| Call waiting
This week marks our fourth week in class. We've settled into our schedules, and we've learned exactly how many times we can get away with skipping each of our classes. If the tests haven't already set in, it won't be much longer before they begin. And we need people to study with. We have to compare notes. We need to talk to other students. But last year's Frog Calls is no help. To know that John Q. Student lived in Milton Daniel Hall last year will not help us on next week's geology exam. We need to be able to contact students by phone. Though we're able to update our information on the new FrogNet service, it doesn't immediately register with Frog Calls online. Right now our only options are staking out The Main or guessing middle initials in a fruitless attempt to e-mail our study buddies. Timothy Davis, director of student information systems, said the major delay was with students' personal information. "The local numbers we have are last year's numbers," he said. "The data is in different places, and it's just a matter of transferring it to the right places." Henri Etta Kilgore, administrative assistant in the office of university publications, said we can expect the new Frog Calls to be distributed during the third week of October. "They want it to be completely accurate, and they're just being extra careful," Kilgore said. "We had expected it a little sooner, but the delays pushed it back a few days." We can all understand delays and technical difficulties. But we're itching to dial the right digits.
Alternative to vouchers needed The issue of school voucher programs is in the national spotlight once again. And the controversy that surrounds this hotly debated issue is reflected in the most recent events: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush launched his voucher program - dubbed "The A+ Plan for Education" - while a voucher program in Cleveland was banned the day before fall classes began, pending a court decision on the program's constitutionality. I understand the dilemma. I empathize with a single, working mother who wants her children to have the best education available, despite her lack of ability to finance it. But providing parents with public money to send their children to private or parochial schools instead of failing public schools is, as Secretary of Education Richard Riley described it, "a pessimist's response to the problems facing some of our public schools." A voucher supporter's strongest argument is that the program allows parents to decide what school their child will attend regardless of family income or school district regulations. While this statement appears true, a closer examination reveals several flaws. In reality, the ultimate admissions decision lies with selective private school administrators, not parents. These officials decide whether their school will participate in the program and which children to admit. In Pensacola, Fla., only 58 out of 92 students who were awarded vouchers were admitted to private schools, simply because only four parochial schools and one private school agreed to participate in Bush's program. And David Broder of The Washington Post makes another good point: "The blunt reality is that many advocates of 'choice' (members of the conservative, religious right) don't want poor, minority children coming into their affluent, white schools." The real truth is that only public schools must educate every child who registers, regardless of intellect, socioeconomic status, race, religion, handicap or even sexual orientation. Also, the education received by public school participants equals the education received by voucher program participants. A two-year study released Sept. 8 by a University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University think tank, Policy Analysis for California Education, concluded that the academic success of voucher programs has yet to be proven. Although these programs may be popular, there is scant evidence proving that they provide a superior education, the report stated. But as a journalist and strong advocate of the First Amendment, I find a more serious issue at work here: If public funds are used to finance private parochial schools, the constitutional safeguard of separation of church and state is violated. It is undoubtedly unconstitutional to ask citizens for taxes to support a private company that reports to privately selected boards and church committees. Public schools are accountable to school boards elected by the community or, in some cases, appointed by elected officials. And the budgets, policies and non-confidential matters that go before these boards and committees are open for inspection by and input from all taxpaying citizens, while those of private schools are not. So what's the alternative to school voucher programs? To me, the answer is clear: Continue to invest in and, therefore, improve our nation's public school system. The way to improve schools is not to give up on them, but to raise academic standards, restore discipline, get more computers in the classrooms and, most importantly, promote parental involvement. Leaders must provide training programs to teach parents of preschoolers how to prepare their children for school learning. Doing so, however, is not easy, and it's certainly not cheap, and they need public funds if they have any chance of succeeding. Eighty-nine percent of American students attend public schools, and while private schools play an important role in the American education system, the vast majority of parents have indicated that they rely on the public schools to educate their children. It is the public's duty to ensure that these schools are best equipped to carry out that mission.
Campus Editor Kristen Naquin is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Pensacola, Fla. She can be reached at (knaquin1@aol.com). Progress lost to music rehash Since VH-1 has inexplicably been cut from my cable selection, I am now forced to waste my time watching MTV. Because music has become secondary to insipid programming and excessive repeats, MTV has been under fire for quite some time now. I haven't enjoyed it since I was about 13, with the exception of a few bright spots such as "Liquid Television" and "Sifl and Olly." The network does nothing to further the evolution of music, and I contest that it has made considerable contributions to the so-called "death of rock." I don't even know if MTV is supposed to be progressive. Brand new music videos are nothing more than re-worked Debbie Gibson and New Kids on the Block with better hair and pectoral enhancements. There are rarely any sort of daring videos or concepts beyond putting a dance troupe in a spaceship. If a video, let alone a song, happens to have a higher concept, one had better be lucky, because it probably won't run more than a few times. For instance, Radiohead's video for "Just" and "Paranoid Android" were both creative and compelling. I have only seen them televised once or twice. Obviously, these songs are not top 40, but perhaps if the viewers were inundated with these videos, we might have a more enlightened audience and fewer people buying rap. Boy bands might have never raised their oxycuted heads, and Ricky Martin might have kept his clothes on in the rain. I recall the summer in which "November Rain" was rotated every half hour. How was that a top-40 hit? The musical climate was different back then, but as I indicated before, we saw it about 30 times a day. If it hadn't had that kind of airplay, people probably wouldn't have liked it. Of course, one can argue that if people didn't like "November Rain," then it wouldn't have gotten the airplay; the debate mimics the "chicken before the egg" discussion. That's fine, but I don't think people really have a choice in what they get to listen to. Obviously, this is only applicable to those who listen to the radio or watch MTV, but these venues allow very little room for people to discover something new. Even when there is a forum for new stuff, such as MTV's "120 Minutes" and KDGE-FM (94.5)'s "Adventure Club," anything on the edge is quickly forgotten because of a subsequent and repeated dose of 'N Sync and Matchbox 20. On the other hand, MTV is offering a four-hour block of rock videos on Saturday, featuring the likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock. These are the oddballs who have been sharing the most requested charts with the Backdoor Boys and Christina Aguilera. Not only that, but these bands sort of fit into a hybrid scheme of rap and rock. Thanks for the effort, but once again, we are being given a pre-packaged stage in music evolution. It's as if the last 20 years or so have been a pre-ordained musical timeline for a VH-1 millennium special or a "Rolling Stone" coffee table book. People have been saying that rock is dead, and MTV responded. Who is to say this was what was supposed to happen? What if the next progression from neo-teeny-pop is not the latest permutation of heavy metal but another hybrid, such as an amalgamation of reggae, punk and hip-hop? I see it coming, probably from the Long Beach area, but who will find about it? If MTV really wanted to do something cool and progressive, it would do away with a few of the especially moronic shows, such as "The Blame Game," and "Undressed," and it could also drop the airing of "Total Request Live" from 50 times a day to once. I would also like to see a starship battle between the Backstreet Boys spaceship and one crewed by the Wu-Tang Clan, the loser being made to spend eternity listening to Eminem smack his chewing gum. Really, what would please me most is to see Kennedy return. At least she knew how to use a microphone.
Steve Steward is a senior political science major from Lodi, Calif., and has a tenuous grip on the English language. He can be reached at (Haoledubstyle@hotmail.com). Stand up and dance, people If we tear down the goal posts, they hit us with the mace. If we burn the newspapers, they take away "The Simpsons." My sweet Ophelias, methinks me smells a rat. That's right folks, what we've got here is a good ol' fashioned conspiracy. Last week Omar Villafranca burned issues of the Skiff in protest of a decision to hold a "potentially offensive" column written by yours truly. It wasn't exactly the most noble of causes, but a cause it was. Now I was the first to admit the column didn't have many redeeming qualities. I believe there is an infinity of better causes out there for students to rally around. But Villafranca did something last week that a lot of us haven't done for a long time: He thought for himself. Maybe even more importantly: He stood up and lit a flame. And I won't condemn him. I can't. For what came of this? A fire marshal issued him a citation that was tagged with a fine upwards of $1,000. The administration flexed its backbone and spared Villafranca a lot of undeserved disciplinary headaches. (Thank you, TCU. I know I don't say it enough.) And WB, the home of fine, intellectually stimulating programming, replaced "The Simpsons" 10 p.m. time slot with "Friends." Did a brutal case of constipation hit the Dallas/Fort Worth area last week or what? I mean, come on, give us the courtesy flush. It's fouler than the grip of death out here. Now WB couldn't be reached for comment (that's journalism lingo for "we didn't call them"), and the fire marshal was just doing his job. But where were the rest of us? Who stood up to light their own torch? At what age do Americans start selling out? I'm not talking about using Lenny Kravitz's songs in commercials. I'm talking about when do we trade our naive ideals and silly dreams for business-world gospel? Unfortunately, I don't think it's a conscious decision. At "maturity," we tend to shed our sentimental philosophies. Worse, we start keeping our mouths shut. Our heroes are dead and the movement has passed us by. We poke fun at hippies and label the pacifists. After all, money rings sweeter than karma. Students, are you learning or fulfilling preliminary training? When was the last time you read Emerson or ached over Ginsberg? The self-reliant howl is drowned out by the regular heartbeats of our regulated hearts. Stand up people. Stand up and dance. Write a creed. Damn the man. Conformity makes a man scared, afraid to express himself, to speak his words, to thumb his nose at big brother. These are your Kerouac years. Let us not get old before we are no longer young. Let us not run out of things to say before our tongues are dry. Dream for Homer. Dream for Omar. And rage against the dying of the light. "I feel that I am a citizen of the American dream, and the revolutionary struggle of which I am a part is a struggle against the American nightmare," said Eldridge Cleaver, black American leader.
Michael Kruse is a senior advertising/public relations major from Overland Park, Kan. He can be reached at (mckruse420@hotmail.com). |
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