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WE'RE FIC,I-ITING FOR YOUR LIFE
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
here were a few tense mo-
ments in Lansing last
week as the Legislature
voted on a hodgepodge of
changes for Michigan's school
code. The vote capped off a year-
long effort to reform the state's
schools.
For some there was not a sin-
gle moment more stressful than
when the state House of Repre-
sentatives, at the last minute,
voted 60-38 in favor of a moment-
of-silence amendment to the
school code.
The vote was later repealed as
a bargaining tool to win passage
of other school legislation. How-
ever, the mere fact that the leg-
islation mustered enough
support to pass scared some, es-
pecially Jews who typically are
opposed to any form of organized
prayer in the schools.
"If it passed once, it could eas-
ily pass again," said Wendy Wa-
genheim, the legislative affairs
director with the American Civ-
il Liberties Union.
Before House members voted
on the amendment last week,
Southfield Democrat Maxine
Berman delivered an impas-
sioned speech against the mea-
sure.
"Let this be a lesson to the
Jewish community and others
who oppose mixing religion and
education or religion and poli-
tics," Rep. Berman said from the
floor. "The religious right is ex-
traordinarily adept at sugar-coat-
ing its real agenda with
nonthreatening words and
phrases. If we are going to pre-
vail in this battle, we must re-
main vigilant on a minute-
to-minute basis."
Republicans, who control both
the state House and Senate, com-
promised on other schools issues
as well, including charter schools.
When the final votes were cast,
lawmakers approved an amend-
ment requiring oversight of a
chartering agency and decided
on a progressive increase in the
number of university-authorized
charter schools, capping the
number at 150 by 1998.
Perhaps the most controver-
sial issue, the establishment of a
mandated core curriculum, failed
to win the support Democrats
and others had hoped for.
"When Proposal A came in,
one of the selling points was that
there would be a mandated core
curriculum so all the kids in the
state would have educational eq-
uity," Ms. Wagenlaeim said.
Opponents argued against a
mandated core currictuum-be-
cause they felt it would strip lo-
cal districts of control over their
own schools. Lawmakers also
struck from the model core cur-
riculum provisions on multicul-
tural and bilingual education.
Rick Simonson, the assistant
superintendent of the Oakland
County Intermediate School Dis-
trict, said he is pleased with the
legislation.
"Our districts will see their
school boards have more control,"
Mr. Simonson said. "In the past,
if there was a school-related con-
cern, it was addressed in Lans-
ing. Now, those decisions will
come from local school boards."
From a student perspective,
perhaps the biggest change in
the wake of last week's marathon
session was a provision that adds
10 school days — one a year for
the next 10 years — to the state-
mandated 180 days.
"Let this be a lesson
to (those who)
oppose mixing
religion and
politics."
Maxine Berman
Another issue the Legislature
was expected to address, but
didn't, was schools of choice. The
bill, which was still in committee
when lawmakers voted on the
school code last week, would al-
low parents to send their children
to any public school they choose
without approval of their own
school district.
Under this school-choice bill,
districts would not be able to pick
and choose which children they
let into their schools. Instead, a
district would have to decide
whether it wanted to be an open
or closed district. O
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