
A federal district judge in Washington last week barred the District of Columbia City Council from enforcing a law that would have made it illegal for youths to go out on the streets at night, calling it "a bull in a china shop of constitutional values."
