Edited and managed by
Students at t e JACQUELYN NIXON AUBREY HENRETTY
University of Michigan + Editor in Chief Editorial Page Editor
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 4~IUnless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of th
420 Maynard Street majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters an
An n Arbor, M 48109 cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daiy
It's no secret that the Ann Arbor
school district is in some financial
trouble. State education funding for
Ann Arbor is projected to drop while the
number of students continues to rise and
the shrinking budget is causing the
school district to rethink methods of
upkeep and expansion of the current
schools. The school board needs to do
something in order to cope with the
budget issues without sacrificing the
educational needs of Ann Arbor stu-
dents.
To cope with the expected $11 mil-
lion budget cut, the school board has
proposed several different solutions. One
plan is to cut u to 40 teaching positions.
This plan may help satisfy the immediate
need for a smaller budget, but the nega-
tive effects would outweigh the posi-
tives. Fewer teachers would mean larger
class sizes, more work for the remaintng
teachers and the thtnng of an already
sparse pool of capable teachers.
The most viable solution on the table
is a $90 million school bond that would
be voted on in September. The money
would be used to renovate current school
Bond will uphold quality of A2public schools
buildings - a task which would proba-
bly sufer after the $11 million budget
cut. By raising the bond, the school
board can alleviate some of its financial
pressures while retaining quality educa-
tion.
In the face of criticism for the bond,
the school district has announced that it
will consider splitting the single bond
into two separate bonds and waiting until
January to vote on it. This plan seems to
be more politically popular and ought to
be considered seriously. The revenue
raised by issuing the school bonds would
be of great help in expanding and main-
taining the Ann Arbor school system.
The Ann Arbor district's two major
high schools - Ann Arbor Pioneer and
Ann Arbor Huron - are both incredibly
large schools and there is an obvious
need to expand the schools in order to
maintain a quality education. These two
goals seem to be out of reach, given the
current budget situation.
However, a solution is possible. In the
face of these budget cuts, the Ann Arbor
School District should shy away from
plans to cut out important services and
instead look for methods of raising rev-
enue via the school bonds. Criticisms of
the school bonds focus on the issue of
debt; the school board is already in some
financial strain and adding a substantial
debt to the district's books may seem
undesirable to them. However, if the dis-
trict is responsible with the revenue, the
school bond will be a worthy investment
opportunity for school expansion.
If the bond is passed there are two
competing ideas on what to do with the
revenue. The first is to add classrooms to
the existing two high schools. The other
would be to build a new high school in
order to lower the teacher-to-student
ratio. The plan to construct new class-
rooms will help to alleviate the problems
associated with a growing student body,
but it fails to look sbtnilyit h
future.
Pioneer and Huron are already hug4
schools. Further expansion of these
schools will only serve in the long run to
increase the crowding of their class-
rooms and eventually decrease the cal-
iber of education offered there. Building
a new school would do wonders for the
long-term viability of the Ann Arbor
school district.
Ann Arbor is a fairly affluent city; its
citizens take pride in its excellent edu-
cational opportunities. The city would
be wise to remember that a constant
investment in education has played 4
large role in the city's growth, and it
should not turn its back on this commit-
ment to education. Using responsible
accounting and forward thinking, the
Ann Arbor School District should recog-
nize the need for the school bond and
for a new school.
McVeigh case indicative of larger problem
T he recent failure of the FBI to turn mind. Media attention rarely places such a
over evidence in the Timothy spotlight on a trial. Instead, most capitol
McVeigh case provides a clear exam- cases are conducted with a minimum of
ple of why capitol punishment should be public awareness. Only when our national
outlawed and also exposes deep flaws in desire for vindictiveness demands it do we
our ustice system as a whole. descend upon the court and plead for sum-
he McVeigh case was heralded as mary execution.
another Trial of the Century and was sub- The irreversible process that is execution
ject to intense public scrutiny. It was a trial has too often been incorrect. Even once is
filled with vitriol and seemingly undeni- too often. The number of people released
able evidence of guilt. The government from jail after witnesses recanted, DNA
used this case to show the public that testing exonerated them or after police error
everyone gets a trial and guilt must be was discovered continues to grow. Mount-
proven. McVeigh was well represented by ing evidence shows that some people put to
a team of skilled lawyers and faced highly death already may well have been innocent.
respected U.S. District Court Judge After five long years on death row, Alaba-
Richard Matsch. From the beginning, this ma resident Gary W ane Drinkard was
case was trumpeted as proof that the court exonerated just two wee ago.
systems provide even guilty men with the Among those who oppose the death
vestiges of a trial. Unfortunately for the penalty, some feel that the execution of
government, their botching of the McVei gh is justified. McVeigh should,
McVeigh case is instead proof that justice after all ,be the poster boy for the death
can be hard to find. penalty: Admitted guilty, culpable for the
If there are questionsabout a high-pro- deaths of 168 innocent people, unrepen-
file case like McVeigh's, what kind of tant, anxious to die, intelligent and white.
doubts could be raised with a look at non- This places him apart from many death
celebrity death row inmates? McVeigh was row inmates who are frequently minorities,
found guilty with so much evidence that poorly educated or mentally deficient indi-
4,400 missing pages went unnoticed. viduals who go to their executions still
While this evidence was not used in the maintaining their innocence. While many
trial, the government was still obligated to are guilty despite their protests, their pun-
turn it over to the defense, which it failed ishment should allow for the possibilit
to do. Most trials feature less evidence; that some day they may be vindicated. Life
some hinge upon the testimony of a single imprisonment removes the threat of repeat
witness. When the full power of the gov- offenses while still giving all people the
ernment cannot correctly conduct the trial right to justice.
of an admittedly guilty man, all convic- Justice is not about revenge. Justice
tions become suspect. should be carried out in a way that allows
It is important to remember that all for human error. A jury of one's peers can
cases are not conducted like McVeigh's. be incorrect. The government can fail. If
Most are worse. Many defendants, lacking the government did not follow the proper
either money or notoriety, do not have procedure for a notorious criminal like
access to adequate representation. Death McVeigh - a man with a crack team of
penalty cases are rife with stories of court- lawyers - who's to say that they don't fol-
appointed lawyers who nearly sleep low the proper procedure for less known
throu proceedings and often acted with- cases? If they can't properly convict this
out th best interests of their clients in man, who can they properly convict?
.is r ating t s
Report exposes election injustices in Florida
M uch has changed since the offices of Florida governor Jeb Bush
November presidential election: and Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
The United States no longer According to The Nation, the multi-mil-
funds international Planned Parent- lion dollar project's goal was to system-
hood-style reproductive services, the atically disenfranchise as many felons
balance of power in Congress has shift- (and ex-felons) as possible. If Governor
ed to the right and then back to the left Bush wanted, as some are alleging, to
and Independent presidential candidate fix the election in his brothers favor
Ralph Nader, once controversial, has felons made ideal targets for disenfranE
slipped back into obscurity. But chisement. First, felons tend to vote
throughout the past seven months, one overwhelmingly Democratic; in 1996,
thing has remained the same: No one is an estimated "93 percent of all felons
quite sure what happened in Florida. favored Bill Clinton." Secondly, what
Among the most confused must be major political party would publicl
the thousands of voters whose ballots speak out on behalf of convicted felons?
were'mispunched, misread, rejected or The Republican-appointed minority
otherwise disposed of and those who of the Commission said in a statement
never even got their hands on a ballot. that it plans to write a dissent to accom-
Busloads of minority citizens were pany the final report. They maintair
denied entrance to polling places. Many that there was "not a shred of substan-
ex-felons who'd earned back their full tial evidence" to suest that black vot-
voting rights were purged from the sys- ers were discriminated against.
tem. Elderly Democrats given confus- Other minorities that faced obstacles
ing ballots may have unintentionally on election day were non-native speak-
voted for Pat Buchanan. According to ers of English. Although the law
the Washington Post, approximately demands that non-native speakers be
170,000 ballots didn't make it through given extra assistance voting, they were
the vote-counting machines. not helped adequately or at all in many
After months of hard work and cases. Others who tried to reg ister to
extensive investigations, the U.S. Com- vote found out on election day that their
mission on Civil Rights - an inde- applications had been lost or contained
pendent fact-finding agency appointed "errors" and were turned away, left wit
by Congress and President Bush - at no chance to right the situation.
last approved a report Friday. The find- Also, there were many more prob-
ings were startling. lems with voting machines in poorer
According to the report, black Florid- counties that cannot afford state-of-the-
ians were about nine times more likely art voting equipment.
than their white neighbors to have their Whether the causes behind Florida's
ballots rejected. Furthermore, black vot- many presidential election follies were
ers were more likely to have their names sinister or unconscious, they led to
appear on the "purge" list (a list that some serious problems. Minorities
was supposed to consist of ineligible undeniably suffered discrimination
felons) in error. Most voters of all races Antiquated voting machines, confusing
whose names were purged did not find ballots and questionable methods for
out about it until election day. denying the citizens' right to vote all
The "block-and-purge" program was cast serious doubt on the electoral
another suspicious initiative led by the process.