Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Saturday, August 13, 1983
Texas sixth graders
may choose careers
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HOUSTON (AP) - In an effort to
.strengthen the American workforce,
the head of the Texas school board wan-
ts to make sixth-graders pick career
"tracks" that will point them toward
white-collar or blue-collar jobs.
"If you study the curricula of our
competitors - West Germany, Japan,
Russia -we've gotten a little soft," said
State Board of Education President Joe
Kelly Butler. "We're not keeping up."
BUT SOME other education officials
said teachers have to be careful not to
put children into tracks that could
destroy their potential.
Butler said he will submit the idea to
the state board next month.
Under the plan, students in the sixth
grade would choose among academic,
general and vocational courses of
study.
BUTLER SAID tests would help
parents and students pick the right
track, but they wouldn't hekused to for-
ce a student into a particular program.
The plan also calls for beefing up
elementary school courses in basic
skills such as mathematics, English
and reading, Butler said.
"If you don't learn it there, you don't
learn it," he said.
BUTLER presented the idea Wed-
nesday to a meeting of the Select Com-
mittee on Public Education in Tomball,
a Houston suburb.
He said some form of his idea is
necessary if the United States is to con-
tinue competing with other in-
dustrialized nations.
Students would be allowed to move
between tracks, but if they wanted to
join the academic program late they
would have to delay graduating from
high school, Butler said.
"If you want six years of math or a
foreign language, you have to start in
the seventh grade," he said.
Butler predicted that his program
would be phased in starting in Septem-
ber 1984. But board member H.
Reginald McDaniel of Dallas said he
expects the idea to meet stiff resistan-
ce.
"It's going to ruffle alot of feathers,"
said McDaniel, a physician. "There are
a number of people who don't even want
it discussed."
Correction
The Daily incorrectly reported Thur-
sday that Judge James Krantz was
hearing the AFSCME election objec-
tions. Judge James Kurtz is hearing the
case.
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IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press International reports
Paraquat sprayed on Georgia pot
ATLANTA - Drug agents began spraying marijuana fields in northern
Georgia with the herbicide paraquat yesterday in the federal government's
first use of the chemical in this country.
Gov. Joe Frank Harris said the operation would make it clear "that we're
sickand tired of drug problems and we're going to do something about it."
The location and times of the spraying were kept secret, but Harris
described the fields as being in remote areas of federal forest lands in nor-
thern Georgia.
He said he had been assured the operation would not endanger human
health or the environment. Paraquat can cause severe respiratory ailments
and death if ingested by humans.
Libyan planes bomb Chad
N'DJAMENA, Chad - Libyan warplanes bombed President Hissene
Habre's forces at two of Chad's northern outposts yesterday and Libyan
reinforcement were pouring across the border to help the Chadian rebels,
Western military sources reported.
After recapturing Faya-Largeau, the chief oasis in northern Chad, for ex-
President Goukouni Oueddei's rebels, the Libyans apparently were
preparing to support him in a new drive on N'Djamena, the capital.
Habre's Cabinet called for the "direct, massive and immediate interven-
tion of the military forces of France and the United States." Information
Minister Mahamat Soumaila said waves of Libyan aircraft dive-bombed
Oum Chalouba, 200 miles southeast of Faya-Largeau on the north-south road
down the eastern side of the country.
Syrian paper attacks U.S. envoy
A Syrian government-controlled newspaper yesterday accused U.S.
presidential envoy Robert McFarlane of "provocations . . . lies and distor-
tions" in his peace mission and told him to leave the Middle East.
Druse militiamen, meanwhile, stopped shelling Beirut airport after two
days of mountain fighting that left 27 dead and 66 wounded.
Al-Baath, the newspaper of Syrian President Hafez Assad's ruling
Socialist Baath Party, charged McFarlane had "lost his equilibrium" and
should pack up and leave the Middle East, where he has been trying to get
Israeli and Syrian forces to pull out of Lebanon.
"He has changed his mission from one of dialogue to a campaign of
provocations against Syria, a campaign of lies and distortion, blaming Syria
for all that is happening in the area," the paper said.
"Like all officials of the U.S. administration, McFarlane does not care
about wars and destruction, and always wants to see more innocent blood
spilled in the world," Al-Baath said. "He has not offered one single aspect to
justify the continuation of his presence in the area."
Germans arrest Hell's Angels
HAMBURG, West Germany - A joint West German, Swiss, and U.S.
police swoop netted 34 Hell's Angels suspected of running an international
white slavery ring and drug and protection rackets, police said yesterday.
Also seized was a cache of arms, including a crossbow and samurai sword.
" More than 500 armed police converged on a Hamburg bar Wednesday,
arresting 24 gang members in a top secret operation that "wiped out" a
Hell's Angels chapter involved in kidnapping women and selling them as
prostitutes in three European countries, a police spokesman said.
Police in Zurich, Switzerland, followed suit Thursday, arresting nine
members linked to the Hamburg group in an operation mounted by 100
heavily armed police.
The Hamburg police seized drugs, cash and weapons from the Hell's
Angels after searching 80 homes and brothels in the biggest police operation
against organized crime in the north German city.
"There's enough criminal material to fill two offices," a police spokesman
said, adding police confiscated a samurai sword, shotguns, revolvers, a
crossbow and steel projectiles. Large quantities of cocaine and marijuana
also were seized.
Opposition blames Chilean
president for protest deaths
SANTIAGO, Chile - Chilean opposition leaders and slum dwellers yester-
day blamed President Augusto Pinochet's massive development of troops
for the bloody outcome of anti-government demonstrations in which 17
other people were killed. Pinochet had deployed 18,000 troops and police in
Santiago with "strict orders to crack down" before the protests began Thur-
sday.
Witnesses said eight of the dead were hit by bullets fired into their slum
homes during a Thursday night curfew enforced by military patrols in San-
tiago and Valparaiso to suppress the fourth monthly "Day of National
Protest" against Pinochet's authoritarian government.
Chilean news media said between 900 and 1,200 people were arrested, most
youths who defied the curfew to set up flaming barricades of gasoline-soaked
tires and throw rocks at police riot squads. In the three previous protests,
eight people were killed and more than 3,000 arrested.
But for the first time since the one-day protests started in May, there were
widespread attacks against Chileans who stayed indoors to take part in the
" main thrust of the massive demonstration - the clanging of pots and pans.
Slum dwellers said bullets and tear gas were fired through their windows.
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