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Page 6- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 20, 1984
Reagan lobbies for prayer bill

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WASHINGTON (UPI) - President Reagan, lob-
bying in person and by telephone, staged an eleventh-
hour drive yesterday to build support for a school
prayer amendment showing signs of being several
votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for
Senate passage.
Reagan contacted a half-dozen senators by
telephone with indications the proposed con-
stitutional amendment - the subject of a presidential
crusade in recent weeks - did not have the number of
votes needed as the Senate neared a decisive vote.
THE.PRESIDENT also invited 18 senators to the
White House for 45 minutes of personal persuasion.
Only four showed up, and one - Arizona Democrat
Dennis DeConcini - suggested Reagan spend more
time praying for reduced deficits.
"Through my constituents support some type of

prayer in school, they feel that the United States
Senate and the administration ought to spend more
time praying about the deficit . . . (rather) than be
bogged down for two or three weeks on a prayer
amendment that may be very important, but not as
crucial and as important as the economic problems of
the deficits that we face," DeConcini said.
DeConcini said Reagan described the prayer
Amendment as "the right thing at the right time,"
but added the president was not swayed by his
argument in favor of silent, rather than vocal, prayer
in schools.
"I DIDN'T convince him, nor has he convinced
me," DeConcini said. He said a measure permitting
silent prayer could have passed if the Senate GOP
leadership had not insisted on pushing Reagan's call
for audible prayer, "no matter what."
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), complained

about the lobbying session with so many crucial
issues pending.
"I would pray that the president would devote his
attempts to the unemployed, the poor, the weak and
the aged that live in my state and so many others," he
said.
Sen. Lowell Weicher, leading the opposition to
organized school prayer, said he does not think
Reagan's lobbying will yield additional votes for the
measure because school prayer is a personal issue.
"I respect his (Reagan's) beliefs," said the Con-
necticut Republican. "The time has come for him to
respect others."
The religious right has mounted a well-financied ef-
fort ,behind the amendment, led by television
evalgelists. They have kept viewers informed during
the last two weeks of Senate debate and provided the
number to call their congressmen.

Three states to join in text-buying effort

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Three
states that make up a fourth of the
nation's billion-dollar textbook market
agreed yesterday to join in a "cartel for
excellence" to press publishers to print
higher-quality textbooks.
"The- textbook industry is not the
villain, it just responds to the market-
place," Bill .Honig, California's
superintendent of public instruction,
said at a news conference in which- he
and officials from New York and
Florida announced their plan.
"THE MESSAGE we are sending

today is a message of the marketplace:
raise the standards, and we will buy the
books," Florida Gov. Bob Graham said
in opening remarks at a 22-state
meeting called by Florida officials.
Honig said efforts were being made to
recruit other states participating in the
two-day Interstate Consortium on In-
structional Materials at Florida State
University.
Honig and Graham, who chairs
Florida's Board of Education, blamed
school systems for failing to demand
higher auality. but said an individual

district or state doesn't have enough
clout to force a change of direction on
its own.
THEY WERE joined in announcing
the book-buying alliance agreement by
Maria Ramirez, New York's assistant
commissioner for general education,
and Florida state Sen. Jack Gordon (D-
Miami Beach).
Gordon, a longtime critic of Florida
schools and chairman of the Senate
Education Committee, is presiding
over the conference and coined the
term "cartel for excellence."

U.S. Education Secretary T.H. Bell
recently criticized what he called the
"dumbing down" of textbooks by
publishers and state selection commit-
tees, which influence how the material
is presented and suggested states form
book-buying alliances.
GRAHAM complained that current
textbooks are "dull" but "safe"
because they are written to the level of
students at the bottom of each class.
"It is time to break out of this cycle of
mediocrity," he said. Bell had cited a
study that found some fourth-graders in
affluent school districts already knew
80 percent of the material in the math
books they would use in fifth grade.
"There is no point in providing every
student with textbooks if those tex-
tbooks are little more than comic books
or Dick and Jane readers," Graham
added.
A publishers' representative said the
problem is that schools were not selec-
ting tougher books.

The Ark Presents
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& Susan Freundlich
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Tues., April 10
The Michigan Theater
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Take Off AP Photo'
The Space Shuttle Challenger moves into position on the launch pad yester-
day at Cape Canaveral, Fla., after a five hour trip from the hangar. It is
scheduled to begin its next mission on April 6.
CAB rejects smoking
ban on short f1ights

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Civil
Aeronautics Board decided yesterday it
is impractical to ban smoking on
airlines based on length of a flight,
leaving passengers free to smoke as
long as non-smokers are provided
separate seating.
The board voted 5-0 against a
proposal that would have prohibited
smoking on any flight shorter than two
hours and said a less-restrictive
proposal banning smoking on one-hour
flights would cause just as much con-
fusion.
"IT'S A decision that regardless of
what we decide we're going to have half
of the people happy and half of the
people unhappy," CAB Chairman Dan
McKinnon acknowledged before the
vote.
The board had been ordered by the
federal courts to re-examine the
smoking issue, a controversy that has

plagued the agency for 15 years.
An anti-smoking group, Action on
Smoking and Health, or ASH, deman-
ded in 1969 that airlines provide a
separate section for non-smokers.
IN 1973, the board ordered separate
no-smoking sections on all comrhercial
aircraft, but has refused twice to im-
pose any ban on cigarette smoking
aboard jetliners.
The board did decide yesterday to
prohibit cigar and pipe smoking on all
flights and cigarette smoking on air-
craft of 30 or fewer seats. Those actions
are expected to have little impact,
however, since most airlines already
have informally imposed such restric-
tions.
John Banzhaff, executive director of
ASH, told reporters after the vote that
he was disappointed the board did not
order the ban on cigarette smoking on
short-haul flights.

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Come home to Roosevelt
this summer
and earn additional credits.

Put your summer vacation to
good use by taking courses at
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or Arlington Heights Campuses.
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430 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605-1394

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Call (312) 341-2000 for a
summer course schedule and
adrission information.
Northwest Campus
410 N. Arlington Heights Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60004

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