Friday, July 12, 1985
Pago 4
The Nebraskan
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Court ruling denies
right to education
The U.S. Supreme Court sent the education of
disadvantaged students reeling backwards last
week with its decision that public schools can
not lease space In private schools for Title I
federal programs for disadvantaged students.
According to the decision, this practice violated
the doctrine of separation of church and state.
The decision will affect remedial classes in
reading, mathematics and English as a second
language. The purpose of the federal programs
offered in both public and private schools was to
break the poverty cycle of poor academic per
formance by providing these remedial courses.
In his dissent of Aguilar v. Felton, Chief Jus
tice Warren Burger said, "Under the guise of
protecting Americans from the evils of an Estab
lished Church such as those of the Eighteenth
Century and earlier times, today's decision will
deny countless schoolchildren desperately need
ed remedial teaching services funded under
Title I." .
The general practice has been that public
school teachers provide remedial instruction in
parochial or private schools in classrooms that
have been leased by the public schools under the
Title I program. The program is an attempt to
provide equal educational opportunities to dis
advantaged public school and private school
students. All religious materials and decorations
are removed from the room and the teacher is
required to hang a sign in the room stating that
it is a public classroom.
The decisions in the cases of Grand Rapids
School District v. Phyllis Ball and Aguilar v.
Felton, were based on three assumptions about
ways in which public instruction on parochial
school premises may advance religion.
First, state-paid instructors would be influ
enced by the religious nature of the parochial
school and would subtly or overtly include reli
gion in their instruction.
Second, state-paid instructors teaching in a
parochial school would give the general public
and the students the impression that the state
supports religion.
Third, according to the decision, "the pro
grams in effect subsidize the religious functions
of the parochial schools by taking over a sub
stantial portion of their responsibility for teach
ing secular subjects."
In effect, the court has decided that appear-"
ances are more important than the education of
disadvantaged children. The mere sight of a
public-school teacher entering a parochial school
to provide instruction might give the impression
that the state supports that religion.
The fact that a public-school teacher is pro
viding instruction to private-school students was
not found unconstitutional by the court. The
decision leaves open the option of obtaining
classroom space off the parochial school grounds.
However, in certain areas of the country, find
ing alternate classroom space may not be eco
nomically and logistically feasible, as stated by
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in her dissent of
the Aguilar v. Felton decision.
O'Connor says not all children will be affected
by this decision. Public-school students and
parochial-school students in areas where the
programs are offered off the premises of their
schools may still benefit from the programs.
However, the disadvantaged children in areas
where the programs are not available off paroch
ial school premises includes 20,000 New York
City schoolchildren and uncounted others else
where in the country.
O'Connor also finds flaw in the Court's as
sumption that public-schoolteachers "who set
foot on parochial school premises are likely to
bring religion into their classes, and that the
supervision necessary to prevent religious teach
ing would unduly entangle church and state."
O'Connor cites the 19-year-old Title I program
in New York City. "The abstract theories explain
ing why on-premises instruction might possibly
advance religion dissolve in the face of expe
rience in New York," she wrote.
O'Connor says there has never been a single
incident in which a Title I instructor attempted
to include religion in the instruction. Instead,
the programs have done avast amount of good in
the education of disadvantaged children. ,
"I cannot close my eyes to the fact that, over
almost two decades, New York's public school
teachers have helped thousands of impoverished
parochial Schoolchildren to overcome education
disadvantages without once attempting to in
culcate religion," she said. "Their praiseworthy
efforts have not eroded and do not threaten the
religious liberty assured by the Establishment
Clause (of the First Amendment)."
It seems in this case the U.S. Supreme Court
has spent its valuable time fixing something
that was not broken.
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Columnist reminisces about boyhood pal
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I think I knew Konald Keagan as a kid, out l
obviously must be mistaken, because our
ages are so different.
Let's see, I was about 8 or 9 years old and this
kid I'm thinking of said he was about the same
age, but he looked about seventy. All the guys
thought so, not just me. But we let him hang
around with us, even if he was kind of strange.
Bill
Allen
The reason I can't be sure if it was Reagan is
because I never knew his full name. Everyone in
the gang had nicknames and when you're young
last names aren't important.
They called me Slimbo, because I was fat.
We all called this guy, Bonzo. I don't know
why.
Bonzo was a strange kid. He always said he
was Clint Eastwood and walked around looking
tough and saying all kinds of weird things, like "I
dare you to knock this chip off my shoulder," or
"I dare you to step over this line."
Usually though, if you stepped over that line or
knocked off that chip he would just shut up.
He also liked to do John Wayne impersona
tions. It was okay at first, but he would do it over
and over again until it got really old. The rest of
the guys didn't seem to mind though.
In school they asked us what we wanted to do
when we grew up. We all wanted to be President
of the United States, except Bonzo. He wanted to
be an actor.
And Bonzo would do the weirdest things. Like
everytime a team won the Superbowl, or the
World Series, or something, Bonzo would call
them to congratulate them. Of course, they never
let him through but he would always try anyway.
Bonzo used to say things like, "if you guys
make me head of the gang you can all come over
to my house and have milk and cookies tomorrow."
So naturally, we made him head of the gang.
Then the next day, I'd say, hey Bonzo, let's go
over to your house for those milk and cookies.
And he'd say, "What? Milk and cookies? I
don't have any milk and cookies. I don't know
what you're talking about."
Then I'd say to the other guys, hey, don't you
guys remember him saying that?
And they'd say, "yeah, but it's not important,
Slimbo, just forget it."
It was the most amazing thing.
Across the street from our clubhouse was.
another gang of guys, a little bit older, who were
always calling us names. As head of the gang,
Bonzo said we should "show 'em whose boss."
He made us work for days and days stockpiling
rocks. After a week we had Freckles' whole front
yard filled with rocks. Bonzo had convinced his
dad it was for scaring off dogs or some ridiculous
thing. I don't know how he did it.
Then we all gave Bonzo our allowance and he
went off to buy something called strategic
defense.
He came back and I said what did you do with
my allowance?
Anyway, we had all these rocks piled up in
Freckles' front yard and Bonzo stood on top of
that pile and started yelling at those guys across
the street. He called them "commies and reds,"
whatever that means, and said we were "freedom
fighters," whatever that means.
Well, the guys across the street just laughed
for a long time, and so did we. They would look at
Bonzo, and say "There he goes again."
It was kind of like watching Archie Bunker on
TV.
Only after awhile, those guys across the street
started getting annoyed and started to stroll over
to Freckles' front yard.
I thought, oh no, here they come. It's a good
thing Bonzo is so tough, or otherwise we could be
in trouble.
As they got closer we all said, "Come on,
Bonzo, give it to 'em, show 'em whose tough."
But we looked on top of that pile of rocks and
Bonzo was gone! He had climbed a tree!
"Ha ha, you guys can't get me, I'm in Air Force
One," he said.
And Bonzo was right, those guys couldn't get
to him. He was really out on a limb.
You know, I think that's where he's been ever
since.
Eventually, tie whole gang got fed up with
Bonzo, and we let this kid named Fritz lead our
gang. All he did was sit inside and read, so I
became gang leader. I have to admit it wasn't as
interesting as when Bonzo led us all we did
was chase girls, play baseball, steal candy and
He said "it's all going into research guys, don't "de our bikes all over the place but it sure
worry.
beat politics. Still does.
Nebrabkan
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1965 DAILY NEBRASKAN
SEZ WHO?
The ink of the
scholar is more
sacred than the
blood of the martyr.
Mohammed