-Caveat Lector- The State is "Big Mother" and we citizens are all her dependent children ... Dole Wants School Locker Searches By TOM KIRCHOFER .c The Associated Press MELROSE, Mass. (AP) - Reminiscing about her student teaching days while addressing harsh concerns of today, Elizabeth Dole said Wednesday that order must be restored to classrooms - even if it means parent-approved locker and backpack searches and drug-testing of students. ``For drugs and weapons, I say: there will be no place to hide,'' Dole said. The Republican presidential candidate detailed her education platform at Melrose High School outside Boston where she was a student teacher in the 1959-60 academic year. She said parents should be able to choose from a ``rich smorgasbord of educational choices'' in deciding where to send their children to school Dole proposed a new tax credit to encourage private support for public and private schools and also recycled proposals from the Republican Congress for ``education savings accounts'' and for freeing up federal education funds from federal mandates. ``Take a look at this unwieldy stack of paper,'' Dole said, painting to a more than 600-page copy of the ``Clinton-Gore'' Elementary and Secondary Education reauthorization bill. ``This would be a joke if our system were working, but it's no joke,'' Dole told about 150 students, school officials and senior citizens in the school library. Later in her speech, she underscored her point, saying: ``The federal government has become a truly intrusive regulatory presence sapping state authority, local control and parental responsibility. Every hour spent on complying with regulations is time not spent helping teachers and students.'' Dole said that if she is elected president, she would let states and local school districts choose how most federal money is spent, as long as students' performance is measured and attained. Unlike her rival for the GOP nomination, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Dole did not spell out exactly how she would leverage federal dollars against failing schools. Bush, earlier this month, detailed a formula for measuring student performance, rewarding good schools, and stripping bad schools of federal support. Dole also wants to reinforce parents' control of their children's education and suggested that school-by-school results be posted on the Internet. `We should allow competition to foster a rich smorgasbord of educational choices,'' Dole said. ``Whether it's opportunity scholarships for students in failing schools, or charter schools or home-schooling, we should empower parents to make choices as long as their choices get results.'' Dole said schools must be made safe for students and kept drug-free. To attain that, she called for parent-approved locker and backpack searches and drug testing. ``The lives and bright futures of all students depend on our watchful care, at home and at school,'' she said. Students warmly welcomed Dole to their school, where she was an 11th grade history student teacher while earning a master's degree at Harvard University. They gave her a key to the city, a ``We are Melrose'' button and a football jersey saying ``President Dole.'' ``I was always looking forward to seeing the first female president,'' said Liz Perkins, a 15-year-old sophomore who has high hopes for Dole's campaign. During a tour of the old brick high school - which is located in the same complex as a newer high school and is now used as a middle school - Dole made a surprise visit to the classroom where she had taught. ``This was the room,'' she said to the sixth grade English students who appeared shocked to see Dole with several dozen reporters in tow. ``It's been a few years, but it's good to be back,'' she said. Dole based her education plan on her own three R's: returning control of schools to states and local school districts, restoring discipline in classrooms and reinforcing parental control over their child's education. In advocating more local control of schools, Dole recalled picking through dusty police department files to assemble a lesson plan on the Boston police strike of 1919. ``I didn't choose this lesson because it was mandated by the state or by Washington,'' she said. The growing student population and teacher retirements over the next decade will necessitate the recruitment of some 2 million new teachers, Dole said. She called for merit pay for teachers and said states should ``broaden their uses of alternative teacher certification.'' ``Let's give mid-career professionals, academics, and our best college graduates a clearer path to working and excelling in our public schools,'' Dole said. In what aides described as the first installment of her education platform, Dole also proposed: Creating a $1,000 per-year tax credit for individuals who donate to educational foundations helping low-income students in public and private schools through grade 12. Increasing tax-free contribution limits for education savings accounts to $3,000 a year to help middle- and low-income parents pay for a child's private school tuition or college education. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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