The Milchigan Deily-Thatrce

Educator says
Americans lack
scientific skills

WASHINGTON (UPI) - The fastest
growing minority group in the United
States is the scientifically and
technologically illiterate, a noted
educator said yesterday.
"It's not a small group, and chances
are that if you know a young person
finishing high school this spring, he or
she is part of that group," said Paul
DeHart Hurd, professor emeritus at
Stanford University.
HURD OPENED a two-day con-
ference sponsored by the National
Academy of Sciences on what he said
has been a decade-long decline in math
and science achievement in the United
States.
He blamed ,the situation on a con-
tinuing decline in the quantity and
quality of math and science education
and said the American people must
make a commitment to pre-college
education in the sciences, technology
and mathematics.
Hurd said mathematics and science

test scores for teenagers have declined
for 20 years. He said three succesive
ntionwide assessments have shown a
decline in science achievement.
FRANK PRESS, president of the
National Academy of Sciences and a
former White House science adviser,
said there are many causes for the
decline in scientific literacy in the
United States.
'Part of the reason," he said, "may
be the Vietnam War and the supposed
animus towards science that it raised."
Press said another cause may be that
schools are being asked to do too many
things, and colleges and universities
may be lowering their standards.
"Science teaching may hve become
astronomy without the stars. Botany
without the flowers. Geology without
the mountains and valleys. We end up
teaching abstractions to students who
do not understand their concrete ties,"
Press added.

'iptoe, please AP Photo
When giant tulips dwarf a windmill, you know it's tulip festival time in
Holland, Michigan. This year's festival continues through the week, ending
Saturday.

Louisiana budget: A riches
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Two years ago,, prices to rise to world market levels - boosted state
Louisiana legislators wondered what to do with "an revenues by 18 percent in fiscal 1980-81 and 20.6 in the
embarrassment of riches," $1 billion a year in extra current fiscal year. That translated to roughly $1
revenue when controls on oil prices ended. billion more the first year and yet another $1 billion
Now Gov. Dave Treen has had to trim his budget the next, for legislators to spend.
plan by $116 million and call for a new oil and gas tax But in the fiscal year starting July 1, projections
- the largest in state history - to meet the state con- are that state revenues will climb on 3.2 percent -
stitution's requirement of a balanced budget. not enough to keep up with inflation or give state em-
"We done like I done a lot of times with my ployees and teachers the large cost-of-living raises
checking account - we overspent," said Democratic they've gotten in four of the last five years.
Sen. B. B. "Sixty" Rayburn. "Now it's judgment Re. Kevin Reilly, Democratic Chairman of the
day." House Appropriations Committee, talked of an "em-
OIL DECONTROL - which allowed domestic oil barrassment of riches" in 1980.
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Daily Photo by ELI;
Sidewalk patrol
These Ann Arbor youngsters do their part for crime prevention yesterday by patrolling city streets wit
drawn.

to rags story
"FRANKLY, THE money burned a hole in our
pocket," he says now. "We created a great number
of new programs, enhanced others and built. In-
flation probably accounted for $250 million over those
two years."
There were also pay raises for teachers and state
employees - 10 percent in 1979, 9.7 percent in 1980
and 8 percent last year. New and expanded state
programs cost another $1 billion, reported the state's
Legislative Fiscal Office.
Sen. Dan Richey, a fiscal conservative, sees the
riches to rags saga as a classic example of spenders
gone wild.
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