Vol. LXXXIX, No. 43-S
YCtFriday, July 13, 1979
Sixteen Pages
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ten Cents
JUDGE RULES IN BLACK ENGLISH CASE
Schools must consider dialect
Landmark
ruling says
black dialect
not 'barrier'
By ELEONORA DILISCIA
with UPI reports
A federal judge ruled yesterday that
the Ann Arbor school district must
devise a plan to identify children who
speak a black dialect and teach them
standard English.
Attorneys who brought suit on behalf
of 11 children at Martin Luther King,
Jr. Elementary School hailed the ruling
as a landmark decision that has "tur-
ned public education around." The
lawyers charged that the school district
failed to recognize that the children
spoke a black dialect, and instead
labeled them as emotionally or learning
disabled.
U.S. DISTRICT Court Judge Charles
Joiner said "Black English" spoken in
many low-income black homes and
ghetto communities is "not itself a
language barrier" interfering with
teacher-child communication.
However, Joiner said the dialect
becomes a barrier when instructors fail
to recognize it in teaching standard
English.
However, Joiner also ruled that
procedures the Ann Arbor schools used
to classify the children as emotionally
or learning disabled "completely follow
the law,"
"The judge has indicated that he
wants the school board to present a plan
to help teachers of the plaintiff children
to identify which children speak Black
English and to use that knowledge in
teaching students" within 30 days, said
Ann Arbor School Board Attorney John
Weaver.
THE OPINION followed a three-week
See BLACK, Page2
Off and running Daily Photo By JIM KRUZ
The Junior Olympics, sponsored by the Ann Arbor Recreation Department, began yesterday at Ferry Field. The event,
held for children under 15, included standing broad jumps, softball throws, and a boy-girl shuttle relay. Winners
advance to the Detroit Junior Olympics on July 26.
COMPROMISE REACHED BY JOINT COMMITTEE:
State panel ups 'U'funds 9.3%
By ADRIENNE LYONS
Members of a joint House-Senate con-
ference committee yesterday set state
funding levels for colleges and univer-
sities for the coming year, which in-
clude a 9.3 per cent raise in the
allocations for the University of
Michigan.
The slated increase for the University
puts the school's yearly allocation at
approximately $146 million. The raise
amounts to about a $12.2 million in-
crease.
ACCORDING TO University Vice-
President for State Relations Richard
Kennedy, the total higher education
allocation proposal amounts to a 9.275
per cent increase over last year.
The state House and Senate earlier
recommended a $686 million allocation
for higher education funding, including
a $148 million (11.2 per cent) increase
for the University. Legislative leaders
in both houses, however, called for a
trimmer $652 million allocation. The
latter figure would have amounted to a
seven per cent increase.
University officials exhibited a mixed
reaction to the compromise figure
reached by the committee.
"I AM GREATLY relieved, given
where we started from earlier in the
week," Kennedy said. "It is down from
the House and Senate bills, but more
encouraging than the seven per cent in-,
crease."
Although University officials have
been saying all week that they did not
believe the smaller $652 million
allocation would be finalized, Kennedy
said the mood of state and higher
education officials was "not op-
timistic" on Monday when the con-
ference began.
"There was some maneuvering to get
us off that (mood)," Kennedy said. "I
attribute that to Rep. Gary Owen (D-
Ypsilanti), and Sen. (Bill) Huffman (D-
Madison Heights)."
ON WEDNESDAY, Lawrence Fin-
cher, assistant University Vice-
President for State Relations, indicated
that the larger $148 million allocation
was needed for the University. Fincher
said the University would need an eight
to 9.5 tuition increase as well as the full
state increase just to "get by."
Yesterday he expressed some disap-
pointment with the slightly smaller
allocation, commenting that the $146
' million "is not taking care of all our
needs. There are problems yet to be
solved."
The University could take several
measures to aid its budget, according to
Fincher. Along with tuition increases,
one alternative for administrators
would be to cut faculty salary in-
creases, said the assistant vice- '
president.
All ,13 state-universities and college
received allocation boosts near the
overall 9.2 per cent rate, with the ex-
ception of Saginaw Valley College, in
Saginaw, and Lake Superior State
College in Sault St. Marie, The two
small colleges received increases near
10.5 per cent.
The appropriations recommen-
dations will be sent to the House and
Senate floors for final approval today.
Panel says hospital to
harm cost-cutting effort
By JOHN GOYER
State approval of a new University
Hospital will damage the credibility of
regional health planning and seriously
hinder efforts to contain rising medical
costs in southeastern Michigan,
regional health planning officials said
yesterday.
Approval of plans for a new Univer-
sity Hospital by the state Department
of Public Health would mean "the
authority of the planning process is im-
periled," Della Goodwin, president of
the Comprehensive Health Planning
Council of Southeastern Michigan
(CHPC) said in Detroit yesterday.
THE DEPARTMENT of Pubiic,
Health has announced it will approve
the proposed hospital, with conditions
that the University cut costs and scale
down parts of the plans, despite a
recommendation from CHPC that it
disapprove the plans.
Under state health planning law, the
regional council must cut the number of
hospital beds by about 2,500 in
southeastern Michigan in an effort to
contain increasing health care costs.
Closing 2,500 hospital beds in
southeastern Michigan could mean for-
cing some hospitals to close or to
merge.
PROPOSED HOSPITAL closings
already have raised a controversy
4 See PANEL, Page 11