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Show Ik S-- i lion gait akf (Eribunr Sunday Morning, March 5, 1978 Rage II M'tuukrr til III 1 I Education Costs , Aid Soaring Out of Sight r Newspapers one funnel or another, the federal Through government pours an estimated 17.4 billion annually into the nations 2,747 colleges attended by 11.3 million students. Those are big figures by any measure Congress and the White House are bustling around trying to change them upward, of course. Two dozen federal agencies impact higher education through 428 different prog rams. So, what is one more? Mr. President has an additional aid package worth $1.46 billion providing among other r grants to students from things middle-incom- e families, nearly doubling the 3 million who presenUy get direct grants of some description. Favors Tax Credit Congress, on the other hand, would rather provide some form of tax credit or tax deduction for families sending children to college. The idea, appearing in no less than 87 separate bills, is immensely poplar. One version of the tax credit puts the figure at $500 and would cost the government $5 billion in lost revenue. So, everybody is thinking big in this Krught-Ridde- Civil Service Battles Will Test Carters Dedication to Reform President Carters proposed Civil Service reforms seem sure to win support from the average citizen. Average citizens, however, have little if anything to do with implementing such sweeping change. Who, it can be asked, would oppose the presidents aim of rewarding merit and penalizing incompetence in the federal bureaucracy? Would any- one object to creating a government that can be trusted, not feared; that will be efficient, not mired in its own' red tape; a government that will respond to the needs of the American people, and not be preoccupied with needs of its own? The answer is yes. Quite a few individuals and organizations figure they have much to lose if those goals are achieved. And they will fight hard to keep what is theirs under the present tarnished civil service system. Moving civil service reform beyond the highly publicized proposal stage will test Mr. Carters dedication to enlightened change. In the past his ardor cooled w'hen faced with politi- cal realities. Veterans groups, for example, are reported to be prepared to fight the Twice proposal that veterans preference in civil service jobs be limited to 10 years after discharge. And government labor groups are not likely to applaud changes that will make it easier to fire public employees. Congressional committtes which have an entrenched relationship with civil service will resist changes that threaten their power. And the same can be said for those high and low on the civil service ladder who fear the idea of putting more merit in the merit system. There is no doubt that the civil service system is overdue for an overhaul. Nor is there any question that federal workers have suffered considerable loss of respect in the eyes of the public, largely because of abuses and inadequacies of present civil service practices. $250-a-yea- M 1 & 9 ft? election year. It was Nietzsche who w rote just 100 years ago: In laige states public education will alwavs be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad. If any of this cheers Pop and Mom and delights the bursar, think again. It now costs about $8,000 for four years at a state university and $25,000 at a private one. Think tankers in Virginia have estimated tnat by 1995, when Sonny and Sis are old enough to be freshmen, the cost will have risen to $47,000 at State U. and $82,000 at Old Ivy. These are averages. Prices Too High Even though its costs have not increased as rapidly as personal income, higher education realizes that it is pricing itself out of the market. Thus far grants from Uncle cause a certain amount of drooling by the budget and finance committee as trustees wearily scrounge for new dollars. They do so, of course, at some price on the head of academic independence. There is no such thing as a free meal. Not at i ; V HV President Carter will have to harness this latent public disgust with things as they are and fashion it into a political weapon capable of overpowering tightly knit beneficiaries of the present system. In this respect the dreary Carter record on raising an avid constituency does not build hope for the prospect of civil service reform. scary. It was a blown tire that immediately preceded the crash of a at Los Angeles Continental DC-1- 0 International Airport that resulted in the death of 2 people and injuring at least 74 others, some of them critically burned. Roths comment followed the aborted take off of another Continental DC-1- 0 at Honolulu. That flight was terminated, also, when a tire blew out. Happily, the Honolulu incident produced burned rubber, but no casualties; only a few dozen sudden changes in individual travel plans. The blown tires, which happened about eight hours apart, both involved the left main landing gear of two identical aircraft belonging to the same airline. That sort of coincidence is enough to suggest there may be , some design error in the despite the aircrafts fundamentally immaculate history of airline operations. The tragedy at Los Angeles and the scare at Honolulu make a very DC-10- dose look by government and industry imperative. If theres no design error, faulty maintenance is a conceivable culprit. That bears intense scrutiny, also. Passengers aboard the Los Angeles plane credited the skill of Capt. Charles L. Gene Hersche for preventing the airliner from crashing into a car rental agency, thus almost certainly reducing the number of deaths and injuries. Capt. Hersche, who w'as on his final flight before retirement, fought to control his disabled plane as it skidded down the runway. He held on right to the last moment, said a witness Rick Dare. The pilots skill . . . saved a lot of lives. To detract from the skill, professionalism and heroism of Capt. Hersche and the other members of his crew would be crass, indeed. Nevertheless, it is expecting too much, of the traveling public to require them to depend routinely on just the skill of those on the flight deck to avert tragedies like those at Los Angeles, if such is the case. Considering blown tires are it may very well be the routine, case. It is also assigning an inhuman amount of responsibility to those in the cockpit, particularly so, if there is any conceivable way to lift that burden from their shoulders. The Federal Aviation Administration, the airline industry and aircraft manufacturers have seemingly been content to let blown tires be routine at least two deaths too long. It is time they make the routine an impossibility. And do it quickly. Orbiting Paragraphs Things are different at Bert Lance's bank that hes sold it to an Arab. Each morning, money is delivered by a Brinks armored camel. now There's new evidence that the dollar isnt sound. The Consumer Product Safety Commission wants to recall it. Washington, D.C.s, are going overboard. They want to fire the solicitor general. cam--paigne- K- Kenneth Reich Is Canadas Unity About to Crumble? The Los Angeles Times From Wellington St. as it sweeps by the stately buildings of the Canadian Parliament on one side and the elegant downtown business section of Ottawa on the other, it is hard to conceive of Canada as anything but a secure and peaceful democratic country. Yet, unhappily, signs multiply that a severe crisis over national unity, possibly endangering democratic procedures in Canada and the peace of North America, may be just around the corner. Up to now, the internal debate over the future of our vast northern neighbor has been relatively mannerly. A separatist provincial regime reigns in predominantly French-speakinQuebec, but so far it cooperates after a fashion with the national government and its leaders talk of leaving Canada peacefully and retaining an economic union with it. Out west, as well as in the Martime provinces and Newfoundland to the east, political leaders gripe about Ontarios financial and political dominance, but do not threaten drastic action Potential Problems a recent visit indicated, the ingreYet as dients are present for a rapid worsening of the situation. It may inded be more threatening than is generally realized. Most analyses of the present Canadian situation start with Trudeau. Facing a new national election, probably to be held this year and certainly no later than the prime minister seems tired. His government, having lost some of its most talented members, is lackluster and, for the time being, unimaginative in its public pronouncements. Economic conditions in the country are poor. Trudeau and his Liberals are down in the polls. A full decade in power constitutes a long time in any Western democracy. A leader naturally mid-197- g Conned In Space? In sending a Czechoslovakian cosmonaut on their latest manned-spacflight, the Soviets have helped expand the international scope of earth orbit e pioneering. Or they may simply be buying excuse insurance. Radio Moscow announced Thursday that the latest resupply mission to the Russian space station, Salyut 6, included a Czech researcher, Vladimir Remck. Up to now, only Americans and Russians have known the rare experience of flying and working in outer space. The U.S. on a 1980 space shuttle has reserved a seat for a West European scientist, but in actually adding to the nationalities in space, Soviet technicians have scored a creating another kind oi international stir. No doubt, Comrade Remek earned his distinction through diligent participation in the Soviet Unions cosmonaut training program. Still, considering recent events, its difficult to resist the thought that perhaps Russias space commissars figured: If anything goes wrong this time, we just blame the Czech. Other, spy satellite eluded the Russians, crash landing in northern Canada and (French-speaking- ) and interests. The intractability of the underlying dispute. 11 constitutional adjustments are made to satisfy the French-seakinpopulation in Quebec, they are almost certain to cause further affront m the already disenchanted eastern and western ieripheries of the country. The reverse is alse true: Should action be taken to ameliorate regional discontentment, it would probably diminish Flench power and thus be unacceptable to Queliec. Soyuz 28 flight. Both manned and unmanned space exploration have recurrently been disappointmenting, even embarrassing to the Soviets. nuclear-powere- d status of Prime Minister He has worked ardu- - The talented but perhaps unscrupulous leadei slop of the Quebec independence movement by Rene Ievesque. Despite soothing statements by some of his ministers, Levesque loses little opportunity to stir up antipathy in the rest of the country outside Quebec, and in a crisis he does not appear likely to be reasonable. space performances questions a The uncertain Pierre Elliott Trudeau. reconcile Francophone Anglophone (English-speaking- ) prompt about the motives behind including Cosmonaut Remek in the But worse, threefold: , less triumphant Russian Early docking with the Salyut G, currently setting a space endurance record for its Russian occupants, failed, requiring a second attempt. What are the grounds for such a pessimistic assessment? I believe they are essentially uuuly, if pCrhupG Hot Ui'nujd ujuitc aiunlUtij ill the cause of national unity during his 10 jears in power. Should Trudeau fall from power, he is not likely to be replaced by anyone as able to first. g in Th melon Post And with each of these we give a bag of salt. red-tap- low-inco- Routine Blown tires are routine, Carroll Rolf, Continental Airlines manager of passenger services in Honolulu, told the Associated Press. Thats the faculty club, certainly. And surely not in the dining room over in tne dormitory, where else students would the food is always bad not be students. Some people wonder whether the price of federal subsidy, and thus a bureaucratic ball and chain, is right. Paper Work Expensive educationists estimate tnat last year Higher in complying with federal regulations connected with funds for tuition, research, and money pouring out of a dozen other funnels, $2 billion had to be spent on government-ordere- d paper work and personnel. A Maine institution e has to spend $100 per student just to every thing to the satisfaction of Washington. The $2 billion is almost the amount raised last year through voluntary giving to educa. tional institutions. subsidies federal rise. will as rise Further, it Administering Mr. Presidents new money, aceordmg to one estimate, will cost 50 cents on the dollar in overhead. Large Tab to Meet And that is a rather large tab to meet, both m dollars and in bracing to excessive federal regulations, to fit W'oodrow Wilsons description of higher education. Once a college The use of a president himself, he said: university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible. College tax credits, on the other hand, are popular with congressmen and taxpayers in the bill, middle brackets. The Packwood-Moyniha- n which gets high marks in a putative rollcall, goesthe idea one (or two) better. It would extend a $500 credit also to families with children in private or public elementary schools. This has raised the specter always waiting in the wings. The problem, that is, of aid to sectarian education. The feds mustnt, according to the First Amendment and the polity of the separation of church and state. Caught in Middle Do it both ways tuition tax credits plus students to as increasing grants for much as $1,800 a year? Mr. President, as usual, is caught in the middle. Congress must choose, he says. The nation cannot afford both. and I will not accept How much farther should the federal government go in subsidizing higher education? It worries me. The country spent last year altogether more than $50 billion. How can you look your toddler in the eye and say. Bub, in 17 years it is going to cost me six times as much to send you to Parsnip State than it would if only you were 18 years old today, so where am I going to get the money? And where will anybody? Inflation has made it not an academic question. (Copyright) It is morbidly fascinating to watch how a crisis builds in a country where, years ago, nearly everyone seemed determined to lie reasonable builds antipathies. Voters naturally get tired of him. All this raises the prospect of a Liberal defeat when the election is held. If Trudeau is indeed beaten, he would be replaced either by a Progressive Conservative government or a coalition of the Progres sive Conservatives and the New Democats. Either way, it would be largely an English-speakin- g government, in contrast to the French Canadian control that largely exists in the present . Trudeau government. Trudeau Preferred? Trudeau partisans in Ottawa still believe that, when put to the test, most Canadians will prefer the known quantity of Trudeau, himself a force for reconciliation, to the uncertainties that his defeat would augur but if a predominantly Anglophone government should come to power a regime that may be less compromisthe Levesque separatists ing toward Quebec are already sworn to try to exploit the situation while campaigning for a yes vote on Queliec sovereignty in a provincial referendum they plan to hold in 1979. (Quebec's electorate includes more than 80 percent French-speakinvoters ) There is little reason to doubt that the or Levesque would take fair unfair advantage of anything he can to advance the independence cause. His conduct at the conference of provincial premiers called by Trudeau in Ottawa earlier this month seemed calculated to exacerbate feelings. He chose an opportune time to stalk out of the meeting, and his subsequent news conference can best be described as an exercise in sustained petulance against the national government and Trudeau personally. Innuendo and emotion so mark Levesque's style that it is g V uncomfortably reminiscent of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Even were the issues not so intractable, w hat remains unsettling are the prospects of an prime minister, inexperienced Anglo-phon- e elected on the strength of a certain backlash tide against Francophone aspirations, confronting a Quebec premier committed to such tactics. Even at present, the issues appear more and more difficult to resolve, for Canada is confronted with two conflicting drives for power. 2 Power Drives On the one hand, one quarter of its 23 million citizens is French in language and culture, all but about a million of them residing in Quebec. If the citizens of Quebec choose not to press for separation, they at least will continue to push for what is called a "particular or special a status for their province within Canada status allowing considerable home rule and continued identity as a distinct group. Even if Levesque were replaced tomorrow, it is clear that his Quebec opposition would continue to press for this special status. On the other hand, the Mantime provinces and Newfoundland are extremely unhappy as the provincial premiers made clear at this with a system that gives month's conference the two big provinces of Ontario and Quebec 60 percent of the seats in the Canadian House of commons. Under the parliamentary system of government, that 60 percent enables Ontario and Quebec to rule the country. Many residents of the peripheral eastern and western provinces believe with some that on such issues as apparent justification policy, capital punishment, transportation agricultural policy and international customs agreements, the two big eastern provinces, Ontario, receive particularly English-speakin- g favored consideration. Answer Clear The solution to this problem of regional underrepresentation in Ottawa is fairly clear. It would consist of elevating Canada's Senate, currently appointed on a federal level and exercising little real power, into a more powerful position, and of making it elective or appointive on the provincial level, with perhaps each of the 10 provinces being represented equally. This would provide Canada a governmental system similar to that in the United States, where population is represented in the House of Representatives and states are represented both in the Senate and in the electoral college. To increase regional power in this way, however, would diminish Quebecs power in the national government. Moreover, to give Quebec what it wants in terms of more iower in or even in terms of special stains ai Ottawa home may diminish regional power, or at least the appearance of it. In short, no easy solution exists for Canada's problems. (Copyright) |