-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
