.,.,.- ,. _ ~ , ,., .. ... .m.. . .. al I / * P§ge4 9 9 4 a 4 4 4 A OPINION Friday, November 19, 1982 The Michigan Daily 0 Blanchard: Aman in a minefield Bs By Chris P'arks ac mi ml Co. gdJ sol m P1 st fu do P D! vo hi on NSING- Gov.-elect James Blanchard is tng like a man who is entering a political fefield without a map. hie 40-year-old Washington politician is bring gingerly onto the somewhat unfamiliar sing turf, stressing continuity and E|eration with the outgoing Republican sernor while he lays the groundwork for ;e bold economic moves when his own ad- bistration takes over in January. WHEN HE won election two weeks ago, the u-term Democrat from the Detroit suburb of fasant Ridge said Michigan's chief executive the toughest job of any governor in Oerica. nd he may not be exaggerating. ichigan is saddled with the nation's highest J mployment rate at 16,1 percent, a potential e budget deficit of $170 million less than two months into the fiscal year and a $2 billion t to the federal government for unem- ment compensation. ADDITION, while electing their first nocraticgovernor in 20 years, Michigan mars last week slightly weakened the party's on both houses of the state Legislature. the Senate, the balance will be especially carious. Blanchard cannot afford more than ie Democratic defection on any given issue in the upper chamber. Some lawmakers already have served notice they intend to use this new found leverage for all it is worth. SO BLANCHARD'S initial steps have been very cautious ones as he strives to avoid alienating either Republicans or Democrats. He has been stressing, in particular, the cor- dial nature of his relations with outgoing Republican Gov. William Milliken and the ad- ministration's transition team. "THERE ARE so many items that we all have to deal with and I think we have to deal with them in a bipartisan fashion and a smooth fashion," he said. "I intend to keep this thing on track in a positive, bipartisan and amiable fashion." The major threat to that upbeat scenario is a move by the Senate's ruling Democrats to prevent the lame duck Milliken from making any further appointments and force him to withdraw those already pending. Democrats say Blanchard should not be saddled with too many holdovers from the outgoing Republican administration. BLANCHARD AT first expressed support for the move but, after a meeting with Milliken, was more cautious. He acknowledged it is im- portant that "whatever functions in gover- nment must continue, continue," adding "I'm sure we can work out whatever problems there are." "The problems that we all face go well beyond who's going to have what job and what party they come from." This week, members of Blanchard's tran- sition team passed the word that the governor- elect believes the hard-line stance should be reconsidered. BLANCHARD acknowledges Michigan's most immediate problems are the possible budget deficit, overhauling the unemployment compensation system and repaying its debt and finding a source of new revenue for hard- pressed highway and mass transit programs. But he seems more than willing to let Milliken take the lead on those issues during the current lame duck session-further eviden- ce that the moderate Blanchard has more in common with the incumbent governor than the conservative Republican he defeated Nov. 2. "OBVIOUSLY, any progress on any of the issues we deal with that Milliken can accom- plish I would be. grateful for, whether its helping straighten out the budget or dealing with unemployment compensation or enacting a good transportation package," he said. "I hope the Legislature will cooperate with him because we share very similar goals. I don't think our viewpoints would vary on those subjects a great deal." Parks is Lansing bureau chief for United Press International. 4 6 Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS# Does Blanchard face the toughest job of any governor in America? _ _ ___ rw rw'";s '0t4, y pip W , 6r p4, : d . K . 6 . I . li C7he £Iltgau iai1y Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wasserman w -M GRENT §ocET'I ?RO6RAM WER Q WASTE OP IWNE N AWIWE S1OUL-EGA&T RVDOFOTEM Vol. XCIII, No. 62 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a mdjority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board 'A 'Bullet' for California £9 2-~~> 7 Ao E P'ROXRAMS WRE AED 4 0 T MIGHT NOT be surprising that Southern California - the land of a tomobiles, smog, and urban sprawl - is about to become the proving gIound for technology which could, revolutionize rail transportation in the [united States. W,~hat is surprising is that the ex- iriment may end up making a profit. )n Wednesday, a group of 1 sinessmen released an engineering design for a high-speed passenger ilway between Los Angeles and San Oego. When finished, the trains on the route will travel between the cities at average speed of 125 miles per hour. 1'he potential benefits of the system ate enormous. Besides reducing travel time between Los Angeles and Sin Diego, the new rail system will e~duce congestion on the area's t1eways. That reduction in traffic 41 lead to a corresponding decrease air pollution. And, since trains are, r passenger mile, the least expen- sve form of transportation, the new sstem will give Californians a cheap ternative to flying or driving bet- en the two cities. Unlike similar ntures in the United States in the past, the company building the 0alifornia system has much of its financing arranged already. Earlier this year, the California legislature dreed to issue $1.25 billion in state revenue bonds for the project. That, g4mbined with a promise from the dapanese government to -help the 0 oject locate money for 25 percent of e construction costs, means the businessmen have almost 75 percent of the capital needed to start the project. The involvement of Japan is significant. Japan, unlike the United States, has developed its rail transpor- tation network in the past two decades. Japan's high-speed "Bullet Trains," after which the California project is modeled, actually clear a profit - something unheard of in the U.S. passenger rail system. the backers of the California project hope to imitate the Japanese railroad's financial suc- cess. In this sense, the California project won't just benefit Californians. In past years, as the private American railroads have faltered, federal, state, and local governments have been for- ced to take over the nation's passenger rail service. Using outmoded and inef- ficient equipment - and plagued by chronic operating deficits - American service has become slow, expensive, and uncomfortable. If the project in California is a success, that could change. A successful "Bullet Train" in California might spur construction of similar systems in the United States, and overall ridership on trains could increase. Increased investment, bet- ter service, and increased ridership could reduce the rail industry's depen- dence on government subsidies. The governmental burden of supporting rail service could decline, and the American rail system - after years of neglect - could finally see some long- overdue improvements. TMAT THEWY WORKED W1KW W D~ ON'T NEP / Jt I t / i ," l ;r4 ,//PA 0 r- 4 I LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Ed. Sch ool coverage distorted positions To the Daily:. In its coverage of the School of Education hearings, the Daily failed to report accurately the kind of support, and non-support, that the School of Education received. I was myself present in some of the hearings, and was surprised by what I would read next day in the Daily regarding what I had heard in the meetings. Overall, most support went not to the whole school, but to relatively small and peripheral, though perhaps outstanding, programs within the school, such Kneejerk To the Daily: I feel compelled to write this letter in response to a statement made by Ellen Iindquist in her letter "Mob Behavior at 'U'," which appeared in the Daily on Nov. 16. Ms. Lindquist was the target of a round of "heckles, jeers, and otherwise obscene" gestures from a group of fraternity mem- bers posing for a picture. She makes the ridiculous and -1, .--_+- ---I . 4- as the Center for the Study of Higher Education and the Speech & Hearing programs (both of which, incidentally, were not even part of the school a few years ago). The article apparently failed to notice this, making it sound as if the whole school was always praised. The bigger programs, such as Curriculum & Instruc- tion, Educational Psychology, Educational Administration, Guidance & Counseling, received little or no support, something which was early noticed by one of the speakers in the hearings, and bourgeois likely at other large universities. Because of the students' general unfamiliarity with people like construction workers, an inherent prejudice has gradually been cultivated. It is a truly deplorable situation when a woman's response to ver- bal harassment by fraternity men, a phenomenon which I would guess is commonplace in Ann Arbor, is to mention that she Pynpetpd that cnrt oi-f hhaiir which should definitely raise some questions regarding the amount of support received by the whole school. As a specific example of your coverage, consider the following: The article quoted a speaker, Prof. Fred Whims, in an out of context way that gave the reader the impression that Prof. Whims supported the whole School of Education ("400 Pack Ed. School Hearings," Daily, Oct. 27). In fact, when Prof. Whims said that "the state needs a center of excellence in education," he meant specifically a center for the study of higher education, for he was speaking in support of only higher education studies in the school, not in support of the whole school. I remember that he even stated that he did not care so much as to what the review committee decided the fate of the school should be, but only that the higher education studies program remains unaffected by that decision. Other speakers who spoke favorably for the Speech & Hearing program also thought that the program itself could be easily transferred to another university unit without doing it any harm. Finally, in regards to the usually large crowd that attended the hearings, it was composed largely of education faculty and their associates, and their families. It cannot be easily sur- mised from its size alone, as the Daily seems to have done, that everyone present supported the school in its present form. As for the speakers, there is no evidence that they represented general opinion regarding the school, for they were a self-selected group that signed up early, thus filling all the available slots. They were more likely than not organized by the school to come. -Alex Makedon, PhD Alumnus (1981) from the U-M School of Education. Principal, St. Nicholas School Ann Arbor, Michigan November 17 r aI-". ' f . , r Lek : VIC ' .>.. _.. W...,{...._---=-- ,'*-.-:.. n...,..r d'! " + :, , 'h ?, , j . ''r , ,v~ .T ? S hr3r2'+ .>2 ,i , . ,.. , ad