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Friday, June 11, 1976 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three
School Board race complex
By MICHAEL BLUMFIELD
Candidates for Monday's school board race often ad-
mit that there seems to be little difference in their
attitudes towards education. "If you took away the
name from one candidate's issue position and put in
another candidates name," says candidate Paul Wein-
hold, current board president, "there wouldn't be any
noticeable difference."
But if one looks a little closer, the differences do
become obvious.
Basic attitudes towards the function of education
often differ radically and this separation shows up
most quickly when a potential officeholder is asked
to explain their view on the idea of alternative edu-
cation.
"To preserve democracy, you have to have an en-
lightened public with self-direction," says candidate
Robert Tulloch. In order to create such a society, Tul-
loch suggests, "all classes should be unstructured."
It really shouldn't be called an "alternative system"
he suggests, "because I think it's really what was
originally intended when the public school system was
set up in the 1840's."
"I want a system that allows kids to reach their
own goals in a non-competitive atmosphere. I am con-
cerned with the current board's emphasis on academic
achievement in elementaary school instead of an
emphasis on learning social skills. I would also em-
phasize dealing with real objects and learning by
working with things instead of abstract concepts,"
he said.
At the other end of the spectrum are the views of
current board members Weinhold and Terry Martin
who "want to give highest priority to teaching basic
skills," as Weinhold phrased it. "It's going to be dif-
ficult to justify financially a wide variety of alterna-
tives. I don't see it as feasible. We can't afford to
offer one group a system without offering some op-
posite group the chance to select a more traditional
program."
Though alternative approaches are possible within
an elementary school because of its structure, Wein-
hold said, "you have difficulty getting enough parents
interested in junior high and high school". He added
that he felt "there's too much internal separation,
both racially and culturally; already in the system"
and would oppose any more opportunity for "elitist
groups" to develop.
The other candidates line up somewhere between
these extremes in their orientation towards education.
Stephen Liu wonders if alternative systems serve
anything more than the special needs of particular
groups. "They describe alternative high schools with
beautiful words but I wonder if they hold up in exist-
ence."
He felt some trepidation about how many people
would be interested in the alternative approach, and
says he doesn't "want to see a child's wishes imposed
upon by a parent's desires. Scientifically-controlled
See SCHOOL, Page 5
House approves federal
revenue sharing extension
4 ,, aWASHINGTON & - The House over-
whelmingly approved a 334-year exten-
sion of federal revenue sharing yester-
day, guaranteeing $6.65 billion in an-
nual payments to the nation's cities,
counties and states with few federal con-
rols on how the money can be spen.
The vote was 361 to 35.
The House rejected four controver-
sial amendments that opponents argued
7 would impose an overbearing federal in-
fluence on local governments.
THE AMENDMENTS would have:
-Toughened the program's antidis-
crimination provisions.
-Imposed a new formula for distri-
buting $150 milion of the annual $6.65-bil-
lion allocation;
-Boosted wages on construction pro-
jects funded through revenue sharing,
and,
-Urged local governments to consoli-
date their operations.
THE HOUSE decided to distribute the
money through a procedure known as
entitlement," under which a 1u m p
sum of money is set aside for the life of
the program and the allocation is kept
out of the annual congressional budget
review.
By Sept. 30, 1980 - the end of fiscal
1980, when the program would terminate
it will have cost the federal treasury
$24.9 billion.
The legislation renewing the program
k . e. r was developed after months of hear-
Doily Photo by SCOTT ECCK E ings, during which representatives of the
THREtE WEE MEMBERS of the Martiafamilylake a whit' by the Daily nation's mayors, governors and county
Offices as they take advantage of the sunny day- executives praised revenue sharing as
Quet sessionfo
one of the most significant programs to
keep their governments on sound fiscal
footing.
AFTER THE vote, John Gunther, ex-
ecutive director of the U.S. Conference
of Mayors, said, "The big issue was long-
term funding. We got it. Now we'll work
in the Senate to get more money for the
cost of inflation."
The House made several changes in
the original program. It inserted a re-
quirement that local residents be given
the opportunity to participate in deci-
sions on the spending of revenue shar-
ing receipts.
The toughened civil-rights protections
sought by Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-Tex.)
and other liberals were rejected, but the
House accepted a provision that would al-
low the Treasury Department to halt
distribution of revenue-sharing funds if
they were used in projects where civil
rights are violated.
Dog gone
If fido disappears there is a chance
you may receive a ransom note. A
speciali st who trac down lost pets
claims stealing pedigree dogs and hold-
ing them for ransom has become a
nationwide operation by organized gangs.
"Once a dog is snatched," said Bob
Frank, "the thieves watch newspapr ad.
for missing pets and then call the
owner. The ransom usually starts around
$200. They call it reward money." Frank
suggests tattooing the owners social se-
curity number on the dog so that police
can identify its owner.
Happenings...
. . . at 7 p.m. Tyagi Ji, a cosmic
transmitter will hold a session at the
Friends Meeting House, 1420 Hill . .
and at 8 p.m. Tapson Mawere, chief rep-
resentative of the Zimbabwe Afirican
National Union will speak at the Com-
munity Center on N. Main on "Zinbabwe:
Next Step for African Liberation."
Weather or not
It will be another hot day again with
temperatures near 90. But relief may be
on its way as skies become cloudy and
chance of rain increases to 30 per cent.
By SUSAN ADES
Graduate Employe Organization (GEO)
and University negotiators yesterday
struck a more peaceful note as discus-
sion broke away from major areas of
disagreement and focused on a battery
of less contested articles-some.of which
ultimately received tentative approval
from both sides.
Six measures ranging from sick leave
stipulations to special conference ar-
rangements were immediately initialed
when the session opened on the third
floor of the Michigan Union.
AFTER ANOTHER half-dozen articles
were negotiated at some length and
tabled for further consideration by the
University, GEO bargainer Aleda Krause
1oncluded, "These are all the issues we
are at all close on."
Among the issues characterized by
mild disagreement were pay schedules,
employe termination (firing) dates and
funeral leave pay.
Krause indicated she would like to
see the title of article XIV-A, Funeral
Leave Pay changed to "Bereavement
Leave Pay," because "I feel for myself
and for others in my situation this article
is discriminatory. In my family we
didn't have funerals."
When both the University and GEO
were through clarifying their differences
on the minor issus, the union proposed
negotiation and settlement on those
clauses. However, University bargainers
caucused over their positions and emerg-
ed with a request for written counter-
proposals on those specifics from GEO.
"WE DON'T FIND any (articles we
can formulate immediate language on
right now," chief University negotiator
John Forsyth told the GEO team. But
he did say that his colleagues could
agree on GEO's perception that the two
sides were very close on the issues dis-
cussed.
GEO also challenged the University on
their offer of only a 14-month contract
when they had asked for a two-year
agreement.
"We thought it was very reasonable for
you to ask for a two-year contract, we
just couldn't respond on that," Forsyth
explained. "The University is facing
(economic problems) and we couldn't
provide any economic offers for the
coming year (of the unpredictable finan-
cial climate) so we chose to have a
shorter contract."
See QUIET, Page 5