European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Carl Rowan new Jersey takes a giant step for education the state of new Jersey has taken the extraordinary step of Selling control of the Jersey cily Public school system on grounds that the educating of 30,000 children has been subordinated to nepotism political payoffs graft Union pressures and simple incompetence. This could be the Start of something big. This Effort by a state to ensure that All in children have a decent Chance at an education could be a first giant meaningful slip toward freeing millions of underprivileged youngsters from he Cycle of poor train ing bad jobs or no jobs and a dependency on welfare in its Many forms. This new Jersey step if repealed by other slates and to a lesser degree the Federal government could put America on the Road to Siruc competitiveness with Japan. West Germany and other economic giants. Be cause new Jersey officials have made it Clear that they won t go on leaving perhaps a third of their youngsters � uneducated or poorly educated thai they cannot Cope in today s society let alone compete. The state seizure of the new Jersey schools is a first dramatic step away from the hallowed Ameri can cliche thai education is a local  Martin Gottlieb i am aware that Jersey City has its first Black school superintendent and that some residents surely will shout that racism motivated the state takeover at this Lime because this Black superintendent. Franklin Wil Liam stands to lose his Job but i am impressed with the fact that the state targets its criticism at a lot of officials past and current who arc not Black and Hal 85 per cent of the children the slate seeks to Rescue Arenither Black or hispanic after is months of investigation the slate said this of the. Jersey cily school system political patronage Union pressure and cronyism is a consistent motivation. In the hiring. Firing promoting and deploy ment of statt.,. Principals arc not in control of their buildings. The school climate is not conducive to  the pathetic result is that on a one Jersey City student out of four has been Able to pass the stale proficiency exam. This is really a National Story and ii Pises a nation Al Challenge. There arc other school districts in new Jersey and school systems in every state that Are not educating millions of children for reasons of poverty racism nepotism graft indifference incompetence. State officials ought a step in just As Hose in new Jersey have done. For decades educators have agonized Over the fact that children in a District with a wealthy tax base enjoyed great educational opportunities while those in poor districts got mediocre educations at Best. Many Stales passed school equalization Laws with formulas for using state Money to make opportunities equal. But equalization almost never became a reality any where. Educators have seen the problem of a pittance being spent to educate a child in the Mississippi Delta area As compared with what is spent per Pupil in Scarsdale n.y., or Evans Lon 111. Cries for Sale to Sale equalization have been blocked by ideological cries that Public education is not a Federal  i say what i have said Many times education is America s fundamental line of defense undergoing the missiles submarines and bombers on which we rely. The More of our children we educate adequately the More secure we will be economically militarily and socially. Thank you new Jersey for daring to break free of the local control trap that hat been swallowing up so Many youngsters f Only Pray that you can show that the stale can do the Job better. Party support not ideology decides elections the Bush forces Are saying thai their Hope is to paint the democratic candidate As a Liberal. Republican analyst Eddie Mac jr., for example says of swing voters if Michael Dukakis is defined As he is More Liberal than Walter Mondale by a country1 mile there s no question Hal George Bush will get i hair  accordingly Bush himself describes his pending opponent As being on the far left Side of things this Basic gop strategy is being played out at lower Levels too. In Ohio. In what semis destined to be one of the hardest fought Best financed Senate campaigns in the country crop Senatori Al candidate George Voinovich frequently described As a moderate wants the Public to know this Datum a group called americans for democratic action a classically unmistakably Una Polo go Mically Liberal group gives incur Beni sen. Howard Meuci Baum a 100 percent rat ing for 1985. 1986 and 1987. Metzenbaum despite an impressive Lead in the polls seems to be worried about this strategy. He has gone so far Jis to complain to the Ada suggesting that its Milingi do its friends More harm than Good which is a complaint Ada has heard before and is thinking hard about Metzenbaum has suddenly come out for the deals Penally for drug Crimi nals Mac and Cuc Baum Are both dead wrong. Neither Dukakis nor Mccun. Baum can be Hurt by the Liberal Label at this Mage because the people who care whether they arc liberals already know. The people who Don l know Are the people who pay so Little Alt nation to poli tics that they Don l even know this obscure jargon Liberal conservative and ail that that people in politics use. You can Tell such people that Dukakis and Metic Baum arc liberals until the leaves fall from the Trees in november and you will have no effect. And if you try to Tell people what you mean by Liberal that these candidates support legislation requiring plants to give notice before closing that they oppose Aid to the nicaraguan con iras that they have consistently favored arms control civil rights and Strong environmental Protection thai they opposed judge Robert Bork Hal icy favor More Feder Al spending on education that icy think the Pentagon gets enough Money you will cause hem to wonder what you re so upset about. Of course the liberals have their vulnerabilities on lit i us. But so does everybody. Ii is unlikely that anybody has Ever lost a presidential election for being too libera or Loo conservative. People have Tost elections for being abandoned or All but abandoned by i arc segments of their own party. Sometimes inc reason is ideological. This happened to Barry Gold Alcor in 1964 but not to Ronald Reagan just As conservative in 1980 and to George Mcgovern in 1972, Hubert Humphrey in i96jj and Jimmy Carter in 1980. The Public sees a person unable to hold together his own party and begins to suspect that his partisans must know something. Neither Michael Dukakis nor Howard met Renbaum has that problem in 1988. Aside from the above the Only demo cratic losses in modern times a arc in 19b4 and 1956, when running against personally popular incumbents in Good times the democrats never had a Chance ideology probably did t Mailer Ai All. Witness the fact Hal the democrats came Back to a in in i960 without moving to inc right and Are looking Strong in 1988 without moving to the right. It a probably inevitable Hal Uhal i a Konoid Ragan winning two elections big inc political Community would conclude that liberalism is a liability surface examination leads one in that direction. To is interesting though thai inc gains of liberals in inc 1982 and 1986 congressional elections and their strength even in 1984 Haven t denied the Confidence of those commuted to ideological interpretations of elections. They seem to think these elections represent some sort of aberration. But the aberrations Are be coming the Norm. La a timid it was a clean Brg a he Sai Abo Tir another cup of Coffee 6edr a Islip 60sh, no inks or pts spent