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West Point Commencement 6/1/91 [OA 8324] [1]
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West Point Commencement 6/1/91 [OA 8324] [1]
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26
21
4
4
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
May 23, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR CURT SMITH
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
FROM:
CAROL BLYMIRE CMB
SUBJECT:
WEST POINT
I went on the pre-advance to West Point on Tuesday, May 21.
Here's the scoop:
POTUS is introduced into Michie Stadium at 10 a.m.
He will be escorted by the Superintendent
National Anthem
Benediction
Superintendent speaks
Eisenhower fellows are recognized (approx. 11 of them)
POTUS speaks
Presentation of class gift -- a print
POTUS will hand out honor diplomas (approx. 50 of them)
POTUS will then step back just to shake hands
Alma Mater
Graduates take the oath of office
Dismissal of Corps
POTUS participation ends
Michie [Mikey] Stadium is the "Home of the Black Knights".
POTUS will be facing the home team side. You might want to make
a joking reference to the Army/Navy game, since the visitors' side
will be empty for the ceremony. There is really nothing pretty to
look at -- it's just your typical football stadium.
There are approximately 970 graduates, and there will be 20-
25,000 people in attendance. Each cadet gets up to 10 tickets, and
6,000 are offered to the general public. There will be about 30-
35 people on the stage with POTUS, which will make acknowledgements
a lot of fun. Call Vicki Annin at (914) 938-5402/5060 for the list
of who's on stage. You can count on the Secretary and Chief of
Staff of the Army being there.
The USMA band will play all the honors, etc. If memory serves
me correctly, they are the oldest military band, so POTUS might
want to mention that.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(West Point, New York)
For Immediate Release
June 1, 1991
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS TO
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
United States Military Academy
West Point, New York
10:10 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for that warm
welcome back to West Point. (Applause.) Thank you all very, very
much. Thank you General Palmer -- Dave Palmer -- for that
introduction. May I salute our Secretary of the Army, Secretary
Stone; our Chief, General Vuono. And might I say at the beginning
that this country owes a great vote of thanks to both these general
officers who have served their country with sacrifice and
distinction. Please express yourselves by showing your appreciation
to Carl Vuono and Dave Palmer, two great soldiers. (Applause.)
And may I single out at the outset several other special
guests who, along with Secretary Stone and General Vuono, came up
with me on Air Force One -- Congressman Sonny Montgomery, of
Mississippi, a great supporter of a strong military -- (applause.)
You guys better cheer, he's a Major General also. (Laughter.) And
then, Congressman Ham Fish, who represents this West Point sister so
well in Congress. (Applause.) And also may I single out my trusted
National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, the Class of '47 at this
Academy. Also Congressman Ben Gilman, who represents, as I
understand it, the next congressional district over -- also a great
friend of the Point. (Applause.)
And last, but certainly not least, let me single out a
friend of our country -- Ambassador Bandar, the Saudi Arabian
Ambassador to the United States. (Applause.) And look, don't hold
it against him that he's a fighter pilot. (Laughter.) From day one
of Desert Shield, all through Desert Storm, Saudi Arabia and the
United States stood shoulder-to-shoulder versus aggression. And
together we did what was just and right. (Applause.)
Now to the business at hand. A special greeting to the
families and to the friends, and most important, to the Cadets of the
Class of 1991. It is an honor -- and I mean that -- for both Barbara
and me today -- it is an honor to be here at this symbol of "duty,
honor, country" -- and to know what Douglas MacArthur meant when he
said, "In the evening of my memory, I always come back to West
Point. Barbara and I are proud to become honorary members of this
Long Grey Line. (Applause.)
You know, it's really something to look out over this
outstanding military audience. Now I know how Bob Hope feels.
(Laughter.) Also, let me say it was good of you to invite a Navy man
to speak at West Point. I left the goat outside, but I'm glad to be
here. (Laughter.)
Before my remarks to this graduating class let me just
make an announcement that is of interest to all here, to all around
the world. The United States and the Soviet Union not many hours ago
resolved our differences on the CFE treaty, clearing the way for an
important step towards a superpower summit. And I congratulate our
Secretary of State, the Foreign Secretary of the Soviet Union
Bessmertnykh, and all involved. This is important to world peace,
MORE
- 2 -
and I'm glad to make this announcement right here at West Point.
(Applause.)
You know, we meet this morning not as members of opposing
teams, but as one people called Americans. Americans who know that
-- like the memorial at Pearl Harbor, or the chapel at the Air Force
Academy, its silhouette reaching toward the sky -- this ground right
here at West Point reflects our deepest values and principles.
Look around you -- the majestic cadet chapel, the four
statues in the mess hall, on grounds hallowed by generations of
military heroes. Their lessons live as oral history, passed from one
decade to another. Militarily and culturally, morally and
spiritually, West Point has always been a metaphor for the American
Character.
The American Character inspired generations of immigrants
to push back the wilderness, establish settlements, and secure
independence. One generation preserved the Union. Another fought
"the war to end all wars." The generation of your parents and
grandparents showed that the Iron Curtain could not hold back
America's values, America's hopes, America's example.
Today, I want to talk of the American Character and how
to make ours the greatest nation. This character has many elements,
the foremost of which is our devotion to freedom. The love of
liberty drives our national heartbeat. Night I add, that that beat
is regular, not fibrillating. (Applause.) A central tenet of this
devotion -- freedom of religion -- creates a special place for
values, for morals and faiths and causes larger than ourselves.
Next, our character bursts with self-reliance and
creativity -- two qualities that propel us from the drawing boards of
today to the launching pads of tomorrow. Indeed, to this day, the
only footprints on the moon are American footprints. The only flag,
the Stars and Stripes.
Finally, we define our character through the service we
render to others, by assuming responsibility for the welfare of our
homes, our families and communities. We must serve those for whom
the American Dream still seems an impossible dream.
You at West Point have established an example for the
rest of the nation. Here people measure each other in terms of
merit, heart, and will -- not creed or sex or color or national
origin.
Look to your left and look to your right, and what do you
see? People divided by race and religion? No. You see your friends
-- and your future. Our Armed Forces have shown what Americans can
ão when they see themselves not as white and black and red or brown,
but as one people united in common purpose -- pulling for each other,
helping each other, relying upon each other -- and in the process,
getting the job done. (Applause.)
More than three decades ago, the civil rights movement
reshaped a nation by appealing to this American Character. It
invited people to join hands in common cause against evil, to build a
society upon common decency and respect. Martin Luther King dreamed
OI an America in which one day our children would and to quote
"not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of
their character." In the Army, just as here at West Point, that "one
day" has arrived.
As Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in Brown versus the
Board of Education, "The road to progress for the victims of past
discrimination is equal and excellent education." In the years since
the Army became a volunteer force it has featured equal and excellent
education. As a result, we have the best educated military in our
history. The percentage of minority enlisted personnel has nearly
doubled -- as has the number of minority noncommissioned officers.
The number of minority officers has almost tripled.
MORE
- 3 -
And you may recall that at the beginning of the Gulf war
-- think back now -- you may recall that at the beginning of the Gulf
war some complained that we have too many minorities in the military.
My disagreement could not be more clear. The military is, yes, the
greatest equal opportunity employer around. And as our distinguished
Chairman Colin Powell said at the time, we have nothing to be ashamed
of. At West Point and at West Point certainly, you have plenty to be
proud of. (Applause.)
Your class boasts the one thousandth black graduate of
this institution, a great leader, as anybody who's been around this
place knows, a great athlete. The one thousandth female graduate,
also an all-around leader, a good soldier. And then the first
graduate -- your class -- the first graduate from among the Hmong
people of Laos. Yet the Army and West Point don't recruit
minorities. They recruit soldiers -- the finest sons and daughters
any country could ever have. (Applause.)
And so our country's task, America's task, is to achieve
nationally what we celebrate today at West Point. We must think of
ourselves not as colors or numbers, but as Americans, as bearers of
sacred values. To reach that end, we must destroy the racial
mistrust that threatens our national well-being as much as violence,
or drugs, or poverty. We've all seen images of racial violence --
vivid pictures of fire and destruction, flashing lights and
nightsticks. But we've also experienced little episodes of mistrust
-- little ugly examples -- people slipping across the street to avoid
someone of a different color; pressing themselves wearily into the
back of an elevator. The practice of distrusting strangers because
of their race or nationality. The habit of using patronizing or
demeaning stereotypes.
Let's not kid ourselves. Regrettably, racism and bigotry
still exist in this great country of ours. But let there be no
doubt, this President and this administration will strike at
discrimination wherever it exists. (Applause.) Because, you see,
prejudice and hate have no place in this country, period. The real
question that's facing us is not whether to fight these evils, but
how.
Black and white, the great civil rights leaders of the
'50s and '60s deplored intolerance, demanded equality of opportunity
and equality under the law. Government's responsibility is to
enhance, not redistribute, opportunity to ensure that all people get
a fair-chance to achieve their dreams.
And today, some talk not of opportunity, but of
redestributing rights. They'd pit one group against another,
encourage people to think of others as competitors, not colleagues.
That's not the way to achieve justice and equality here in America.
We need to adopt a more unifying, moral and noble approach.
I learned long ago that if you want something done, give
someone a reason for Going it. Don't put them on the defensive;
don't brow-beat them -- appeal to the better angels of their nature.
As T see it, this is the concept behind
action. To me, true affirmative action expresses a duty of
citizenship --good-faith efforts to provide opportunity for
individuals based on merit -- to reach out and create truly equal
opportunity for those who have been left behind, those who have been
excluded.
Some think affirmative action should involve a Rubik's
Cube of workplace guarantees. And I believe that it should inspire
people of all races to nurture affirmative values, affirmative views
of themselves - affirmative lives.
And that's why our administration is committed to a
comprehensive attack on the problems facing disadvantaged Americans,
We called for a revolution in education with our America 2000
MORE
- 4 -
strategy. We've tried to reform the public housing system -- turn it
into an ownership system -- with a program we call -- properly call
-- HOPE, H-O-P-E. And we've proposed enterprise zones, to plant
seeds of growth amid the ruins of crumbling cities and dusty rural
areas. And we've offered tough anticrime legislation -- because no
American is free if imprisoned by the fear of crime. And we have
advocated community opportunity areas -- to shift power from the
heavy hand of the state to the hands that run the home, raise the
family. God bless the strength of the American family. We've got to
do more to help strengthen it. (Applause.)
These policies give power back to the people and they
move us toward achieving the goal of equal opportunity. They do not
-- cannot -- ensure equal success.
In that spirit, consider our civil rights package. Our
administration's S-1991 civil rights bill would forbid consideration
of factors such as race and sex in employment practices. It will
ensure that Congress lives by the same rules it prescribes for
others And it will not force employers to choose between using
quotas or the risk of costly litigation. (Applause.)
I know there's another so-called civil rights bill out
there, but it's a quota bill, regardless of how its authors dress it
up. You can't put a sign on a pig and say it's a horse. It invites
people to litigate, not cooperate. And this is no way in our country
to promote harmony.
And 50, let us cast off now the politics of division.
Let's build a society in which people respect each other, work with
- not against -- each other, and strive to illuminate the American
Character.
Tomorrow, our able Secretary of HHS -- Health and Human
Services -- my colleague in our Cabinet, Dr. Lou Sullivan will
address the high school in his hometown of Blakely, Georgia. What's
unusual is that this distinguished doctor now, then was not permitted
to attend that school when he was young. It would not admit black
kids. He overcame the burdens of prejudice to become an eloquent
advocate of good education and sound values. And Lou has forgiven,
but he and we can never forget the terrible things that racism and
prejudice can do to a land.
Here at West Point you have shown the essence of the
American Character -- opportunity based on merit. And now, let us
build a "We" -- not a "Me" -- generation by carrying the ideals of
this school to the nation and the world.
You know, many of the servicemen and women who performed
brilliantly during Operation Desert Shield and then, subsequently,
Desert Storm have become what we call Points of Light at home.
They've returned to their own communities and urged young people to
follow their lead, to work hard, to stay in school, to stay away from
drugs.
And so let's thank those who have taken this message back
to the schools and communities across our land. And let's VOW to do
more. And I'd like to encourage all of you -- respected in your
communities now -- to become Points of Light. Visit a school or a
recreation center or a place of worship, and share some of your lives
and your experiences. I ask communities to invite these wonderful
men and women to speak at the schools and other forums.
You in this Class of 1991 can show that the story of the
Good Samaritan is more than just an object lesson, for, you see, it's
part of the American Character.
Douglas MacArthur, a son of West Point, once said, "The
soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer
and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." America's magnificent
military has helped secure the peace abroad. Our challenge now is to
heal the wounds and the scars at home -- and help the extended hand
MORE
- 5 -
spur harmony and brothernood, not faction and suspicion. (Applause.)
And so let us honor the true grandeur of America -- the
dignity of the individual. You here at West Point, you all lead the
way.
May God bless the Class of 1991 as you go on with your
service to the greatest country on the face of the Earth. And may
God bless the United States of America. Thank you all very much.
(Applause.)
END
10:32 A.M. EDT
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 241426
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
91 MAY 29 AB.2
DATE: 05/28/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 10:00 a.m. 05/30
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: WEST POINT COMMENCEMENT
(05/28 8:00 p.m. draft)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
PETERSMEYER
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BRADY
SMITH
BROMLEY
UNTERMEYER
CARD
>
ROGERS
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
SNOW
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Tony Snow no later than
10:00 a.m. on Thursday, 05/30, with a copy to this office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
CLOSE HOLD
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
Master
May 28, 1991
Draft Six
91 MAY 23 PM10: 37
8:00 p.m.
WEST.TS
MI KEE
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: WEST POINT COMMENCEMENT
U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY
SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1991
10 A.M.
RA
Thank you, General Palmer, for that introduction. General
ack?
Vuono, ladies and gentlemen, families, friends, and Cadets of the
Class of 1991. // It is an honor to be here at this symbol of
RA
"duty, honor, country" -- and to know what Douglas MacArthur
meant when he spoke of "coming home to West Point." Barbara and
I are proud to be honorary members of the Long Grey Line. //
((What a sight to see such an outstanding military audience.
/ Now I know how Bob Hope feels. / Also, let me say it was good
of you to invite a Navy man to speak at West Point. I didn't
want to press my luck, so I left the goat outside. )
RA,
( (Returning to West Point reminds me that no one should be
shocked at the fierceness of our fighting ability in any
conflict. // All they have to do is observe what we do to each
other every year in the Army-Navy Game.) ) //
We meet this morning not as members of opposing teams -- but
as one people called Americans. / Americans who know that --
like the memorial at Pearl Harbor, or the Air Force Academy, its
silhouette reaching toward the sky -- this ground at West Point
reflects our deepest values, and our principles as a country. //
2
Look around you here -- at the four statues in the mess hall
these
/ the five stone-Warriors / the buildings that housed Lee and Ike
RA
growas they wallud up
may
and Pershing. / Their lessons live as oral history -- passed from not still
one generation to another. // They teach us what Woodrow Wilson
be
knew: "The American Revolution is a beginning
never a
story
...
consummation." Militarily and culturally / morally and
spiritually / West Point has always been a metaphor for the
American Character. //
The American Character inspired settlers to push back the
wilderness, establish colonies -- and fight for independence. /
One generation forged the opening of the West. / Another lifted
itself from the Depression -- because while poor in material
goods, we were never ragged in spirit. // still a later
generation showed how the Iron Curtain was no match for the
values, hopes and dreams that flourish here. //
Today, I wish to talk of this American Character -- and how
it makes ours the greatest Nation in the history of the world. 11
This character grows naturally in our hearts, and reflects ideals
that define us as a people. //
The first ideal is the self-reliance that moves America from
the drawing boards of today to the launching pads of tomorrow.
// This self-reliance expresses itself in a second ideal -- the
creativity as old as legends of Eli Whitney and Robert Fulton. 11
To this day, the only footprints on the moon are American
footprints. / The only flag on the moon is the stars and
Anion
stripes. 11 The know-how that put it there is American
(89
3
technology. // The American Character is also rooted in a
devotion to freedom that drives our national heartbeat. //
( (Might I add: That beat is regular, not arythmic. " // One of
those freedoms -- freedom of religion -- allows for a faith that
shapes our character. //
June out gustant
We know, as Lincoln said: "The question is not whether God
Nike 1960812 1960
is on our side -- but whether we are on God's side.' // Our
speck
religious roots have inspired us from the start to share our
Shinks
bounty and contribute out of generosity. / Think of Operation offer
metaph?
Provide Comfort for the Kurds in Iraq -- where freedom's flag
Mr
reads, "Service to Nation, and to neighbor.' / or how here at Bunke
-call
home, many servicemen and women returning from Operation Desert neting on
Clark
Shield and Desert Home have become points of light. / Talking
troops
[call
conesp
Service
with students about staying in school // working hard // and
for letter
turning off drugs. Their example -- which I urge you to follow -PONS Sat
- shows how for 200 years, we Americans have lent a hand, tended May 6
about
wounds, and helped the less fortunate. //
I'm
Bukin
Today, more than ever, we must build on these foundations. idea
on
We must measure ourselves also by the service we render to
reting
others, by assuming responsibility for the welfare of our home,
troops
David
our families, our communities. // We must apply our devotion to wats
more,
justice and equality to our neighbors. We must serve those for
all
whom the American Dream still seems and Impossible Dream. //
troops
should
You at West Point, have established an example and a
follow
this
challenge for the rest of the nation. // Within these grounds,
ramp
[Central Files 2242
-not ethical
4
people measure others in terms of merit, heart, and will -- not
creed or color or origin. //
Look to your left. Look to your right. What do you see?
People divided by race? or your friends and buddies? 11 You see
your friends -- and your future. You belong to a military that
has shown what amazing things Americans can do when they see
themselves not as tokens of a community, but as people united in
common purpose -- pulling for each other, helping each other,
relying upon each other -- and getting the job done. 11
More than three decades ago, the Civil Rights movement
reshaped a nation by appealing to the American Character. It
invited people to join hands in common cause against evil, to
build a society upon common decency.
//
It envisioned an
not
America in which None day our children will be judged not we the
color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
In the Army -- as here at West Point -- that "one day" has
arrived. // In the years since ours became a volunteer force,
the Army has become smarter, better integrated, better equipped
to meet the demands of world security. Entrance standards have
risen. The number of minority members in the Army has grown to
nearly 275,000 from fewer than 175,000. // The percentage of
minority enlisted personnel has nearly doubled. / The number of
minority officers has almost tripled. // Your class boasts the
one thousandth black graduate of this institution; the one
thousandth female graduate -- and the first graduate from among
the Hmong people of Cambodia. The Army and West Point do not
(703) 697 8299
5
recruit minorities. They recruits soldiers -- the finest sons
and daughters any Nation could ever have. //
America's task is to achieve what we celebrate today at West
Point. We must think of ourselves not as colors or numbers, but
as Americans, as bearers of sacred values. / Above all, we must
combat the racial suspicion that threatens our national wellbeing
as much as violence / or drugs / or poverty. It hides in the
recesses of the human soul -- unbidden and unseen -- until some
occasion triggers it. / We all have seen images of rage
exploding on our streets. Cars burned / people maimed / stores
destroyed by vandals. / Too often, these tragedies occur because
one person read motives beneath the color of another's skin -- or
used it as an easy excuse for unleashing personal rage. 11
Racial suspicion inspires stranger to hate stranger. It
hurls people of all colors into mindless conflict. 11 Thirty
years ago, Martin Luther King observed, "Injustice anywhere is a
THR EAT
danger to justice everywhere." 11 He knew that we must end the
discrimination -- whether on the basis of race, national origin,
sex, religion, or disability -- that tears the fabric of our
society. / Black and white, the great civil rights leaders of
the 1950s and '60s realized that only opportunity could feed
America's body so that America could throw wide her heart. 11
They knew, too, that government could only enhance -- not
redistribute -- opportunity. Opportunity is not a commodity,
doled out in small dollops. It must be indivisible -- and
infinite. //
6
Today, ignoring history, some talk not of opportunity but of
redistributing rights. They would pit one group against other.
Instead of equal rights for all Americans, they would ensure
preferential treatment for some. / If we judge communities,
schools, or businesses by the numbers, we dehumanize the human
enterprise of brotherhood. For what these judgments demand --
often explicitly, more often implicitly -- is the use of quotas.
Quotas that divide people who ought to -- and usually want to --
work together in racial harmony.
Mark
Many people hate the word, "quotas." I don't like it. It
is an ugly word. But so is the reduction of brotherhood to
Karsas city
bloodless numbers. 11
in 1989
quality as last cear
(816)
N
474
Take the story of Mark Nevels, a Kansas city youngster ready
189
6600
for kindergarten. Across the street from his family was a superb
fall
"magnet school" with ample space -- ample, that is, except for
Clint
blacks. // Mark was victimized by a rigid quota system mandating
546-6045
spaces for three blacks for every two whites enrolled. Lacking
enough whites, 12 seats went empty -- even with a waiting list of
10.40
86 black children -- and Mark was bused past his neighborhood
isaa
count
school. why? Because he was black. //
order
Last year I vetoed a so-called civil rights measure that
long not
would have created powerful incentives for employers to adopt
magnet
plan
quotas in order to avoid litigation. This bill would have
encouraged anyone to "sue-first, ask questions later." Instead
-caplete magnetization
of ignoring race it focused almost entirely on race. It would
orded
not have inspired unity; it would have ignited division.
Democratre appointee
by federal judges
60/40 included there
and 85
Russel G. Clark Contrapt 9) in
LR mag plan offic
78
on
edepted by a count rda in fall 85, ordered by
7
So do other things which make that suspicion their bequest.
/ Think of those who automatically dismiss college test scores
as "racist" -- instead of taking a hard look at schools that may
not be serving our students. / Think of the practice known as
"race-norming." This system, which seeks to offer an advantage
to minority workers, contains a powerful and ugly insult -- that
blacks or hispanics just can't compete. / Race-norming is, in
fact, race-baiting. It drives Americans apart instead of
bringing them together. 11
We cannot achieve justice and equality this way. We need to
adopt a more unifying, moral and noble approach. I learned long
ago that if you want something done, give someone a reason for
doing it. Don't put them on the defensive. Don't brow-beat
should this be capitalized
them. Appeal to their better selves.
As I see it, this is the concept behind Affirmative Action.
To some, Affirmative Action should impose an "informal" system of
numbers upon employers. To me, affirmative action expresses a
duty of citizenship -- a duty to provide opportunity for
individuals based on merit. / Some think Affirmative Action
should involve a Rubik's Cube of entitlements. I believe it
should inspire people of all races to nurture affirmative values
/ affirmative views of themselves / in short, affirmative lives.
This administration has approached that goal in a reasoned,
realistic, measured manner. We have promoted educational choice.
This lets parents choose schools for their children, rather than
having government dictate the school to parents and students. /
8
We have asked Congress to extend independence and dignity to
those who now live in blighted anonymity. Our HOPE Initiative
I
- tenant management and homeownership for the poor -- gives Sep
things
public housing residents real property, not just a scrap of
paper. / Enterprise zones: They encourage businesses to sew the
seeds of prosperity amid the ruins of crumbling cities and dusty
rural areas. / Tough anti-crime legislation -- because no
American is free if imprisoned by fear of crime. / And community
opportunity areas -- shifting the power from the heavy hand of
the state to the hands that run the home and raise the family. 11
These policies will ensure equal opportunity. They do not -
- cannot -- impose equal success. 11 In that spirit, consider
our civil rights package -- one that congressional leaders don't
Thanbanges letter
want to consider. Our Administration's 1991 Civil Rights Bill
%
will forbid consideration of factors such as race and sex in
Fain
employment practices. / It reflects fundamental principles of
fairness that apply throughout the legal system.
/
It will
ensure that Congress lives by the same rules it prescribes for
others -- ending Congressional exemption from Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. / It will not force employers to make
a thankless choice between using quotas and facing costly and
risky litigation. It will ensure equal opportunity and equal
protection under the law.
Today I assure every man and woman in this land: This
administration will strike at discrimination where it exists. It
will assail racism, sexism -- any kind of prejudice. // Yet
9
civil rights live and die with the normal deeds of normal
citizens -- not with edicts issued from high courts. I have
spoken today of how to substitute the ladder of pride for the
crutch of dependency. I have tried to make it clear that the
rights of none are secure unless the rights of all are respected
-- that all Americans are equal and should be treated equally. //
Let us replace the politics of the angry fist -- of the
taunt, the threat, the lawsuit, the bullying -- with a politics
of the extended hand. I invite every American, regardless of
race, creed, color, background, or political affiliation to
dedicate themselves to embrace the politics of the extended hand.
Let us create a land in which people respect each other, work
with each other, and strive to illuminate the American Character.
Here at West Point, you've shown the essence of the American
Character -- opportunity based on merit. Now, let us build a
"We" not "Me" -- Generation -- by carrying the ideals of this
school to the Nation and the world. //
This challenge issues from passions embedded in our national
soul. Douglas MacArthur, a son of West Point, once said, "The
Deip
word
soldier, above all prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear
the deepest wounds and scars of war." // Our magnificent
military has helped secure the peace abroad. Now, let us heal
the wounds and scars at home -- and help the extended hand spur
harmony and brotherhood, not faction and suspicion.
Let us honor the true grandeur of America -- the dignity of
the individual. // Let us make it our heirloom of the heart. //
10
And let us realize today: You here at West Point -- you all lead
the way. 11 Thank you, and God bless this sacred land -- the
United States of America.
#
#
#
#
11 April 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR CURT SMITH
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
WEST POINT COMMENCEMENT MATERIAL
I.
WEST POINT, BACKROUND
A.
West Point literature
"Since 1802, the U.S. Military Academy has produced
graduates who have contributed to our country in peace
and war. Lee, Grant, Goethals, Pershing, Eisenhower,
Borman Academy graduates are known reverently as
members of the Long Gray Line. It's often said, 'Much
of the history we teach was made by those who taught.
"Today, the Corps of the Cadets numbers over 4400 men
and women from every state in the Union as well as
several foreign countries."
"West Point's role in our nation's history dates back
to the Revolutionary War, when both sides realized the
strategic importance of the commanding plateau on the
west bank of the Hudson River. West Point was
considered by George Washington to be the most
important strategic position in America.'
"Although Jefferson was concerned about the commitment
of the aristocratic American military to democratic
principles, as President he would sign legislation
establishing the United States Military Academy in
1802."
"After gaining experience and national recognition
during the Mexican and Indian Wars, West Point
graduates dominated the highest ranks on both sides of
the Civil War." "
"In World War I, Military Academy graduates again
distinguished themselves on the battlefield. After the
war, superintendent Douglas MacArthur
[saw
that] the cadet management of the Honor System, long
an unofficial tradition, was formalized with the
creation of the Cadet Honor Committtee."
"Eisenhower, MacArthur, Bradley, Arnold, Clark, Patton,
Stilwell and Wainwright were among an impressive array
of Military Academy graduates who met the challenge of
leadership in the Second World War."
"The entrance of women in 1976 was only the latest
example of a diversification which has brought greater
numbers of African-Americans, Hispanics, and other
minorities into the ranks of the Corps of Cadets."
"Everything that cadets experience during their time at
West Point is aimed at developing leaders of
character.'
"Each year during July, a new class, designated Fourth
Class cadets, enters the United States Military
Academy. In succeeding years, they become members of
the Third Class, Second Class, and finally -- in their
senior year -- First Class."
"Self-discipline, sensitivity to the needs and feelings
of others, and unselfish, thoughtful service to the
nation are among the characteristics most highly prized
withing the cadet corps." "
"Upon entering West Point cadets suddenly find
themselves physically challenged. Every cadet is an
athlete at the intercollegiate or intramural and club
sport level. "
Amer
THE HONOR CODE AND SYSTEM
like
"The Cadet Honor Code states that 'a cadet will not
lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do.' The
purpose of the Cadet Honor Code is to foster a
commitment to moral-ethical excellence essential to the
leaders of character for the nation
Although the exact origin of the Honor Code is
unclear, it is believed to have evolved from the code
of chivalry embraced by the officer corps when the
Military Academy was established
Leadership is built on trust; trust is built on
honor.
"
II. CIVIL RIGHTS
A.
Literature, excerpted
1.
"America has fought at least three wars to defend and
preserve that precious consensus [on what civil rights
mean]. The American Revolution, to establish the civil
rights of the colonists; the Civil War, to extend those
rights to all Americans; and World War II, to protect
those rights against totalitarianism." "
"This traditional vision of civil rights is grounded in
a commetment to individual self-determination, and it
recognizes that any attempt to use the state's power to
go beyond that point will ultimately detra t from the
underlying goal of individual sovereignty."
"
the revised civil rights agenda has shifted from
the assertion of absolute rights to a negotiation of
entitlements."
-- Clint Bolick
2.
In Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, on
August 28, 1963, he described this dream as
"
a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."
characts
He also dreamed of an America in which his children
"
will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character.' " ***This America has
become a reality in the United States Military.
3.
"Military Minority Mobility," Ken Adelman, The
Washington Times.
"
the armed forces have almost twice the proportion of
blacks as the population at large. Blacks make up 12.4
percent of our population and 21 percent of our
troops
But what's bad about that?"
"As President Bush said during the war, that
overrepresentation is largely because 'the military of
the United States is the greatest equal opportunity
employer around.
"The Army was, after all, the first major U.S.
institution to be integrated. Today, it may be the
most successful institution to be integrated."
"As Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
told me recently, the military has been a key vehicle
for upward mobility. It 'provides one heck of a social
service to this country. We take in a couple of
hundred thousand kids a year who hope to better
themselves, to receive some education, to put money
aside, to reap benefits so they can go to college. "
SUGGESTED LANGUAGE
"You've paid your dues. You've toed the line, and --
for the most part, I guess -- you've stayed in line;
and now you're ready to join the Long Gray Line."
"George Washington considered West Point to be
America's most important strategic position. In many
ways, it still is. Back then, it guarded the Hudson.
Today, you guard the future."
15 May 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR CURT SMITH
FROM:
JAG
SUBJECT:
CONDENSED MONSTER FAX FROM WEST POINT'S ACADEMY
RELATIONS
1)
The following excerpts are from a draft of some suggested
language for the President's speech. Some of it is rather
interesting and appropriate:
"In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at the
centennial observance of the founding of the Military
Academy, said: 'During the last century, no other
educational institution has contributed as many names as
West Point to the honor roll of the nation's greatest
citizens.'
"All Americans rightly share great pride in our recent
military success. In large part that success can be
attributed to lessons learned at West Point by such as Brent
Scowcroft, my National Security Advisor; General Norman
Schwarzkopf and General Fred Franks, who led the U.S, VII
Corps in the remarkable flanking maneuver which brought us
victory in only 100 hours."
"Thousands of (West Point's) graduates served (in Desert
Storm) and three died. I shook the hand of one of those,
1st Lt. Don Tillar, on this very stage when he graduated and
was commissioned in 1988. "
"One of the greatest rewards of my public service has been
the opportunity to appoint young men and women to West Point
and to other service academies. Two I appointed while
serving as Vice President -- Louis P. Fortunato of Newburgh,
just 15 miles north of West Point, and John Robert Stark of
Mount Summit, Indiana -- are among your ranks today."
**"Also among you are the 1,000th black and 1,000 female
graduates of this great institution. They are living proof
of the commitment of West Point and the United States Army
to equality of opportunity for all Americans in all walks of
life."
2)
West Point literature:
"The doors to the United States Military Academy are open to
all young men and women from every state and territory in
the nation who satisfy the application requirements. of the
1,340 new cadets admitted in the class of 1994, 16 percent
were through minority recruitment."
"West Point's purpose is to provide the nation with leaders
gegul
of character who serve the common defense. Character
underlies everything that happens to a cadet at the Military
Academy."
3)
USMA fact sheet:
"The military Academy now graduates about 900 new officers
each year, a long way from the first graduating class that
numbered two men."
4)
Anecdote from article (Gamble material?) :
" (statue of) the bareheaded bronze figure of Major General
John Sedgwick, Sixth Army Corps, who was killed in action in
the Civil War. The monument, cast from the cannon of the
Sixth Corps and erected by its officers and men in General
Sedgwick's memory
Sedgwick is the guardian of the
goat. The word 'goat' means a low ranking student, and
tradition says that if, on the night before a final
examination, at midnight, a 'goat' will visit the monument
and reach up to spin the rowels on the General's spurs,
success will be with him on the following day's
examination."
5)
Joke:
What do plebes rank?
"sir, the Superintendent's dog, the Commandant's cat, the
waiters in the Mess Hall, the Hell Cats, the Generals in the
Air Force, and all the Admirals in the whole damned Navy."
6)
Trivia:
Q: When was over half of the American Army stationed at West
Point?
A: After the Revolutionary War, Congress reduced the Army to
80 men, 55 of whom were stationed at West Point.
Q: What are the names of the Army mules?
A: Trooper, Spartacus, Traveller, and ***Ranger.
Q: Who put the reveille cannon on top of the Clock Tower?
A: It is believed that Cadet Douglas MacArthur and a small
group of cadets put the cannon there one night. It took two
weeks to get it down.
(I know you'll like this one) Q: With what is Abner
Doubleday, Class of 1842, credited?
A: He is credited with having invented the sport of
baseball.
Q: Who headed the building of the Panama Canal?
A: Major General George Washington Goethals, Class of 1880.
Q: What were Colonel Sylvanus Thayer's three D's of the
fighting men?
A: Discipline; Decision; and Devotion to Duty.
7)
Excerpt from "The Corps, " a companion piece to the "Alma
Mater" and equally beloved in the hearts of all graduates:
(of men of the Corps who have passed on)
"Grip hands tho' it be from the shadows,
While we swear, as you did of yore,
Or living, or dying, to honor
The Corps, the Corps, the Corps.' II
8)
Notable West Point Graduates:
--George Washington Whistler: eminent civil engineer; chosen
by Czar of Russia to build railroad from Moscow to St.
Petersburg.
--Jefferson Davis: member of Congress from Mississippi;
senator from Mississippi; president of Confederate STates of
America.
--Robert E. Lee: superintendent of the U.S. Military
Academy; General in Chief of the Confederate Armies;
president of Washington and Lee University.
--Ulysses S. Grant: General in Chief Armies of the United
States; President of the United States.
-Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson: corps commander of the
Confederate Army.
--John J. Pershing: commander-in-chief of Allied
Expeditionary Force in World War I; General of the Armies
1919.
--Douglas MacArthur: superintendent of U.S. Military Academy
1919-22; Army Chief of Staff; Supreme Commander of Pacific;
Supreme Commander of UN Forces Korea.
--Omar N. Bradley: commanding general 1st Army, 12th Army
Group European Theater in World War II; Army Chief of Staff
48-49; first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower: Supreme Commander Allied Forces
Europe; Army Chief of Staff; president of Columbia
University; President of the United States.
--Alexander Haig, Jr.: chief of staff to the President 73-
74; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe 74-79; Secretary of
State 81-82.
--H. Norman Schwarzkopf: Commander-in-Chief, Central
Command, Operation Desert Storm.
SYMBOLIC PLACES/MONUMENTS AT WEST POINT
1)
The four statues in the mess hall: as one enters the old
center mess hall door, the statue on the right of the door
represents Scholarship; the statue on the left of the door
represents Loyalty; the statue on the right side of the
center wing represents Physical Vigor; and the statue on the
left side of the center wing represents Military Leadership.
2)
The statue that adorns the face of the USMA Library is that
of Athena, or Minerva, mythological protectress of heroes,
the brave, and the valorous. With her right arm stretched
out in a gesture suggesting the spread of knowledge, her
left resting upon her shield, Athena is the goddess who is
wise in the industries of peace and the arts of war. The
figures right arm extends over the globe, indicating our
country's concern over worldwide events. Space vehicles
circle the globe, showing our thrust into space, and clouds,
symbols for world problems, surround the lower part of the
globe.
3)
The stained glass window in the north wing of the mess hall
depict the life of George Washington -- could be symbolic
for our revolutionary beginnings, our democratic principles,
and our deference to the founding fathers.
4)
The Mural in Washington Hall depicts the history of arms
from earliest times as symbolized by the leaders of 20 great
historical battles decisisve in charting the course of
civilization.
5)
The five Stone Warriors found between two main entrances to
Thayer Hall depict the use of the horse thoughout history:
Mounted Soldier, Medieval Knight, U.S. Cavalryman, Western
Indian, and the Horsemen of WWI.
To Jennifer
Date today Time 11:15
WHILE YOU WERE OUT
M Evan Advance
of
Phone
Area Code
Number
Extension
TELEPHONED
PLEASE CALL
CALLED TO SEE YOU
WILL CALL AGAIN
WANTS TO SEE YOU
URGENT
RETURNED YOUR CALL
Message
be David Palmer
They think it will
the superintentant of
the USMA. will be ableto
Con firm by Thurs. Operator
CMB
AMPAD
23-000 50 SHT. PAD
EFFICIENCY©
23-001 250 SHT. DISPENSER BOX
LANGUAGE ON CIVIL RIGHTS PER YOUR REQUEST
Yes, blacks are overrepresented in our services // and
that's because the military of the United States is the greatest
equal opportunity employer around. And it's because black
Americans are distinguishing themselves as some of the finest
fighting men and women this nation has ever seen. // The Army
was the first major U.S. institution to be integrated. Today it
stands as one of the most successful examples of integration and
equal opportunity.
The Army chooses its warriors not by color but by
competence, not by ethnicity but by integrity, not by creed but
by courage. And when someone physically and mentally up to the
job steps forward and says, "I want to serve, they don't check
what color his skin is. // No, the Army does not recruit
minorities. It recruits soldiers. //
When I see how this approach has helped turn our military
into the most formidable force in the world, I am compelled to
redouble our administration's efforts to extend equal opportunity
to every American. We will tolerate no barriers, no bias, no
inside tracks, and no two-tiered system. That's why it's
essential that the Congress act on our civil rights bill. This
package will attack bigotry and discrimination with a four-
pronged approach.
First, this legislation will operate to obliterate
consideration of factors such as race and sex from employment
decisions. Second, it reflects fundamental principles of
fairness that apply throughout our legal system. Third, it will
strengthen deterrents against workplace harassment based on race,
sex, religion, or disability -- and it will do it clearly and
decisively -- without inviting the travesty of endless
litigation. And finally, it will ensure that Congress lives by
the same rules it prescribes for others. We must eliminate
congressional exemption from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, giving congressional employees the same fundamental
protections that employees of the Executive Branch have enjoyed
for years.
We must seek out strategies that transcend statistics. And
we must, not let a centuries old quest for universal rights find
its end in a contentious special interest lobby. A true
commitment to the freedom and equality that is the birthright of
all Americans means a focus on expanding opportunity rather than
merely redistributing rights.
That means educational choice -- parents sending their kids
to the educational establishment of their choice, not the choice
of the education establishment. It means tenant management and
homeownership for the poor. It means enterprise zones -- because
you can't pull yourself up by the bootstraps if you don't have
any boots to pull. It means community opportunity areas --
shifting the power from the heavy hand of the state to the hands
that run the home and raise the family. And it means tough anti-
crime legislation -- because no American is free if he or she
lives imprisoned by the fear of crime.
OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PLANNING
LAW LIBRARY
UNITED STATES CODE
Congressional and Administrative
News
88th Congress-Second Session
1964
Convened January 7, 1964
Adjourned October 7, 1964
Volume 1
LAWS
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
St. Paul, Minn.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
West Publishing Co.
Edward Thompson Co.
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
(including any State or political subdivision thereof and any agency
of either) may obtain judicial review of such action in accordance
with section 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act, and such action
shall not be deemed committed to unreviewable agency discretion
within the meaning of that section.
Sec. 604. Nothing contained in this title shall be construed to
authorize action under this title by any department or agency with
respect to any employment practice of any employer, employment
agency, or labor organization except where a primary objective of the
Federal financial assistance is to provide employment.
Sec. 605. Nothing in this title shall add to or detract from any
existing authority with respect to any program or activity under
which Federal financial assistance is extended by way of a contract
of insurance or guaranty.
TITLE VII-EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
DEFINITIONS
Sec. 701. For the purposes of this title-
(a) The term "person" includes one or more individuals, labor
unions, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representa-
tives, mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorpo-
rated organizations, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, or receivers.
(b) The term "employer" means a person engaged in an industry
affecting commerce who has twenty-five or more employees for each
working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current
or preceding calendar year, and any agent of such a person, but such
term does not include (1) the United States, a corporation wholly
owned by the Government of the United States, an Indian tribe, or a
State or political subdivision thereof, (2) a bona fide private member-
ship club (other than a labor organization) which is exempt from
taxation under section 501 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954:
Provided, That during the first year after the effective date prescribed
in subsection (a) of section 716, persons having fewer than one hun-
dred employees (and their agents) shall not be considered employers,
and, during the second year after such date, persons having fewer
than seventy-five employees (and their agents) shall not be consid-
ered employers, and, during the third year after such date, persons
having fewer than fifty employees (and their agents) shall not be
considered employers: Provided further, That it shall be the policy of
the United States to insure equal employment opportunities for Fed-
eral employees without discrimination because of race, color, religion,
sex or national origin and the President shall utilize his existing au-
thority to effectuate this policy.
(c) The term "employment agency" means any person regularly
undertaking with or without compensation to procure employees for
an employer or to procure for employees opportunities to work for
an employer and includes an agent of such a person; but shall not
include an agency of the United States, or an agency of a State or
political subdivision of a State, except that such term shall include
302
July 21
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
nd any agency
in accordance
the United States Employment Service and the system of State and
nd such action
local employment services receiving Federal assistance.
ncy discretion
(d) The term "labor organization" means a labor organization en-
gaged in an industry affecting commerce, and any agent of such an
organization, and includes any organization of any kind, any agency,
construed to
or employee representation committee, group, association, or plan so
l' agency with
engaged in which employees participate and which exists for the
; employment
jective of the
purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning
grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours, or other terms
or conditions of employment, and any conference, general committee,
act from any
joint or system board, or joint council SO engaged which is subordi-
ctivity under
nate to a national or international labor organization.
of a contract
(e) A labor organization shall be deemed to be engaged in an in-
dustry affecting commerce if (1) it maintains or operates a hiring
JNITY
hall or hiring office which procures employees for an employer or pro-
cures for employees opportunities to work for an employer, or (2)
the number of its members (or, where it is a labor organization com-
posed of other labor organizations or their representatives, if the
aggregate number of the members of such other labor organization)
iduals, labor
is (A) one hundred or more during the first year after the effective
representa-
date prescribed in subsection (a) of section 716, (B) seventy-five or
unincorpo-
more during the second year after such date or fifty or more during
receivers.
the third year, or (C) twenty-five or more thereafter, and such labor
an industry
organization-
ees for each
(1) is the certified representative of employees under the pro-
the current
visions of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, or the
on, but such
Railway Labor Act, as amended;
tion wholly
(2) although not certified, is a national or international labor
n tribe, or a
organization or a local labor organization recognized or acting as
ate member-
the representative of employees of an employer or employers
xempt from
engaged in an industry affecting commerce; or
de of 1954:
(3) has chartered a local labor organization or subsidiary body
prescribed
which is representing or actively seeking to represent employees
in one hun-
of employers within the meaning of paragraph (1) or (2) or
employers,
(4) has been chartered by a labor organization representing or
ving fewer
actively seeking to represent employees within the meaning of
be consid-
paragraph (1) or (2) as the local or subordinate body through
te, persons
which such employees may enjoy membership or become affiliated
hall not be-
with such labor organization; or
1e policy of
(5) is a conference, general committee, joint or system board,
es for Fed-
or joint council subordinate to a national or international labor
r, religion,
organization, which includes a labor organization engaged in an
kisting au-
industry affecting commerce within the meaning of any of the
preceding paragraphs of this subsection.
regularly
(f) The term "employee" means an individual employed by an
loyees for
employer.
work for
(g) The term "commerce" means trade, traffic, commerce, trans-
shall not
portation, transmission, or communication among the several States;
1 State or
or between a State and any place outside thereof; or within the
II include
District of Columbia, or a possession of the United States; or between
points in the same State but through a point outside thereof.
303
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
(h) The term "industry affecting commerce" means any activity,
business, or industry in commerce or in which a labor dispute would
hinder or obstruct commerce or the free flow of commerce and in-
cludes any activity or industry "affecting commerce" within the
meaning of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of
1959.
(i) The term "State" includes a State of the United States, the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American
Samoa, Guam, Wake Island, the Canal Zone, and Outer Continental
Shelf lands defined in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
EXEMPTION
Sec. 702. This title shall not apply to an employer with respect to
the employment of aliens outside any State, or to a religious corpora-
tion, association, or society with respect to the employment of indi-
viduals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the
carrying on by such corporation, association, or society of its re-
ligious activities or to an educational institution with respect to the
employment of individuals to perform work connected with the educa-
tional activities of such institution.
DISCRIMINATION BECAUSE OF RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, SEX, OR
NATIONAL ORIGIN
Sec. 703. (a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an
employer
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual,
or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect
to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employ-
ment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin; or
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any way
which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of em-
ployment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status
as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion,
sex, or national origin.
(b) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employ-
ment agency to fail or refuse to refer for employment, or otherwise
to discriminate against, any individual because of his race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin, or to classify or refer for employ-
ment any individual on the basis of his race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin.
(c) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for a labor or-
ganization-
(1) to exclude or to expel from its membership, or otherwise
to discriminate against, any individual because of his race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin;
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify its membership, or to clas-
sify or fail- to refuse to refer for employment any individual, in
any way which would: deprive or tend to deprive any individual of
employment opportunities, or would limit such employment op-
portunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an em-
304
July 2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
activity,
ployee or as an applicant for employment, because of such indi-
te would
vidual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
and in-
(3) to cause or attempt to cause an employer to discriminate
thin the
against an individual in violation of this section.
e Act of
(d) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for any employer,
labor organization, or joint labor-management committee controlling
ates, the
apprenticeship or other training or retraining, including on-the-job
merican
training programs to discriminate against any individual because of
tinental
his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in admission to, or
employment in, any program established to provide apprenticeship or
other training.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, (1) it shall
espect to
not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to hire and
corpora-
employ employees, for an employment agency to classify, or refer for
of indi-
employment any individual, for a labor organization to classify its
with the
membership or to classify or refer for employment any individual, or
its re-
for an employer, labor organization, or joint labor-management com-
et to the
mittee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining pro-
e educa-
grams to admit or employ any individual in any such program, on the
basis of his religion, sex, or national origin in those certain instances
where religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational
X, OR
qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that
particular business or enterprise, and (2) it shall not be an unlawful
e for an
employment practice for a school, college, university, or other educa-
tional institution or institution of learning to hire and employ em-
ividual,
ployees of a particular religion if such school, college, university, or
respect
other educational institution or institution of learning is, in whole or
employ-
in substantial part, owned, supported, controlled, or managed by a
sex, or
particular religion or by a particular religious corporation, associ-
ation, or society, or if the curriculum of such school, college, univer-
ny way
sity, or other educational institution or institution of learning is -
of em-
directed toward the propagation of a particular religion.
: status
eligion,
(f) As used in this title, the phrase "unlawful employment prac-
tice" shall not be deemed to include any action or measure taken by
employ-
an employer, labor organization, joint labor-management committee,
erwise
or employment agency with respect to an individual who is a member
color,
of the Communist Party of the United States or of any other organiza-
employ-
tion required to register as a Communist-action or Communist-front
organization by final order of the Subversive Activities Control Board
sex, or
pursuant to the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950.
bor or-
(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, it shall not
be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse
erwise
to hire and employ any individual for any position, for an employer
color,
to discharge any individual from any position, or for an employment
agency to fail or refuse to refer any individual for employment in any
0 clas-
position, or for a labor organization to fail or refuse to refer any
ual, in
individual for employment in any position, if-
dual of
(1) the occupancy of such position, or access to the premises
ent op-
in or upon which any part of the duties of such position is per-
an em-
formed or is to be performed, is subject to any requirement im-
U.S.Cong. & Adm.News '64-20
305
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
posed in the interest of the national security of the United States
under any security program in effect pursuant to or administered
under any statute of the United States or any Executive order
of the President; and
(2) such individual has not fulfilled or has ceased to fulfill
that requirement.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, it shall
not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to apply
different standards of compensation, or different terms, conditions,
or privileges of employment pursuant to a bona fide seniority or
merit system, or a system which measures earnings by quantity or
quality of production or to employees who work in different locations,
provided that such differences are not the result of an intention to
discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,
nor shall it be an unlawful employment practice for an employer
to give and to act upon the results of any professionally developed
ability test provided that such test, its administration or action upon
the results is not designed, intended or used to discriminate because
of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It shall not be an
unlawful employment practice under this title for any employer to
differentiate upon the basis of sex in determining the amount of
the wages or compensation paid or to be paid to employees of such
employer if such differentiation is authorized by the provisions of
section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended
(29 U.S.C. 206(d)).54
(i) Nothing contained in this title shall apply to any business or
enterprise on or near an Indian reservation with respect to any
publicly announced employment practice of such business or enter-
prise under which a preferential treatment is given to any individual
because he is an Indian living on or near a reservation.
(j) Nothing contained in this title shall be interpreted to require
any employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-
management committee subject to this title to grant preferential
treatment to any individual or to any group because of the race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin of such individual or group
on account of an imbalance which may exist with respect to the
total number or percentage of persons of any race, color, religion,
sex, or national origin employed by any employer, referred or classi-
fied for employment by any employment agency or labor organiza-
tion, admitted to membership or classified by any, labor organization,
or admitted to, or employed in, any apprenticeship or other training
program, in comparison with the total number or percentage of per-
sons of such race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in any
community, State, section, or other area, or in the available work
force in any community, State, section, or other area.
OTHER UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES
Sec. 704. (a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for
an employer to discriminate against any of his employees or appli-
64. 20 U.S.C.A. § 206(d).
306
2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
es
cants for employment, for an employment agency to discriminate
ed
against any individual, or for a labor organization to discriminate
er
against any member thereof or applicant for membership, because
he has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice
ill
by this title, or because he has made a charge, testified, assisted, or
participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hear-
all
ing under this title.
ly
(b) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer,
is,
labor organization, or employment agency to print or publish or
or
cause to be printed or published any notice or advertisement relating
or
to employment by such an employer or membership in or any clas-
ns,
sification or referral for employment by such a labor organization,
to
or relating to any classification or referral for employment by such
in,
an employment agency, indicating any preference, limitation, specifi-
er
cation, or discrimination, based on race, color, religion, sex, or na-
ed
tional origin, except that such a notice or advertisement may indi-
on
cate a preference, limitation, specification, or discrimination based
!se
on religion, sex, or national origin when religion, sex, or national
an
origin is a bona fide occupational qualification for employment.
to
of
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION
ich
Sec. 705. (a) There is hereby created a Commission to be known
of
as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which shall be
led
composed of five members, not more than three of whom shall be
members of the same political party, who shall be appointed by the
or
President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. One
iny
of the original members shall be appointed for a term of one year,
ter-
one for a term of two years, one for a term of three years, one for a
ual
term of four years, and one for a term of five years, beginning from
the date of enactment of this title, but their successors shall be
tire
appointed for terms of five years each, except that any individual
or-
chosen to fill a vacancy shall be appointed only for the unexpired
tial
term of the member whom he shall succeed. The President shall
ice,
designate one member to serve as Chairman of the Commission, and
one member to serve as Vice Chairman. The Chairman shall be
oup
the
responsible on behalf of the Commission for the administrative
ion,
operations of the Commission, and shall appoint, in accordance with
ssi-
the civil service laws, such officers, agents, attorneys, and employees
iza-
as it deems necessary to assist it in the performance of its functions
ion,
and to fix their compensation in accordance with the Classification
ing
Act of 1949, as amended. The Vice Chairman shall act as Chairman
per-
in the absence or disability of the Chairman or in the event of a
vacancy in that office.
any
ork
(b) A vacancy in the Commission shall not impair the right of
the remaining members to exercise all the powers of the Commission
and three members thereof shall constitute a quorum.
(c) The Commission shall have an official seal which shall be
judicially noticed.
for
pli-
(d) The Commission shall at the close of each fiscal year report
to the Congress and to the President concerning the action it has
taken; the names, salaries, and duties of all individuals in its em-
307
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
ploy and the moneys it has disbursed; and shall make such further
reports on the cause of and means of eliminating discrimination and
such recommendations for further legislation as may appear desira-
ble.
(e) The Federal Executive Pay Act of 1956, as amended (5 U.S.C.
2201-2209), 65 is further amended—
(1) by adding to section 105 thereof (5 U.S.C. 2204) the fol-
lowing clause:
"(32) Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-
sion"; and
(2) by adding to clause (45) of section 106(a) thereof (5
U.S.C. 2205(a)) the following: "Equal Employment Opportu-
nity Commission (4)."
(f) The principal office of the Commission shall be in or near
the District of Columbia, but it may meet or exercise any or all its
powers at any other place. The Commission may establish such
regional or State offices as it deems necessary to accomplish the
purpose of this title.
(g) The Commission shall have power-
(1) to cooperate with and, with their consent, utilize regional
State, local, and other agencies, both public and private, and
individuals;
(2) to pay to witnesses whose depositions are taken or who are
summoned before the Commission or any of its agents the same
witness and mileage fees as are paid to witnesses in the courts
of the United States;
(3) to furnish to persons subject to this title such technical
assistance as they may request to further their compliance with
this title or an order issued thereunder;
(4) upon the request of (i) any employer, whose employees
or some of them, or (ii) any labor organization, whose members
or some of them, refuse or threaten to refuse to cooperate in
effectuating the provisions of this title, to assist in such effectua-
tion by conciliation or such other remedial action as is provided
by this title;
(5) to make such technical studies as are appropriate to
effectuate the purposes and policies of this title and to make
the results of such studies available to the public;
(6) to refer matters to the Attorney General with recommen-
dations for intervention in a civil action brought by an aggrieved
party under section 706, or for the institution of a civil action
by the Attorney General under section 707, and to advise, consult,
and assist the Attorney General on such matters.
(h) Attorneys appointed under this section may, at the direction
of the Commission, appear for and represent the Commission in any
case in court.
(i) The Commission shall, in any of its educational or promotional
activities, cooperate with other departments and agencies in the per-
formance of such educational and promotional activities.
65. 5 U.S.C.A. $ 2201 et seq.
308
2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
(j) All officers, agents, attorneys, and employees of the Commis-
id
sion shall be subject to the provisions of section 9 of the Act of
a-
August 2, 1939, as amended (the Hatch Act), notwithstanding any
exemption contained in such section.
C.
PREVENTION OF UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES
1-
Sec. 706. (a) Whenever it is charged in writing under oath by a
person claiming to be aggrieved, or a written charge has been filed
S-
by a member of the Commission where he has reasonable cause to
believe a violation of this title has occurred (and such charge sets
(5
forth the facts upon which it is based) that an employer, employ-
u-
ment agency, or labor organization has engaged in an unlawful
employment practice, the Commission shall furnish such employer,
ar
employment agency, or labor organization (hereinafter referred to
ts
as the "respondent") with a copy of such charge and shall make an
investigation of such charge, provided that such charge shall not
ne
be made public by the Commission. If the Commission shall deter-
mine, after such investigation, that there is reasonable cause to
believe that the charge is true, the Commission shall endeavor to
al
eliminate any such alleged unlawful employment practice by in-
id
formal methods of conference, conciliation, and persuasion. Nothing
said or done during and as a part of such endeavors may be made
re
public by the Commission without the written consent of the parties,
ne
or used as evidence in a subsequent proceeding. Any officer or em-
its
ployee of the Commission, who shall make public in any manner
whatever any information in violation of this subsection shall be
al
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall
be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year.
(b) In the case of an alleged unlawful employment practice occur-
es
ring in a State, or political subdivision of a State, which has a State
rs
or local law prohibiting the unlawful employment practice alleged
in
and establishing or authorizing a State or local authority to grant or
a-
seek relief from such practice or to institute criminal proceedings
ed
with respect thereto upon receiving notice thereof, no charge may be
filed under subsection (a) by the person aggrieved before the expira-
to
tion of sixty days after proceedings have been commenced under the
ke
State or local law, unless such proceedings have been earlier termi-
nated, provided that such sixty-day period shall be extended to one
n-
hundred and twenty days during the first year after the effective
ed
date of such State or local law. If any requirement for the com-
on
mencement of such proceedings is imposed by a State or local author-
lt,
ity other than a requirement of the filing of a written and signed
statement of the facts upon which the proceeding is based, the pro-
on
ceeding shall be deemed to have been commenced for the purposes of
ny
this subsection at the time such statement is sent by registered mail
to the appropriate State or local authority.
(c) In the case of any charge filed by a member of the Commission
alleging an unlawful employment practice occurring in a State or
political subdivision of a State, which has a State or local law pro-
hibiting the practice alleged and establishing or authorizing a State
or local authority to grant or seek relief from, such practice or to
309
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
institute criminal proceedings with respect thereto upon receiving
notice thereof, the Commission shall, before taking any action with
respect to such charge, notify the appropriate State or local officials
and, upon request, afford them a reasonable time, but not less than
sixty days (provided that such sixty-day period shall be extended
to one hundred and twenty days during the first year after the effec-
tive day of such State or local law), unless a shorter period is re-
quested, to act under such State or local law to remedy the practice
alleged.
(d) A charge under subsection (a) shall be filed within ninety days
after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred, except that
in the case of an unlawful employment practice with respect to which
the person aggrieved has followed the procedure set out in subsection
(b), such charge shall be filed by the person aggrieved within two
hundred and ten days after the alleged unlawful employment prac-
tice occurred, or within thirty days after receiving notice that the
State or local agency has terminated the proceedings under the State
or local law, whichever is earlier, and a copy of such charge shall be
filed by the Commission with the State or local agency.
(e) If within thirty days after a charge is filed with the Commis-
sion or within thirty days after expiration of any period of reference
under subsection (c) (except that in either case such period may be
extended to not more than sixty days upon a determination by the
Commission that further efforts to secure voluntary compliance are
warranted), the Commission has been unable to obtain voluntary
compliance with this title, the Commission shall so notify the person
aggrieved and a civil action may, within thirty days thereafter, be
brought against the respondent named in the charge (1) by the per-
son claiming to be aggrieved, or (2) if such charge was filed by a
member of the Commission, by any person whom the charge alleges
was aggrieved by the alleged unlawful employment practice. Upon
application by the complainant and in such circumstances as the
court may deem just, the court may appoint an attorney for such
complainant and may authorize the commencement of the action with-
out the payment of fees, costs, or security. Upon timely application,
the court may, in its discretion, permit the Attorney General to in-
tervene in such civil action if he certifies that the case is of general
public importance. Upon request, the court may, in its discretion,
stay further proceedings for not more than sixty days pending the
termination of State or local proceedings described in subsection
(b) or the efforts of the Commission to obtain voluntary compliance.
(f) Each United States district court and each United States court
of a place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States shall have
jurisdiction of actions brought under this title. Such an action may
be brought in any judicial district in the State in which the unlaw-
ful employment practice is alleged to have *been committed, in the
judicial district in which the employment records relevant to such
practice are maintained and administered, or in the judicial district
in which the plaintiff would have worked but for the alleged unlawful
employment practice, but if the respondent is not found within any
such district, such an action may be brought within the judicial dis-
310
2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
1g
trict in which the respondent has his principal office. For purposes
th
of sections 1404 and 1406 of title 28 of the United States Code, the
Is
judicial district in which the respondent has his principal office shall
in
in all cases be considered a district in which the action might have
ed
been brought.
c-
(g) If the court finds that the respondent has intentionally en-
e-
gaged in or is intentionally engaging in an unlawful employment
ce
practice charged in the complaint, the court may enjoin the respond-
ent from engaging in such unlawful employment practice, and order
ys
such affirmative action as may be appropriate, which may include re-
at
instatement or hiring of employees, with or without back pay (pay-
ch
able by the employer, employment agency, or labor organization, as
on
the case may be, responsible for the unlawful employment practice).
NO
Interim earnings or amounts earnable with reasonable diligence by
IC-
the person or persons discriminated against shall operate to reduce
he
the back pay otherwise allowable. No order of the court shall re-
ite
quire the admission or reinstatement of an individual as a member
be
of a union or the hiring, reinstatement, or promotion of an individual
as an employee, or the payment to him of any back pay, if such in-
is-
dividual was refused admission, suspended, or expelled or was re-
ice
fused employment or advancement or was suspended or discharged
be
for any reason other than discrimination on account of race, color,
the
religion, sex or national origin or in violation of section 704(a).
are
(h) The provisions of the Act entitled "An Act to amend the Ju-
ary
dicial Code and to define and limit the jurisdiction of courts sitting
son
in equity, and for other purposes," approved March 23, 1932 (29
be
U.S.C. 101-115), shall not apply with respect to civil actions brought
er-
under this section.
y a
(i) In any case in which an employer, employment agency, or labor
ges
organization fails to comply with an order of a court issued in a civil
on
action brought under subsection (e), the Commission may commence
the
proceedings to compel compliance with such order.
ich
(j) Any civil action brought under subsection (e) and any proceed-
th-
ings brought under subsection (i) shall be subject to appeal as pro-
on,
vided in sections 1291 and 1292, title 28, United States Code.
in-
(k) In any action or proceeding under this title the court, in its
eral
discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the Commis-
ion,
sion or the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the
the
costs, and the Commission and the United States shall be liable for
tion
costs the same as a private person.
ice.
Sec. 707. (a) Whenever the Attorney General has reasonable cause
ourt
to believe that any person or group of persons is engaged in a pattern
ave
or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of any of the rights
nay
secured by this title, and that the pattern or practice is of such a na-
aw-
ture and is intended to deny the full exercise of the rights herein de-
the
scribed, the Attorney General may bring a civil action in the appro-
uch
priate district court of the United States by filing with it a complaint
rict
(1) signed by him (or in his absence the Acting Attorney General),
vful
(2) setting forth facts pertaining to such pattern or practice, and
any
(3) requesting such relief, including an application for a permanent
dis-
or temporary injunction, restraining order or other order against the
311
P.L.
88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
person or persons responsible for such pattern or practice, as he
deems necessary to insure the full enjoyment of the rights herein de-
scribed.
(b) The district courts of the United States shall have and shall
exercise jurisdiction of proceedings instituted pursuant to this sec-
tion, and in any such proceeding the Attorney General may file with
the clerk of such court a request that a court of three judges be con-
vened to hear and determine the case. Such request by the Attorney
General shall be accompanied by a certificate that, in his opinion, the
case is of general public importance. A copy of the certificate and
request for a three-judge court shall be immediately furnished by
such clerk to the chief judge of the circuit (or in his absence, the pre-
siding circuit judge of the circuit) in which the case is pending. Up-
on receipt of such request it shall be the duty of the chief judge of the
circuit or the presiding circuit judge, as the case may be, to designate
immediately three judges in such circuit, of whom at least one shall
be a circuit judge and another of whom shall be a district judge of the
court in which the proceeding was instituted, to hear and determine
such case, and it shall be the duty of the judges so designated to as-
sign the case for hearing at the earliest practicable date, to partici-
pate in the hearing and determination thereof, and to cause the case
to be in every way expedited. An appeal from the final judgment of
such court will lie to the Supreme Court.
In the event the Attorney General fails to file such a request in any
such proceeding, it shall be the duty of the chief judge of the district
(or in his absence, the acting chief judge) in which the case is pend-
ing immediately to designate a judge in such district to hear and de-
termine the case. In the event that no judge in the district is avail-
able to hear and determine the case, the chief judge of the district,
or the acting chief judge, as the case may be, shall certify this fact
to the chief judge of the circuit (or in his absence, the acting chief
judge) who shall then designate a district or circuit judge of the cir-
cuit to hear and determine the case.
It shall be the duty of the judge designated pursuant to this sec-
tion to assign the case for hearing at the earliest practicable date and
to cause the case to be in every way expedited.
EFFECT ON STATE LAWS
Sec. 708. Nothing in this title shall be deemed to exempt or relieve
any person from any liability, duty, penalty, or punishment provid-
ed by any present or future law of any State or political subdivision
of a State, other than any such law which purports to require or per-
mit the doing of any act which would be an unlawful employment
practice under this title.
INVESTIGATIONS, INSPECTIONS, RECORDS, STATE AGENCIES
Sec. 709. (a) In connection with any investigation of a charge filed
under section 706, the Commission or its designated representative
shall at all reasonable times have access to, for the purposes of
examination, and the right to copy any evidence of any person being
312
y 2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
he
investigated or proceeded against that relates to unlawful employ-
de-
ment practices covered by this title and is relevant to the charge un-
der investigation.
all
(b) The Commission may cooperate with State and local agencies
sec-
charged with the administration of State fair employment practices
ith
laws and, with the consent of such agencies, may for the purpose of
on-
carrying out its functions and duties under this title and within the
ney
limitation of funds appropriated specifically for such purpose, utilize
the
the services of such agencies and their employees and, notwithstand-
and
ing any other provision of law, may reimburse such agencies and
by
their employees for services rendered to assist the Commission in car-
ore-
rying out this title. In furtherance of such cooperative efforts, the
Up-
Commission may enter into written agreements with such State or
the
local agencies and such agreements may include provisions under
rate
which the Commission shall refrain from processing a charge in any
hall
cases or class of cases specified in such agreements and under which
the
no person may bring a civil action under section 706 in any cases or
ne
class of cases so specified, or under which the Commission shall re-
as-
lieve any person or class of persons in such State or locality from re-
:ici-
quirements imposed under this section. The Commission shall re-
ase
scind any such agreement whenever it determines that the agree-
of
ment no longer serves the interest of effective enforcement of this
+itle.
any
(c) Except as provided in subsection (d), every employer, employ-
rict
ment agency, and labor organization subject to this title shall (1)
end-
make and keep such records relevant to the determinations of wheth-
de-
er unlawful employment practices have been or are being committed,
ail-
(2) preserve such records for such periods, and (3) make such re-
rict,
ports therefrom, as the Commission shall prescribe by regulation or
fact
order, after public hearing, as reasonable, necessary, or appropriate
hief
for the enforcement of this title or the regulations or orders there-
cir-
under. The Commission shall, by regulation, require each employer,
labor organization, and joint labor-management committee subject to
sec-
this title which controls an apprenticeship or other training program
and
to maintain such records as are reasonably necessary to carry out
the purpose of this title, including, but not limited to, a list of appli-
cants who wish to participate in such program, including the chrono-
logical order in which such applications were received, and shall fur-
ieve
nish to the Commission, upon request, a detailed description of the
vid-
manner in which persons are selected to participate in the appren-
sion
ticeship or other training program. Any employer, employment agen-
per-
cy, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee which
nent
believes that the application to it of any regulation or order issued
under this section would result in undue hardship may (1) apply to
the Commission for an exemption from the application of such regu-
lation or order, or (2) bring a civil action in the United States dis-
filed
trict court for the district where such records are kept. If the Com-
tive
mission or the court, as the case may be, finds that the application
S of
of the regulation or order to the employer, employment agency, or
eing
labor organization in question would impose an undue hardship, the
313
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
Commission or the court, as the case may be, may grant appropriate
relief.
(d) The provisions of subsection (c) shall not apply to any em-
ployer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-man-
agement committee with respect to matters occurring in any State or
political subdivision thereof which has a fair employment practice
law during any period in which such employer, employment agency,
labor organization, or joint labor-management committee is subject
to such law, except that the Commission may require such notations
on records which such employer, employment agency, labor organ-
ization, or joint labor-management committee keeps or is required to
keep as are necessary because of differences in coverage or methods
of enforcement between the State or local law and the provisions of
this title. Where an employer is required by Executive Order 10925,
issued March 6, 1961, or by any other Executive order prescribing fair
employment practices for Government contractors and subcontrac-
tors, or by rules or regulations issued thereunder, to file reports re-
lating to his employment practices with any Federal agency or com-
mittee, and he is substantially in compliance with such requirements,
the Commission shall not require him to file additional reports pur-
suant to subsection (c) of this section.
(e) It shall be unlawful for any officer or employee of the Commis-
sion to make public in any manner whatever any information obtained
by the Commission pursuant to its authority under this section prior
to the institution of any proceeding under this title involving such
information. Any officer or employee of the Commission who shall
make public in any manner whatever any information in violation of
this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more
than one year.
INVESTIGATORY POWERS
Sec. 710. (a) For the purposes of any investigation of a charge
filed under the authority contained in section 706, the Commission
shall have authority to examine witnesses under oath and to require
the production of documentary evidence relevant or material to the
charge under investigation.
(b) If the respondent named in a charge filed under section 706
fails or refuses to comply with a demand of the Commission for per-
mission to examine or to copy evidence in conformity with the pro-
visions of section 709(a), or if any person required to comply with
the provisions of section 709(c) or (d) fails or refuses to do so, or
if any person fails or refuses to comply with a demand by the Com-
mission to give testimony under oath, the United States district court
for the district in which such person is found, resides, or transacts
business, shall, upon application of the Commission, have jurisdiction
to issue to such person an order requiring him to comply with the
provisions of section 709(c) or (d) or to comply with the demand
of the Commission, but the attendance of a witness may not be
required outside the State where he is found, resides, or transacts
314
2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
te
business and the production of evidence may not be required outside
the State where such evidence is kept.
n-
(c) Within twenty days after the service upon any person charged
n-
under section 706 of a demand by the Commission for the production
or
of documentary evidence or for permission to examine or to copy
ce
evidence in conformity with the provisions of section 709(a), such
person may file in the district court of the United States for the judi-
ct
cial district in which he resides, is found, or transacts business, and
serve upon the Commission a petition for an order of such court modi-
ns
fying or setting aside such demand. The time allowed for compliance
n-
with the demand in whole or in part as deemed proper and ordered
to
by the court shall not run during the pendency of such petition in the
ds
court. Such petition shall specify each ground upon which the peti-
of
tioner relies in seeking such relief, and may be based upon any failure
25,
of such demand to comply with the provisions of this title or with the
tir
limitations generally applicable to compulsory process or upon any
IC-
constitutional or other legal right or privilege of such person. No
è
objection which is not raised by such a petition may be urged in the
m-
defense to a proceeding initiated by the Commission under subsection
ts,
(b) for enforcement of such a demand unless such proceeding is com-
11'-
menced by the Commission prior to the expiration of the twenty-day
period, or unless the court determines that the defendant could not
is-
reasonably have been aware of the availability of such ground of
ed
objection.
or
(d) In any proceeding brought by the Commission under subsection
ch
(b), except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, the defendant
all
may petition the court for an order modifying or setting aside the
of
demand of the Commission.
on
NOTICES TO BE POSTED
ore
Sec. 711. (a) Every employer, employment agency, and labor or-
ganization, as the case may be, shall post and keep posted in con-
spicuous places upon its premises where notices to employees, appli-
ge
cants for employment, and members are customarily posted a notice
on
to be prepared or approved by the Commission setting forth excerpts
ire
from or, summaries of, the pertinent provisions of this title and in-
the
formation pertinent to the filing of a complaint.
(b) A willful violation of this section shall be punishable by a fine
'06
of not more than $100 for each separate offense.
er-
ro-
VETERANS' PREFERENCE
ith
Sec. 712. Nothing contained in this title shall be construed to re-
or
peal or modify any Federal, State, territorial, or local law creating
m-
special rights or preference for veterans.
art
cts
RULES AND REGULATIONS
ion
Sec. 713. (a) The Commission shall have authority from time to
the
time to issue, amend, or rescind suitable procedural regulations to
nd
carry out the provisions of this title. Regulations issued under this
be
section shall be in conformity with the standards and limitations of
cts
the Administrative Procedure Act.
315
P.L. 88-352 LAWS OF 88TH CONG.-2ND SESS.
July 2
(b) In any action or proceeding based on any alleged unlawful
employment practice, no person shall be subject to any liability or
punishment for or on account of (1) the commission by such person
of an unlawful employment practice if he pleads and proves that the
act or omission complained of was in good faith, in conformity with,
and in reliance on any written interpretation or opinion of the Com-
mission, or (2) the failure of such person to publish and file any
information required by any provision of this title if he pleads and
proves that he failed to publish and file such information in good
faith, in conformity with the instructions of the Commission issued
under this title regarding the filing of such information. Such a de-
fense, if established, shall be a bar to the action or proceeding, not-
withstanding that (A) after such act or omission, such interpretation
or opinion is modified or rescinded or is determined by judicial au-
thority to be invalid or of no legal effect, or (B) after publishing or
filing the description and annual reports, such publication or filing is
determined by judicial authority not to be in conformity with the re-
quirements of this title.
FORCIBLY RESISTING THE COMMISSION OR ITS REPRESENTATIVES
Sec. 714. The provisions of section 111, title 18, United States
Code, shall apply to officers, agents, and employees of the Com-
mission in the performance of their official duties.
SPECIAL STUDY BY SECRETARY OF LABOR
Sec. 715. The Secretary of Labor shall make a full and complete
study of the factors which might tend to result in discrimination in
employment because of age and of the consequences of such discrimi-
nation on the economy and individuals affected. The Secretary of
Labor shall make a report to the Congress not later than June 30,
1965, containing the results of such study and shall include in such
report such recommendations for legislation to prevent arbitrary dis-
crimination in employment because of age as he determines advisable.
EFFECTIVE DATE
Sec. 716. (a) This title shall become effective one year after the
date of its enactment.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), sections of this title other
than sections 703, 704, 706, and 707 shall become effective immediate-
ly.
(c) The President shall, as soon as feasible after the enactment of
this title, convene one or more conferences for the purpose of enabling
the leaders of groups whose members will be affected by this title to
become familiar with the rights afforded and obligations imposed by
its provisions, and for the purpose of making plans which will result
in the fair and effective administration of this title when all of its
provisions become effective. The President shall invite the participa-
tion in such conference or conferences of (1) the members' of the
President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, (2) the
members of the Commission on Civil Rights, (3) representatives of
316
7 2
July 2
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
P.L. 88-352
ful
State and local agencies engaged in furthering equal employment
or
opportunity, (4) representatives of private agencies engaged in fur-
son
thering equal employment opportunity, and (5) representatives of
the
employers, labor organizations, and employment agencies who will be
ith,
subject to this title.
om-
any
TITLE VIII-REGISTRATION AND VOTING STATISTICS
and
Sec. 801. The Secretary of Commerce shall promptly conduct a sur-
ood
vey to compile registration and voting statistics in such geographic
ued
areas as may be recommended by the Commission on Civil Rights.
de-
not-
Such a survey and compilation shall, to the extent recommended by
tion
the Commission on Civil Rights, only include a count of persons of
au-
voting age by race, color, and national origin, and determination of
in or
the extent to which such persons are registered to vote, and have vot-
g is
ed in any statewide primary or general election in which the Members
re-
of the United States House of Representatives are nominated or
elected, since January 1, 1960. Such information shall also be col-
lected and compiled in connection with the Nineteenth Decennial
VES
Census, and at such other times as the Congress may prescribe. The
ates
provisions of section 9 and chapter 7 of title 13, United States Code,
om-
shall apply to any survey, collection, or compilation of registration
and voting statistics carried out under this title: Provided, however,
That no person shall be compelled to disclose his race, color, national
origin, or questioned about his political party affiliation, how he voted,
lete
or the reasons therefore, nor shall any penalty be imposed for his
n in
failure or refusal to make such disclosure. Every person interrogated
imi-
orally, by written survey or questionnaire or by any other means with
y of
respect to such information shall be fully advised with respect to
: 30,
his right to fail or refuse to furnish such information.
such
dis-
TITLE IX-INTERVENTION AND PROCEDURE AFTER
able.
REMOVAL IN CIVIL RIGHTS CASES
Sec. 901. Title 28 of the United States Code, section 1447(d),66 is
amended to read as follows:
the
"An order remanding a case to the State court from which it was
removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise, except that an
ther
order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed
iate-
pursuant to section 1443 of this title shall be reviewable by appeal
or otherwise."
nt of
Sec. 902. Whenever an action has been commenced in any court of
bling
the United States seeking relief from the denial of equal protection of
le to
the laws under the fourteenth amendment*to the Constitution on ac-
d by
count of race, color, religion, or national origin, the Attorney General
esult
for or in the name of the United States may intervene in such action
f its
upon timely application if the Attorney General certifies that the case
cipa-
is of general public importance. In such action the United States
E the
shall be entitled to the same relief as if it had instituted the action.
1 the
es of
66. 28 U.S.C.A. $ 1447(d).
317
1
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Date: 5-14-91
TO: Members of the Domestic Policy
Reform Breakfast Group
FROM:
RICHARD W. PORTER
Special Assistant to the President
and Executive Secretary to the
Domestic Policy Council
Attached are a number of articles
I thought you might find of interest.
The article on top was written by
Peter Ferrara of the Cato Institute
and was one of the topics during our
discussion with him at last Friday's
breakfast. (A few of you already
have this, I realize).
hildren in poverty evoke
Even when such families fall into
C
the greatest sympathy of
poverty, most do not stay there.
any group that seeks public
The poverty of parents that re-
assistance. They did not contribute
sults in the poverty of children is
to their condition, and they cannot
the result of social and cultural
POLICY
improve it. But this does not mean
trends, not economic trends.
that a solution to their plight is
Second, the United States pro-
DIRECTIONS
easy or that effective policy inter-
vides a huge amount of assistance
vention is even feasible.
to the poor. Federal, state, and
Morally and economically, as-
local governments spend approx-
sistance to children cannot be
imately $200 billion per year to
evaluated separately from the im-
counter poverty, not counting So-
pact of that assistance on their
cial Security and Medicare. This
families. How assistance affects
massive effort has failed to solve
parental behavior is crucial to
the problem or even avoid deterio-
evaluating the desirability of such
rating trends.
assistance. Both morally and eco-
In fact, the current welfare
nomically, the burden on tax-
system may contribute to the
payers of providing assistance to
problem because it creates incen-
the poor also must be taken into
tives that nurture socially coun-
account. In the end, the most
terproductive behavior.¹ When
promising and just policies may
payments are provided for not
be those that focus on removing
working and for the bearing of
the counterproductive effects of
children by unwed mothers, incen-
prior social-policy interventions.
tives are created to forego work,
Replacing
bear children outside of marriage,
Factors in Poverty
and drop out of school. Withdraw-
Welfare
ing benefits as income rises cre-
Three factors must be recog-
ates an effective tax on the poor
with Work
nized before sound policies to
that further discourages efforts to
address childhood poverty can be
seek training and work.
developed. First, children do not
Analysts debate whether these
Peter J. Ferrara
fall into poverty independently.
incentives produce significant
Peter J. Ferrara is an associate pro-
Their poverty is due to the pov-
changes in behavior. At the very
erty of their parents. Moreover,
least, the system provides the
fessor at George Mason University
poverty in America today is gener-
resources that allow the social and
School of Law and a Senior Fellow
at the Cato Institute in Wash-
ally not the result of problems
cultural trends producing poverty
ington, D.C.
with the economy. Rather, it is the
to flourish. Without these re-
result of socially counterproduc-
sources, single women would be
tive behavior on the part of
less likely to bear children without
parents. This behavior includes
fathers to support them. This
having one or more children out
would not be seen as a socially
of wedlock, dropping out of school,
acceptable, viable course of con-
or engaging in drug or alcohol
duct-as it is now in low-income
abuse. Few families in poverty in
communities. The same might be
America include married parents
true of dropping out of high
who have completed high school.
school.
FERRARA: REPLACING WELFARE WITH WORK
61
Charles Murray and others doc-
the new effort. Moreover, policies
their own could use these facilities
ument that as the welfare system
are needed to reverse the coun-
on the same terms. Pregnant
has grown, counterproductive so-
terproductive social behavior that
women would receive 30 days paid
cial and cultural trends have
produces poverty in general and
leave during the last month of
grown as well. In fact, progress
childhood poverty in particular.
pregnancy and 60 days paid
against poverty has been stopped
The most promising approach
maternity leave after birth.
and even reversed at times in the
is to replace the current welfare
Parents who worked at least 20
recent past.²
system with an offer of employ-
hours per week would receive
Third, policies cannot assume
ment-that is, to replace welfare
Medicaid vouchers to purchase
that taxpayers must give carte
with work. The nondisabled poor
health insurance in the private
blanche to the effort. Tax reve-
would not receive assistance with-
sector. The value of these vouch-
nues come at the expense of
out working. Instead, the govern-
ers would be reduced and even-
workers trying to provide for their
ment would contract out to private
tually phased out as income rose.
families and pursue their dreams
employment agencies the respon-
Parents who had found private
with the resources they have
sibility of assigning jobs to appli-
employment would also receive
earned in the marketplace. This
cants. Agencies would first at-
these vouchers. Both groups would
freedom is fundamental to what is
tempt to assign applicants to
also receive the earned income tax
and should be most precious and
private-sector employers, empha-
credit (EITC) under current law,
cherished about American society.
sizing job opportunities that offer
provides a modest supple-
A heavy tax burden will under-
the greatest prospects for perma-
to income for low-wage
mine and perhaps reverse the
nent employment. If private em-
workers.
economic growth on which the
ployment was not available, the
This new system would replace
hope of all citizens depend.
applicant would be given govern-
all current welfare programs for
Taxpayers are able and willing
ment work until private employ-
the able-bodied-including Aid to
to provide a reasonable amount of
ment could be found. The appli-
Families with Dependent Chil-
resources to assist the poor. Pol-
cants would be paid the minimum
dren, food stamps, Medicaid, fed-
icies, however, must recognize
wage for government work but
eral housing assistance, and gen-
limits on the demands that can be
would receive whatever higher
eral assistance. The Supplemental
placed on tax revenues. Proposals
wages employers were willing to
Security Income Program for the
that do not consider these limits
pay for private-sector jobs.
aged, blind, and disabled would
but demand vast new resources,
The government would also
continue. Able-bodied parents who
increase rather than reduce social
contract with the private sector for
refused to take jobs under the new
injustice-and may undermine
day-care facilities for the children
system would be guilty of child
the overall economy as well.
of applicants. Some applicants
abuse and subject to all the
would work in such facilities.
sanctions for such abuse under
Problems and
Children could be provided food,
current law.
Opportunities
medical care, and perhaps cloth-
Education vouchers should also
ing in these facilities. Those who
be adopted as part of this system.4
These three factors provide
made their own arrangements for
The current public-school monop-
clear guidance as to what is
child care could bring their chil-
oly is part of the problem, serving
needed to address childhood pov-
dren to the facilities for these
low-income communities poorly.
erty. First, the current welfare
benefits as well. As income rose,
Vouchers would encourage schools
system is part of the problem and
applicants would pay for this care
to compete to attract students
should be abandoned. Redirecting
on a graduated scale, with the fees
and funds. Choice and the result-
revenues from this system to a
eventually rising to cover full
ing competition tried in some
more effective approach is the
costs. Eligible workers who had
public schools in Harlem in New
best possible revenue source for
found private employment on
York City have had a powerful
62
FORUM FOR APPLIED RESEARCH AND PUBLIC POLICY/SUMMER 1990
effect in improving school quality
ing the effective marginal tax due
mother or the father would have to
and student skills.5
10 the phaseout of the voucher
work to support it and themselves.
and EITC would not have to pay
And they would know that if they
Wage Supplement
income tax as well.
dropped out of school and failed
Impractical
The proposed system maintains
to develop skills, that even with
incentives for expanded work ef-
such work, life would remain
Under the work-for-wages sys-
forts and growth while ensuring
difficult until they entered the
tem proposed above, full-time
that children are not deprived.
private sector and worked their
workers at the minimum wage
The children are offered addi-
way up.
would receive a cash income of
tional food, basic clothing, and
Given such choices, having chil-
approximately $7,500 (counting
medical treatment, besides the
dren out of wedlock would likely
the EITC). An expanded wage
cash incomes earned by their
be less popular and occur less
supplement to bring this income
parents. In addition, parents are
frequently. Unwed mothers would
to the poverty level, as called for
assured of medical care and
not have the alternative that is
by some economists, is imprac-
enough cash assistance to make
seen as an acceptable lifestyle
tical. If such a larger wage supple-
do. Indeed, in two-parent families,
today-being supported by the
ment were phased out with rising
both parents could work, and that
government without work and
income, it would impose a stiff
would generally assure a cash
caring for the children at home.
marginal tax rate on low-income
income at or above the poverty
Unwed fathers might also be less
workers, sharply discouraging ef-
level.
carefree about having children if
forts to climb out of poverty. If the
Many would argue that recip-
they knew someone would have to
wage supplement were phased out
ients should be offered the option
work to provide the needed sup-
more slowly to reduce the effective
of choosing job training instead of
port. High-school dropout rates
marginal tax rate to a level that
work so they can prepare for
may also decline as students
might not seriously impair the rise
better paying jobs. But govern-
would see that if they must work,
out of poverty, then the wage
ment job training has been tried
the only sensible course would be
supplements would have to be
for 30 years and generally has
to develop skills to secure good-
paid at levels high enough to
been ineffective. Such job-train-
paying jobs.
cover most of the population. This
ing options tend to become ex-
For those who are not deterred
would make the subsidy imprac-
cuses for not working, lending to
from such behavior and end up in
tically expensive. It would also
longer periods of dependency.
need, few are likely to remain
extend the effective marginal tax
The best job training has proved
dependent on government jobs for
rate and thus discourage many
to be actual work.
any significant period. These jobs
poor people from seeking work.
The value of the proposed
would require work just as private-
This realization is what ultimately
system is that it creates powerful
sector jobs, but would pay only the
stopped the effort for a guaran-
incentives to change behavior.
minimum wage, with no oppor-
teed annual income in the late
The idea is not to have millions of
tunity to advance. The only sensi-
1970s.
low-income parents working in a
ble course in this case would be to
Phasing out the Medicaid vouch-
government jobs program but to
turn to private employment, where
ers and the EITC would add a
change the behavior that creates
wages can grow and skills can
substantial effective marginal
the need for such assistance and
develop, leading to advancement.
income tax rate to lower income
ultimately to reverse the social
Experience indicates that once
workers; increasing the burden
and cultural trends that foster
entering private-sector employ-
would be counterproductive. In-
such behavior. Under the new
ment, workers soon climb out of
deed, the personal exemption for
system, prospective unwed teen-
poverty. The opportunity for pri-
children should be increased so
age mothers and fathers would
vate employment is there. The
lower income workers experienc-
know that if they had a child, the
economy not only continues to
FERRARA: REPLACING WELFARE WITH WORK
63
show sustained growth, but a
new system sets up a structure
1986, pp. 22-23; Kevin Hopkins, "A
labor shortage is emerging, large-
that encourages them to seek
New Deal for America's Poor,"
Policy Review, Summer 1981,
ly spurred by long-term demo-
private-sector jobs as the only
pp. 70-73.
graphic trends. Moreover, with
path to escape poverty. In the end,
4. For a description of an education
recognition of the reality of re-
the new system should lead to far
choice/voucher system, see Clint
quired work, a new work ethic may
less poverty for children and their
Bolick, "Solving the Education
arise. Again, such incentives could
parents, with far less dependency
Crisis: Market Alternatives and
lead to changes in social and
on government.
Parental Choice," in Beyond the
Status Quo: Policy Proposals for
cultural values, leading to behav-
America, eds. David Boaz and
ioral change.
Edward H. Crane (Washington, DC:
The proposed system, there-
Cato Institute, 1984), pp. 207-222.
fore, aids children in need but
NOTES
5. Sy Fliegel, "Parental Choice in East
also does much more. It offers
1. See, for example, Charles Murray,
Harlem Schools," in Public Schools
hope for cutting back on the
Losing Ground: American Social
by Choice: Expanding Opportuni-
behavior that produces such need
Policy 1950-1980 (New York: Basic
ties for Parents, Students, and Teach-
Books, 1986).
ers, ed. Joe Nathan (St. Paul: The
and for reversing the social and
2. Murray, Ibid.
Institute for Learning and Teach-
cultural trends that promote such
3. Mickey Kaus, "The Work Ethic
ing, 1989), pp. 95-112.
behavior. For those in trouble, the
State," The New Republic, 18 July
Housing Desegregation and Federal Policy
Edited by John M. Goering
"This is the most important book on integration and federal housing policy in a generation. It makes painfully
clear how much we don't know and how far we have to go."-Donna Shalala
356 pp., $40 cloth, $14.95 paper
Housing America's Poor
by Peter D. Salins
"The first scholarly book to recognize that our housing problems are very different today than when classical
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housing problems."-Richard F. Muth
219 pp., $13.95 paper
available at bookstores or from
The University of North Carolina Press
Post Office Box 2288 / Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288
Toll-free orders: 1-800-848-6224
64
FORT M FOR APPLIED RESEARCH AND PUBLIC POLICY SUMMER 1990
BOSTON GLOBE, Sunday, April 21, 1991
A39
A hidden upward tug in the
program will come as the national
Interesting stuff, this: a strategy
The course
exam forces local curricula to con-
that is internally coherent and that
verge upon a core of common learn-
knows its target audience, the
ing. Far from being nervous about
American middle class and the sub-
of education
schools "teaching to the test," the
stantial number of inner-city resi-
Bush team believes that as long as
dents who don't belong to the dis-
exams incorporate the latest re-
couraged underclass but are up-
search on fair and effective testing,
wardly mobile and ready to choose.
MICHAEL J. BARRETT
and focus on key concepts and rea-
No wonder Education Secretary
soning skills, convergence will be
Lamar Alexander has said confident-
eneath those broad strokes
ly of the plan, "There's more than
B
good. After all, they contend, there
on education President
might be hundreds of ways to teach
meets the eye to it, rather than less."
Bush painted on Thursday
math, suited to different teachers
The challenge for Democrats is to
is a genuinely radical
and students, but there are not hun-
wrestle honestly and explicitly with
program - ambitious, new, politically
dreds of valid definitions of what a
the key premises here: convergence
potent and politically daring. Demo-
math student should learn.
toward national standards; a means
crats will focus on the glaring omis-
In terms of detail and substance,
of measuring progress toward these
sion of funding, but we need to look
the plan creates an hourglass effect;
standards; local power in the hands
again: there is more to the education
below the national level, there is a
of parents and teachers, rather than
issue than money, and much in the
long drop to the neighborhoods be-
the local school committee or admin-
president's plan to think about.
fore the plan broadens out again.
istration. The plan will likely find
The Bush team would take the
Here the emphasis is on parental
ready public support, and a healthy
education system and yank it sharp-
choice and school board manage-
period of serious competition over
ly upward and downward at the
ment, and the Buch people act on a
the nation's domestic agenda is final-
same time, creating national stan-
daring assumption; that the typical
ly about to begin.
dards in place of local ones, crafting
parent cares about the individual
However, the plan is not ade-
a role for parents, and leaving the
school his or her child will attend,
quate to bring US education up to
political institutions in the middle -
but doesn't care about the school
international standards.
school committees and central of-
"system" above it. the administra
Even if the net result of Bush's
fices - with much less power and
tors and the school committee.
initiatives was genuine quality within
much less to do.
The lack of public interest cre-
the traditional American school year
The upward tug invites the
ates a political opening for parental-
- a big if - this would not be enough.
schools to discard the bewildering
choice advocates, who regard bu-
Quality learning at 180 days a year
variety of standardized exams in fa-
reaucracy as the deadliest sin any-
will always leave kids short of qual-
vor of a new set of American
how. They argue that the most effec-
ity learning at 240 days (Japan), 230
Achievement Tests. The goal is to
tive schools are liberated from con-
days (Germany) or 220 days (South
create quality and excellence in a
trol up the line, run instead by
Korea). We need quality and time
country with an almost fatally decen-
school-site teams consisting of the
both, and for this the federal govern-
tralized network of schools.
teaching staff and the principal, and
ment will have to do more than fund
The Bush people reason that par-
accountable only to parents - who
pilot programs. We're starting to get
ents must be able to tell how well the
will read the comparative test re-
serious about world-class excellence
local school compares with the
sults, pick up other useful informa-
in education, but we're not there yet.
schools not only in the next neigh-
tion on their own, and then vote with
borhood or town, but also across the
their feet and vouchers.
Michael Barrett is a state senator (D-
state, the country, and eventually
Cambridge).
the world.
Chicago Tribune
5-9-1991
Mike
Royko
In past, life wasn't
a game of chicken
Later, though, he taught himself to read and
write well enough to understand a newspaper
Seeing the Washington riot scenes on televi-
and a racing form. He even got good enough
sion, I assumed that many of the rioters had
at reading and writing and math to keep his
suddenly been overwhelmed by a desperate
own books when he ended his series of careers
craving for fried chicken. That seemed like a
as a cabdriver, a cross-country trucker and a
logical assumption, since they had smashed
milk man to open his own saloon.
their way into a chicken joint and were looting
it of every last wing and drumstick.
Of course, he never lost his accent, so for a
long time he had to tolerate being called a.
It wasn't until later that I discovered that it
"greenhorn" by those who didn't respect his
wasn't chicken they were after. Not at all.
ethnic and cultural background. Actually, he
What they wanted was more bilingual educa-
didn't tolerate it very well, since he had a very
tion in their schools; more police officers who
good left hook and right cross, and nobody
can speak Spanish; better paying jobs and
called him "greenhorn" more than once.
more spacious housing; a more sincere effort
by the rest of us to understand their culture;
I'm not sure if he was frustrated by the gov-
and a greater voice in government, even for
ernment's failure to provide him with better
those who aren't citizens or are here illegally.
housing. As a kid, he lived in dumps. As a
matter of fact, when I was a kid we lived in
I discovered this by reading what various ex-
dumps. Of course, we didn't know they were
perts on what is called the "Hispanic commu-
dumps because nobody told us. They had run-
nity" had to say about the riots.
ning water, indoor toilets and the kerosene
One of them said: "We can't tolerate this
stove kept the place warm. The ceilings didn't
situation no more. We have to let people know
leak and diligent use of rat traps kept the
we are humans and we have rights too."
rodent problem under control. Young Abe
And what better way to do it than to smash
Lincoln never had it so good.
into a chicken joint and make off with all the
Nor was he frustrated because the govern-
chicken?
ment didn't provide him a better job, business
It just shows how dumb my father was, may
loans, student loans or any other form of as-
he rest in peace.
sistance. At the time, about all the government
My father, like many Americans, was an im-
provided was a neighborhood police station,
migrant. He came here alone all the way from
firehouse, public school and garbage collection.
Eastern Europe on an old boat when he was
Anything else, you were on your own.
about 10. His widowed mother preceded him
However, his ethnic group, like many others,
by three years so she could earn some money
built churches and formed fraternal organiza-
and bring him to Chicago.
tions, credit unions and other institutions to
He couldn't speak a word of English. And
help each other out with loans and, in extreme
the insensitive school systems provided no
cases, even charity. But you had to be really
bilingual education. Not for the Poles, Italians,
down on your luck to rate a handout. You
Germans, Russians or any of the other great
didn't qualify just by being a loser.
waves of European immigrants.
I was always proud of the old man, his inde-
Of course it wouldn't have mattered if they
pendence, the way he did it on his own while
had, since he didn't go to school. Times were
overcoming more than a few. handicaps.
tough, so he got a job on a coal barge. Child
But now I realize that he was a sucker. What
labor laws weren't very strict in those days.
he should have done was bust into a chicken
Then he picked up other common labor
joint as a social statement of his discontent.
jobs, whatever he could get, as long as it paid
He could have cut a better deal for the rest
a buck. And by the time WW I broke out, and
of us.
he went in the Army, he could even speak an
On the other hand, he never liked fried
understandable form of broken English. He
chicken. He said it was better in soup with
couldn't read or write, but the Army didn't
noodles. Stretched a meal better.
care so long as he could aim a rifle.
The Bottom Line/Christopher Byron
LAWSUIT
Richord
Pate
J'
FEVER
ties wanting to redress a
before the parties ever got to trial. But
wrong or press a com-
over the years, it has been the discovery
plaint. But beginning in
process itself that has driven up costs, as
the sixties, theories of ju-
lawyers have seized upon it to send their
dicial activism got out of
fees into orbit.
hand, as misguided
Olson quotes a typical horror story
judges made it far too
from Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, house
easy for plaintiffs to start
lawyer to IBM while the company was in
suits on fanciful claims,
the eleventh year of defending itself in an
then bombard defendants
antitrust action. Katzenbach complains
and third-party witnesses
that lawyers for another company in the
with "discovery" orders
suit deposed IBM's chairman for 45
seeking evidence later
straight days on such subjects as the date
on.
when he became the boss, the square foot-
"Over the years, we've
age of IBM's plant in Poughkeepsie, and
made it easier to get into
the address of the corporate offices in
court," says Paul J.
Westchester.
Bschorr, a partner at New
What's to be done? The best way to halt
York's White & Case,
the proliferation of suits also happens to
who heads the American
be the most obvious: Adopt the so-called
Bar Association's section
English Rule, which is followed not just in
on litigation. "But at least
Britain but in most other civilized coun-
with respect to discovery
tries. Basically, the rule allows a success-
matters, I'd say yes, we've
ful defendant in a lawsuit to recover his
gone too far."
legal costs from the party that sued him-
AN AMERICAN DILEMMA: Writer Walter K. Olson.
According to Olson,
a formula certain to discourage plaintiffs
we've in fact gone way
from filing close-call suits in the first
IS LITIGATION CRIPPLING BUSINESS?
too far, turning Americans by the millions
place.
into people who don't want to step out the
Trial lawyers have fought the adoption
A QUICK CANTER THROUGH LAST WEEK'S
door without first checking with a lawyer.
of the English Rule for years. But Olson
business pages uncovered some inter-
In divorce and parental-custody battles,
says there are still plenty of things that can
esting factoids about the legal profes-
the evil genie of litigation now "seizes on
be done in the meantime. Take punitive-
sion and what it is doing to American
former love and intimacy as raw materials
damage awards in civil trials, which have
business.
to be transmuted into hatred and es-
by now become more ruinous than the
In San Francisco, clever lawyering may
trangement." In business, "it clogs and
worst criminal fines on the statute books.
enable the inventor of the waterbed to col-
jams the gears of commerce." In tort ac-
Olson argues that states should follow the
lect more than $2.8 billion in damages as
tions, "it torments the provably innocent
lead of Colorado and scrap the civil law's
a result of a $4.8-million patent-infringe-
and rewards the palpably irresponsible."
"preponderance of the evidence" rule-
ment award. In New York, investors have
Litigation has become, Olson asserts,
which he defines as "50 percent plus a
begun grabbing for the stock of a small
"the special American burden, the one
smidgen."
and floundering real-estate and gas-meter
feature hardly anyone admires of a soci-
In its place, Olson would like to see
company as word has gotten around that
ety that is otherwise envied the world
something closer to the "beyond reason-
the firm stands to collect $1.8 billion in a
around."
able doubt" standard that prevails in
lawsuit against three large and prosperous
Olson argues that one of the key areas
criminal trials.
trucking companies.
of abuse involves so-called pretrial discov-
Any judge with guts and common sense
Stories like these are why a book to be
ery-the subpoenaing of documents from
should also prevent so-called expert wit-
published later this month by Walter K.
adversaries and the taking of sworn testi-
nesses from bringing their testimonial
Olson of the Manhattan Institute (The Lit-
mony in depositions. Courts in other
"junk evidence" into the courtroom. Hir-
igation Explosion; Dutton) will be en-
countries keep such evidence-gathering
ing these traffickers in pseudo-facts nor-
joyed by any businessman who hates law-
techniques under tight control. But Amer-
mally has no other purpose than to make a
yers. It's become a familiar complaint that
ican courts have let them expand to the
shaky case appear convincing to gullible
the "lawsuit industry" is crippling U.S.
point of recklessness.
jurors-while forcing the other side to
büsiness. But Olson's book, if amusingly
"I've been a lawyer for 26 years," says
bring in its own parade of counter-
one-sided, is by far the best account yet
David Samson, co-chairman of the ABA's
phonies.
available on how things got that way-
Pretrial Practice and Discovery section,
Many of Olson's ideas will be familiar
and what to do about it.
"and I can say from my own experience
to lawyers and informed laymen alike. But
Olson argues that America has gone
that discovery work has become more ex-
he argues them with an elegance, wit, and
suit-happy because, quite simply, it has
pansive and cumbersome."
understated passion that is a delight to en-
"deregulated" the lawsuit business. Un-
Originally, the idea behind discovery
counter. So buy this book, read it, then
like Britain's courts, which also have a
was to lower the cost of litigation by en-
give it to a lawyer; if nothing else, it will
common-law tradition, those in the U.S.
abling lawyers to find out the facts of
show him or her what good writing is all
have always been widely available to par-
cases earlier, thus encouraging settlement
about.
20
NEW YORK/APRIL 15, 1991
Photograph by Robin Holland.
'Privatization' would be far-reaching
Weld plan for companies to take over programs could reshape government
By Scot Lehigh
surveyed reported savings, while 45
"We are definitely seeing a trend
E.S. Savas, chairman of the man
GLOBE STAFF
percent thought the quality of the
toward privatization in a major
agement deparment at the City Uni-
work was significantly improved.
way," said Jack Nicholson, special
versity of New York, Baruch Col-
If Gov. Weld pursues "privatiza-
If Weld decides to privatize some
industry consultant for Arthur D.
lege, and an acknowledged expert on
tion" plans currently under consider-
state functions, he can count on op-
Little Inc., the. Cambridge-based
privatization, says a well-designed
ation within the administration,
position from public employee
consulting firm. "It is driven by the
privatization program cuts costs by
Massachusetts state government
unions, based on other states' ex-
need for more efficient use of the
infusing former public-sector func-
would undergo a radical transforma-
periences. He may also face opposi-
money and increased specialization
tions with private-sector incentives.
tion, with private companies taking
tion:from a Legislature reluctant to
in the industries affected."
over dozens of functions now per-
give up control.
"Competition versus monopoly"
formed by traditional governmental
But if he succeeds, he will pre-
Based on a preliminary study
"The great advantage of privati-
bureaucracies.
side over a dramatically altered gov-
done by Arthur D. Little, Nicholson
zation is that when it is done right
State parks would be privately
ernment.
said he expects the number of priva-
Some of the biggest changes
tized functions will triple by the end
you introduce competition, and that
managed, state prisons privately
is the best and most proven way of
would take place in the Department
of the decade.
run, the state's roads privately main-
of Correction, where the state would
improving the delivery of govern-
tained and plowed, and court fees
Nicholson. whose recommenda-
ment services," Savas said.
seek private companies to run "pris-
would be privately collected. It is
tions 15 years ago resulted in Lou-
Moffitt echoes those sentiments.
on operations and maintenance" and
possible that the Massachusetts Bay
provide inmate health care. Private
siana turning the Superdome over to
"The issue is not public versus pri-
Transportation Authority and Logan
operators would also be sought for
private management, said that usual
vate," he says. "It is competition ver-
Airport could be run by private
targets for privatization are "things
sus monopoly."
the corrections boot camp Weld has
firms.
talked about establishing for some
that generate revenue easily: sports
Savas says privatized govern-
Those and other privatization
juvenile offenders. The juvenile de-
arenas, space centers, golf courses."
ment functions result in average
possibilities are contained in an in-
tention. centers currently operated
costs savings of about 25 percent
ternal planning document obtained
by the Department of Health and
Tougher tasks
"for the same level and quality of
by the Globe last week.
Human Services would also be priva-
But other efforts have gone fur-
services."
Asked about the document last
tized, as would the management of
ther. According to a 1991 report on
But that hardly means Weld can
week, Mark Robinson, Weld's chief
state hospital inventory.
privatization by Reason Foundation
expect whatever proposals he makes
of staff, called it "a first step toward
The Department of Labor's em-
of Santa Monica, Calif., states have
to breeze through the Legislature
ployment and training functions
turned over prisons, roads, and so-
without a fight. The Reason Founda-
what Gov. Weld meant by smaller
government doing fewer things bet-
would be privatized, and the Indus-
cial service programs to private com-
tion study found that public employ-
ter," but said more extensive study
trial Accidents Board, which reviews
panies to run.
ee unions' objections are a signifi-
will have to be done before any final
worker compensation claims, would
That report says that 11 states,
cant barrier to taking functions pri-
have its arbitration functions and
led by Florida, Tennessee, and Tex-
vate, while Chi says a governor pro-
decisions are made about which
as, now have privately run jails or
functions to try to privatize.
penalty collections contracted out. In
posing privatization programs can
Still, Robinson said he thinks the
the area of the environment, private
prisons. "At least three of the pri-
expect opposition from those fearing
companies would take over manage-
vately operated facilities are maxi-
loss of jobs and loss of state control.
administration will end up pushing
many of the proposals, most of which
ment of state parks and recreation
mum-security institutions, debunk--
"The biggest opponents are pub-
facilities, fine and fee collections, and
ing the perception that the private
lic employee unions, who unneces-
would require enabling legislation.
some training functions.
sector only takes on easy, low-risk
enrily lear loss of jobs and elimina-
"I think you will see a number of
Court fees would be privately
jobs," the report says.
tion of untons," Savas said. "But that.
these ideas become reality," he said.
collected, while private firms, rather
Dr. Keon Chi, a senior fellow at
is not the case at all." In most cases:
"The governor and lieutenant gover-
than the Board of Bar Overseers,
the Council for State Governments
he has studied, Savas says, wages
nor want to change the face of state.
would be responsible for administer-
in Lexington, Ky., says the experi-
were not cut and in some cases the
government and not just to downsize:
ing the har exam. The Massachu-
ence of turning prisons over to pri-
private firm actually paid more than.
but also to make it better and more:
setts Health and Educational Facili-
vate management has basically been
the public sector.
efficient."
ties Authority be authorized to float
positive. "In some cases you can find
Although work forces in priva-
Chief Secretary John Moffitt, the
bonds for scholarship funds.
some problems, but despite the rhet-
tized areas were generally smaller,
point man on the privatization pro-
orie from opponents, in my opinion
that dimunition was usually achieved
ject, said Weld would be "looking at
Gathering momentum
privatization has been used very suc-
through attrition rather than large
all that and more. I think there are
Under a category of "additional
cessfully," Chi said.
layoffs. All that leads Savas to con-
substantial areas in government that
privatization possibilities," the docu-
More and more, privatization in-
clude that "the concern about job
could be privatized to the benefit of
ment lists general possibilities for
volves functions once thought to be
loss is exaggerated."
the taxpayer."
privatization that would mean even
part of government's core responsi-
The idea behind privatization is
larger changes. That list includes
bilities. For example, John Stain-
that the private sector can more effi-
"airports, rail lines, convention cen-
back, president of Privatization In-
ciently provide many services now
ters, recreation facilities, seaports,
ternational, a New York City firm
performed by the state. In a time of
waste dispoal plants, and inciner-
that specializes in privatization, is
Boston Globe
strapped revenues, privatization
ators."
currently working on a plan under
Specific facilities are not singled
which a private firm would build a
4-29-91
holds the prospect of saving tax dol-
lars or providing more services for
out in the document, but Robinson
$60 million toll road linking four Mis-
the same amount of money.
acknowledged the administration
sissippi communities to the Jackson
A survey done by Mercer Group,
will explore privatizing the MBTA
International Airport.
an
Atlanta-based management con-
and commuter rail systems, as well
"Most governments really cannot
sulting firm, shows that other areas
as the Massachusetts Port Author-
afford to maintain the needed publici
have been pleased with their experi-
ity.
facilities and services and infrastruc-:
ments with privatization. That sur-
The administration's list touches
ture, and at the same time, they:
vey. found that 97 percent of the
on an especially wide array of gover-
can't continue to raise taxes," Stain-
cities and 99 percent of counties that
ment functions, but the direction is
back said. "That can't always be the
had tried privatization liked the re-
one any number of state and local
answer. So we believe that privatiza-
sults. All the government entities
governments are pursuing.
tion is the answer."
BUSH SEES THREAT
New York Times
TO FLOW OF IDEAS
5-5-91
ON U.S. CAMPUSES
WARNING ON FREE SPEECH
'Political Correctness' Notion
Gives Rise to Intolerance,
that Americans should be alarmed at
"This crusade backfired," he said of
He Says in Michigan
the rise of intolerance and bigotry but
President Lyndon Johnson's "Great
that they should also be alarmed at the
Society" program to fight poverty.
"growing tendency to use intimidation
"Programs designed to insure racial
By MAUREEN DOWD
rather than reason in settling dis-
harmony generated animosity, Pro-
putes."
grams intended to help people out of
Special to The New York Times
poverty invited dependency. We should
ANN ARBOR, Mich, May 4 - In a
'Division and Derision'
have learend that while the ideals be-
commencement address at the Univer-
"Neighbors who disagree no longer
hind the Great Society were noble, and
sity of Michigan today, President Bush
settle matters over a cup of coffee," he
indeed they were, the programs
attacked what he called the "notion of
said. "They hire lawyers and go to
weren't always up to the task."
'political correctness," saying it had
court. Political extremists roam the
Mr. Bush has himself been attacked
led to "inquisition," "censorship" and
land, abusing the privilege of free
over the issues of free speech and divi-
"bullying" on some college campuses.
speech, setting citizens against one an-
siveness to which he devoted most of
In a speech devoted to three "free-
other on the basis of their class or race.
today's speech. In 1989, critics com-
doms" - "enterprise, speech and
Such bullying is outrageous. It's not
plained that he was interfering with the
spirit" the President joined a grow-
worthy of a great nation grounded in
Bill of Rights when he proposed a con-
ing political backlash against the idea
the values of tolerance and respect. Let
stitutional amendment against burning
that free speech should be subordi-
us fight back against the boring politics
or destroying the American flag. And
nated to the civil rights of women and
of division and derision."
in the 1988 campaign, he and his cam-
"Political correctness" originated as
paign manager, Lee Atwater, were ac-
minority members.
an ironic term for a broad range of gen-
cused of practicing the politics of racial
"Ironically, on the 200th anniversary
erally liberal attitudes, especially in
division with the campaign advertise-
of our Bill of Rights, we find free
support of expanded rights for women,
ments focusing on Willie Horton, a
speech under assault throughout the
minority members and gay people. But:
black convict who raped a white Mary-
United States, including on some col-
it has been seized by many conserva-
land woman. Before Mr. Atwater died
lege campuses," Mr. Bush told an audi-
tives and traditionalists, on campus
this year at the age of 40, he apologized
ence of 8,300 graduates and more than
and off, as a term of derision for those:
for that campaign tactic.
55,000 others gathered in the Univer-
who espouse such attitudes to the ex-1
Though Mr. Bush was heckled today
sity of Michigan football stadium.
clusion of other rights, especially free
by a small group of student protesters
speech.
who opposed the Persian Gulf war, the
Old Prejudices and New
In one celebrated case this academic
response was generally warm. Walter
"The notion of 'political correctness'
year, Brown University expelled a stu-
Harrison, Michigan's executive direc-
dent who shouted racist slurs, touching
has ignited controversy across the
tor for university relations, said the de-
off a debate about freedom of speech
bate over "political correctness" had
land," he said. "And although the
on campus. In New York in March, a
been "engaged here now for the last
movement arises from the laudable de-
City College faculty committee re-
year," and he called the President's
sire to sweep away the debris of rac-
buked two professors, one black and
speech "helpful, to the extent that it
ism, sexism and hatred, it replaces old
the other white, for comments about
opens the discourse on this issue."
prejudices with new ones. It declares
racial superiority; the case raised the
certain topics off-limits, certain ex-
question whether academic freedom
pressions off-limits, even certain ges-
included the right to espouse inflam-
matory teachings and beliefs about
tures off-limits. What began as a cause
for civility has soured into a cause of
race and culture.
conflict and even censorship." Mr.
In a third case, Nina Wu, a sopho-
Bush's speech, his first on an issue that
more at the University of Connecticut,
was ordered to move off campus after
has divided campuses around the na-
gay students protested a sign she had
tion, reflected the influence of his new
posted on her dorm room making fun of
head speech writer, Anthony Snow, a
"preppies," "bimbos," "men without
former editoral writer for The Wash-
chest hair" and "homos." After a Fed-
ington Times, who was hired to bring a
eral lawsuit was threatened, the uni-
harder edge and ideological spirit to
versity let her move back on campus
Mr. Bush's speeches as he moves to-
and revised its code of conduct.
ward the 1992 election.
At Michigan today, the President
White House officials said it fit in to a
said he would focus on "the nature of
freedom," and he praised Americans
pattern of Presidential positions on
like Henry Ford and the Rev. Dr. Mar-
civil rights. For instance, in opposing
tin Luther King Jr. for having the "vi-
the Congressional measure that would
sion" to "transform a world."
have made it easier to sue employers
"When governments try to improve
for job discrimination, Mr. Bush said
on freedom, say by picking winners
the Government should fight bigotry,
and losers in the economic market,
but not if that meant court-imposed
they fail," he said. And he criticized
quotas for women and minority mem-
government programs that "have tried
to assume roles once reserved for
bers.
At Michigan today, Mr. Bush said
families and schools and churches."
THE
HERITAGE
LECTURES
Black Hostages of
the Child Welfare
310
System:
Strategies for
True Reform
By Robert Woodson, Sr.
The
Heritage Foundation
children in foster care limbo for very long. So children were expeditiously placed back with
their parents, adopted, or placed with relatives.
State Funds, State Regulations. But something interesting happened during the 1930s
and 1940s. When the problem grew, and the local foster care institutions entered the state
economy, receiving funds from the state, they had to comply with the systems and regula-
tions that were being developed out of schools of social work. So they began to
professionalize the whole institution of child care. As a consequence, there are a number of
church agencies who care for children under contract to the state, what is called "purchase
of service agreements." They receive monies, not for the number of children that they place
in permanent homes, but for the number of children that they maintain in the foster care
system. And so many of these institutions are church in name only, but not church by the
way of function.
Where is the lion's share of the money then that goes for the maintenance of these
children in the foster care system? There were several studies - one of the best was by Har-
rison Golden, Comptroller of New York, that revealed only 3 to 5 percent of the children
entering the foster care system had personal problems. Their problems were crises within
the family, either poverty, abandonment, or neglect. But as the children came into the sys-
tem, and before they were nine years old experiencing between three and five moves from
one foster home to the next, they suffered a dramatic decline in their social and psychologi-
cal functioning. The system's policies discouraged bonding between the foster parent and
the child because it was believed that since the intention was the child would be there only
for a temporary period, it was necessary to make sure that the child did not bond with the
foster parents. And so as soon as a close relationship developed, the agency would move the
child. As a consequence, the child began to become dysfunctional.
The Golden study, and others, reveal that only 3 to 5 percent of the kids entering the sys-
tem had problems themselves, but after three to five moves they began to decline in their
social functioning to the point that 30 percent of them who remained in the system in excess
of five years and experienced more than four moves ended up in prison. There they are
being cared for at excessive cost, and there they have become dysfunctional. And so let us
look at this system from a perspective of the various players to find out what happened.
Out of Control. I really believe that one of the primary problems is that we have a system
out of control. Those of you who have been following the story about the foster care system
in Washington, D.C., will know that the same study done ten years ago revealed exactly the
same problem. And a similar study done fifteen to twenty years ago revealed exactly the
same problem. The only thing that has changed is that the children are being damaged
more and that it's costing taxpayers more dollars. And I want to talk about why and what we
can do to change it. Because I do not celebrate problems or victimization. I talk about solu-
tions, and I think it's incumbent upon all of us to begin to demand of speakers who come
before us not just to celebrate the problem but to talk about what should be done to ad-
dress the problem.
So as we look at the system today, we have about a half-million children in the foster care
system, in limbo. Over half of those youngsters are black. And even with the kind of
reforms that have been instituted over the past seven or eight years, the result has been in-
creasing numbers of black youngsters coming into the system. The lion's share of the
money, 80 percent, about two or three billion dollars, does not go for the direct care and
feeding of the children but for administration and services, salaries to social workers. And
so who are victims of this? The foster parents.
2
Foster parents are the ones who provide the primary care for the kids. They don't have
vacations, they don't have sick leave, they don't have any benefits, and some of them
receive as little as twelve and fifteen dollars per day. Even though the agency may be receiv-
ing $25,000 per child per year, little of that money finds its way into the homes of foster
parents. In one sense, foster parents subsidize the state for the care of children. And as a
consequence, foster parents burn out. Their resources are exhausted as they have to spend
their own resources to care for these children who are locked in the system.
Foster Parent Victims. If you look around the state, as we did, and inquire how much it
costs to board a dog or a cat per day, you will find that we pay more to board a dog or a cat
than we pay to board a child. In some cases, the amount of money that the agency receives
each year goes up, but that money does not get passed down to the foster parents. So foster
parents are victims. Sure, there are some foster parents who are abusive, but certainly, the
majority of them care for the children out of a considerable love for them.
Also, the parents are victims, particularly the parents who voluntarily allow their children
to go into the system. Now, we are told all these boarder babies are backlogged because
caseloads are so high, because we do not have enough workers per clients. In fact you have
to ask yourself if this is the case, why do we have a reluctance on the part of social work
agencies to release children when there are bona fide parents ready to take them back? One
case we brought to the attention of President Reagan. We sat him across the table from a
woman from Wilmington, Delaware, who was on welfare and who had needed an opera-
tion. And so the social worker had persuaded her to sign commitment of her two children
to the foster care system until she was recovered.
Within six weeks, she returned home ready to receive her children. Then they said to her,
"According to the rules of foster care, the home you live in is inadequate because you need
a two-bedroom house." She said, "Wait a minute, this is what I had before the children
left." They said, "We're sorry." It took her and an attorney two years before she could get
her children back.
Another problem of the foster care system is they tell us that they do not have people will-
ing to adopt these children. And as a consequence, they languish in foster care. So we
looked around. We found, according to the Golden study, that ten years ago New York City
had around 37,000 children in various forms of foster care, and that only 5,000 children ever
found their way out to adoptive permanent homes. This was precisely the same number of
children that came into the system each year. New York law required children who are
legally free for adoption to be photo-listed so that prospective parents would know about
children who were waiting. And so they were required by law to photo-list every child legal-
ly free for adoption.
Well, the Comptroller found in New York City only 25 percent of the children legally
free for adoption were ever even referred to the adoption exchange. While thousands of
parents were turned away, they said, "We don't have children for you to adopt."
Always Restictions. Other barriers that these agencies impose are the requirements for
people who are seeking to adopt. Either they are too old, too young, too disabled - there
are always restrictions. I am 53 years old. I have four children, two of them are under the
age of eleven years. I could not under existing adoption laws walk into an agency and adopt
my two younger children. But I can biologically have two children.
You also have a conflict between agencies within the state itself. For instance, the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services encourages states and provides grants for them to
recruit black parents. So the agencies are encouraged to recruit black parents because of
3
the backlog of kids in the system. All right. Then, when they print their brochures and con-
tact the black community, the Office of Civil Rights within Health and Human Services
says, "You'll be violating the civil rights laws which prohibit you from referring to race in
the recruitment and placement of a child." So the agency says, "Well, what do I do? If I take
the money just to satisfy the problem on one hand, I'll be in violation of civil rights laws."
And so this conflict continues to exist today.
I sat across the table from the person who runs the Civil Rights office and the person who
runs the Child Welfare Family Preservation Office. I said, "Well, is there a solution?" They
said, "No, we're just doing our jobs." But that's the kind of craziness that is employed.
"Informal Adoption." Another problem is the groups that are the strongest lobbyists are
the ones that get some of the children. For instance, we are told that blacks don't adopt, yet
surveys conducted by Dr. Robert B. Hill on informal adoption, found that there are 3 mil-
lion children being cared for each year by non-relatives in what they call "informal
adoption." Even though blacks are only 12 percent of the U.S. population, we care for 1.1
million children, or one-third of the children who are being cared for are being cared for in
the black community. Without the benefit of welfare, without the benefit of any financial in-
centives at all, blacks tend to care for children in higher proportion than do whites or any
other group.
Now, if the question is if we do this informally without any financial support, then why are
we reluctant to care for the kids who are in the formal system? And the reasons are both
policies and customs. Sometimes customs and practices have a much more profound impact
than laws. And customarily we look for Ozzie and Harriet or the Waltons as the model for
an adoptive family. That does not fit even many white families today.
And yet that is precisely the model that we have in mind when we are recruiting
youngsters. The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, that is Bob Hill, conducted
what we call a "black pulse," where we sent researchers out. Researchers in this case were
community people who were trained to do interviews of their peers. We canvased 3,000
households. That is about an 80 percent sample size. And we asked people self-help ques-
tions. We found that 30 percent of all blacks in America expressed an interest in either
adopting a child or taking in a child. That means for every child in the formal foster care sys-
tem, there are about 24 families willing to take him in. Question: then why do we have this
problem?
As I indicated, the rules and regulations prevent these children from getting into these
families. There were, in the State of Indiana, for instance, 180 black parents on a waiting
list, and a white homosexual male couple filed a lawsuit saying that they had a right to be
parents. They were allowed to adopt a 14-year-old black boy while 180 black parents lan-
guished on a waiting list.
The State of Massachusetts has a struggle going on where the "gay rights" people are
saying that they have a right to be foster parents and a right to adopt. It is our contention
that children have a right to parents, but not all people have a right to be parents of adopted
kids or even foster parents.
And so as a consequence of these political struggles, the red herring of trans-racial adop-
tion is dragged across the trail. I was on the Oprah Winfrey show August 15, and the whole
theme was, is it not better for black babies to be placed in the homes of white couples if the
alternative is long-term institutional care? I said, "Yes, if that were the only option." But
that is not the only option. There are thousands of black parents willing to adopt. Chicago,
for example, some years ago had an aggressive campaign to recruit black parents. Eight
4
hundred couples responded. But after a year, only two couples found their way through the
bureaucracy and through the red tape to obtain children.
So, many of those people who are turned away become discouraged because they don't
blame the system for the problem, they believe that they are unworthy to adopt children.
And, as a consequence, they don't come in. And I'm saying to you that as long as the per-
verse incentives exist where millions of dollars are going into agencies to maintain children
in the limbo of foster care, this problem will never change. Let me just read to you, by way
of example, of the kind of pain that people experience. And this is typical of people who are
seeking children and being turned away by the system that says it cannot find black couples.
This woman writes - she saw me on the Oprah Winfrey show:
I'm not certain how to spell your name, I saw you on the Oprah
show, but I would like more information concerning black families
adopting black children. We are a military officer family, married 19
years. We have a daughter 17 and a son 15. We have wanted to adopt
for years and not made much progress. We've been asked what our
religion was, how old we are, how much income we have, why we want
more children when we have two already, if we get along with our
families, how much we weigh, what are our fantasies, how many
bathrooms do we have, how we discipline, what year and make our car
is, who are our neighbors, what references we have, our credit
standing, et cetera.
We have a stable family and income, good education, good career
progression. My husband has his master's from Catholic University
and is currently living in the Salt Lake City area because of military
orders. What can be done about families like ours? We had a home
study done in October 1988. We applied for a child in June 1990 and
they were not - they would not submit our home study because they
said it was not current. The only thing that has changed is our income.
It has increased.
We are all one year older, the cars and trucks are nearly paid off, we
completed a full bathroom in the basement - so now we have three.
My husband was promoted to major in January. We have plenty of
experience with children. I am trained as a children's librarian. I have
worked for years as a substitute teacher, K through 6. I have done
volunteer work with Scouts, Cubs, Brownies, Girl Scouts, tap, ballet,
flute, violin, T-ball, soccer, room mother, PTA, youth center, child
care center, worked in preschool, have volunteered at an emergency
shelter for the homeless with children the last ten years. We have
license in Alaska, Virginia, and now Utah. We have worked at our
church, as well.
When there are qualified homes that identify themselves and want
children, why are they turned away? And when you mention the
business of adoption and foster care, how can these children find
homes? If you have any information you can send us, I'd appreciate it
so much because we desperately want children.
This is typical of what you will find of people desirous of children. And yet we are told,
"We cannot find children." The problem is that just as long as we have the kind of disincen-
5
tives for placing children in stable homes, as long as an industry exists, we will have this
problem. And even some of the caring social workers who work for the system are victims
of it. The foster care system is like a nuclear reactor. It feeds on its own fuel. No one's in
charge of it. It has a budget that is open ended. The more expenses the system incurs, the
more taxpayers pay. So until we address this fundamental problem, it will not go away. Now,
what can be done?
Seeking Success. What we propose, what we do at the National Center is to seek success.
You have to go out and search. As we often do. We don't think you can learn anything from
studying failure except how to create it. And therefore we looked throughout the country
for examples of where people were caring for kids. And we found that in Detroit homes for
black children were being provided. Twenty years ago they challenged some of these prac-
tices and established a black adoption agency in the black community that operated on
weekends, saw people at night. They reduced the study period from two years to six months.
Their approach is "Is adoption the best decision for you?" not whether you qualify.
And as a consequence of this very caring outreach, they placed more children in one year
than the public and private agencies combined, all thirteen of them, did in one year. They
placed 900 kids over ten years, which meant that they closed down the entry-care units at
the two public hospitals and a maternity home because there was no need for these facilities
with babies with nets over them because they had expeditiously placed kids in new homes.
And, as a consequence, they transformed some of the practices of the other agencies.
Now, when attempts were made to replicate this throughout the country, and they tried to
go through some of the existing agencies, they were resisted. The only other successful
replication of it was here in Washington where Homes for Black Children started about six
or seven years ago with the same results that they had in Detroit. But it was an appendage
of an existing agency. So the more success they realized, the more resistance they got from
the D.C. adoption community. Though they were able to place more black children than all
the other twelve adoption agencies, the regulators increased the homes' responsibility
without increasing their staff. And now the United Way says to them, "You have to charge a
fee." Black people have a strange response to paying for children. You know, there's a rich
history of that. And so we have a problem with that.
Nevertheless, the city council agreed about four years ago to raise their fees from $3,700
to about $5,000. Some of the other adoption agencies charge $10,000 and $15,000. So if a
black baby is available for adoption in Washington, the D.C. adoption community will not
ask if the placement is in the best interests of the child, but what is in the best interests of
the agency that can realize a fee. So if there's a white couple in Minnesota on a farm who
can pay $10,000, then that child is off to Minnesota and not in a home of a janitor whose
husband works at the Post Office, who cannot pay that kind of fee. So money drives this sys-
tem.
In conclusion, what should be done?
Challenging Conservatives. I think it is unfortunate - and this is my message to conserva-
tives - that the lawsuits being filed in Washington, D.C., in the past twenty years had to
come from the American Civil Liberties Union. Where are the conservative legal think
tanks? Where are the conservative legal institutions? Why aren't they out there, filing law-
suits on behalf of some of these children? Why aren't they getting involved? It is the failure
of conservative legal institutions to address issues that are important to poor people that
makes it difficult for them to speak out on issues of civil rights or social policy in general.
They do not earn the legitimacy to do that.
6
And I am challenging my conservative colleagues to go back to some of the legal institu-
tions and let them begin to address some of these problems of foster care where the states
are destroying children. The remedies that the ACLU and Washington are seeking will
never solve the problem. The remedies I am hearing about are putting more money into the
system to reduce caseloads and hiring more social workers for the existing system. I don't
want the foster care system to be efficient. I want it to change. And the only way you're
going to change it is to take the placement authority away from those bureaucrats in the
foster care system and establish it in churches.
Challenging the System. I am recommending that Homes for Black Children be imple-
mented throughout the black community in churches, that the state then confer authority
on those churches to place the children, that the state be required to refer all children that
are adoptable to these church-related organizations, that they roll up their sleeves. We have
150 black organizations that expend $3 million each year at conferences around the country
on various spurious issues. I am suggesting that part of those 150 black organizations tax
themselves $10 a year for their annual dues that will go into a Homes for Black Children
foundation and that this money then can be used to support those churches. For as long as
adoption agencies have to depend upon state financing, they'll have to conform to the state
rules. So I'm saying this is an opportunity for the black community to stand up and help it-
self on an issue that is critical to its own future. Since 60 percent of the people who are
homeless in New York have aged out of the foster care system, so this is an opportunity for
the black community to help itself and do something specific and concrete to address a very
critical problem. And then once that is done, we can see a decline in the number of foster
care kids as they go into stable homes.
This would also have major implications for reducing the deficit. Because if you look at
the number of kids in care, the costs are staggering. They go far beyond the $2 billion or $3
billion that we spend directly, because as those children go out and commit crimes, we pay
far more than the $2 billion. So I'm suggesting that we can reduce that problem by having
the black community take responsibility to challenge this system. But the only time that we
hear from some of our leaders is when the Klan comes to town.
And so I'm saying we have to roll up our sleeves and recognize that no one is going to do
more for you than you're willing to do for yourself. We have to see that this is a problem
that is apolitical, that needs to be solved. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of con-
servatives playing a critical role in this because you don't have proprietary interests that are
similar to those of the ACLU and others. Therefore, I think you are freer to make and sup-
port recommendations that will empower the black church and the black institutions to take
control of this one particular issue. Then I think when society sees some activity in this area,
you will have increased credibility to talk in other areas as well.
7
THE
HERITAGE
LECTURES
Children and
Family:
309
Do They Face a
Hostile
Environment
In the 1990s?
By Constance Horner
The
T
Heritage Foundation
When Vaclav Havel was in opposition for all those years, he was nonetheless a very strong
leader. Something he called for during that time became almost a talisman of his move-
ment. He called for "naming good and evil." Those who were underground were not
permitted action - it was not safe to take action - but they were permitted intellectual liber-
ty among themselves to "name good and evil."
Finding the Courage. Now Havel is empowered to govern because when it was hard, he
told truths, he named good and evil. Conservatives in America have increasingly found the
courage in the face of disapprobation also to name good and evil. We have had a substantial
effect on the culture by saying something is evil, something is good, something is missing
that is good, something is here that is evil.
Now, enjoying some acceptance, we must not stop doing that; we must not yield to the
temptation to be polite. We must not stop prophesying. We need to continue to name good
and evil, even as our ideas take hold where they have been opposed.
Especially we must name some things that are good and evil in the lives of American
children.
There are some good things that adults must give children, but too often don't - things
that we should require public policy, especially economic policy, as well as private culture
to support.
Here are some of these things - not a comprehensive list - but some important things
that children need today. They may seem obvious, but until recently, it was difficult for
public officials to cite them.
Ancient Rules. First, it is good for children is to have a mother and father married and
living together in the home. Second, it is good for children to spend time with their parents,
a lot of time, in a relaxed and ordered environment. Third, it is good for children to be
watched over by an attentive community of adults in the neighborhood. Fourth, it is good
for children is to learn the practices of religious belief. Fifth, it is good for children to be
taught to aspire toward an ideal in human conduct, and to expect to be held responsible for
trying to achieve that ideal.
There are ancient rules about how to live that worked for millennia and still work where
they're applied. We don't teach those rules anymore. We have to start teaching them again.
We need to teach these kinds of rules: honor thy father and thy mother, get married before
you have children, don't eat undercooked pork, carry a handkerchief.
The whole range of wisdom from the highest spiritual considerations to the mundane is-
sues of hygiene needs to be taught. This wisdom is not a naturally occurring phenomenon; it
is hard won by centuries of human experience and transmitted from parent to child, by
great book to teacher to student, from preacher to parishioner - in all those ways of historic
transmission that we now so little avail ourselves of.
We no longer learn enough from history, from literature, from human experience, and we
also learn them from enduring religious teaching.
In recent years where have we looked for the truth? Where has our elite looked for the
truth? We have looked for the truth in social science, especially in the public policy realm.
Now social science is beginning to produce some findings consistent with traditional teach-
ing, and we should be grateful for that. Perhaps we have indeed caused the right questions
to be asked and the right kinds of searches to be made in the social sciences. It is good to
2
have one's traditional teachings validated by the findings of social science because it gives
them a kind of acceptance they otherwise might not have.
Weak Reed. But relying on the social sciences for our truth about how to live and how to
raise our children is counting on a very weak reed; they can blow with the wind of intellec-
tual fashion. They should be a rhetorical tool for us, but not our main source of truth.
That being said, let's look at what social science is telling us about what's good for
children. Let's look at the reinvented wheel.
What does social science tell us about having a mother and father in the home? The com-
mon denominator to the problems that are plaguing our youth today is not just race or just
poverty; it is family structure.
While there are conditions and behavior patterns that make for family success regardless
of family structure, study after study has shown that the presence of both a mother and a
father greatly enhances the life chances of children.
Our country now has the highest rate of single parent households of all industrialized na-
tions. In 1988, more than one in five U.S. households with dependent children was headed
by a single parent - one in five. This is quite a dramatic change since 1960 when the figure
was fewer than one in ten. Nowhere is the trend more apparent than in the black com-
munity, where 70 percent of children spend at least part of their childhood living with one
parent.
We have heard in recent years a good deal of talk about the feminization of poverty.
Michael Novak, of the American Enterprise Institute, has correctly captured another aspect
of this problem when he refers to the "masculinization of irresponsibility" in talking about
the problems single parenthood inflicts on children.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a longtime student of this issue, has said that problems of
children in the United States, are overwhelmingly associated with the strength and
stability of their families. Our problems do not reside in nature, nor are they fundamentally
economic. Our problems derive from behavior."
Grim Future. Now here's what social science tells us it means to be a child missing a
parent. If you're missing a parent, you are more likely to drop out of school and less likely
to attend college. You are more likely to be a teen parent; you are more likely to form a
single parent family yourself, either through marital breakup or out-of-wedlock birth. You
have a higher rate of drug abuse and criminal activity - 70 percent of incarcerated youth did
not live with both parents when growing up. You are more likely than any other children to
be poor. Whereas only one out of ten children from two-parent families is poor in any year,
one out of two children in female-headed households is poor.
From 1980 to 1988, there was a 51 percent increase in out-of-wedlock births: two out of
three black babies were born to unmarried women, one out of three Hispanic babies and
one out of five white babies. Today approximately one out of every four babies is born to an
unwed mother - that is more than a million babies a year.
If you are a child living with a mother who has never married, you are most at risk. Two
out of three of you are poor. This is due in part to the low level of financial support from
men who father children outside marriage. Only 17 percent of never-married women
receive any child support from the absent father. While two out of three black children
living with a mother alone were poor in 1987, only 20 percent of black children living with a
married mother and father were poor - a big difference.
3
The trend is similar for Hispanic children - 70 percent of those who lived with a mother
only were poor, compared to 30 percent of Hispanic children from mother-and-father
families. Something has gone very wrong in these homes. Even as late as 1940, only 18 per-
cent of black families had female heads. Today the figure is 56 percent.
Finally, if you're a child born outside of marriage who grows up with a single parent, you
are much more likely to be persistently poor, that is, poor for decades of your life.
Health Problems. While the link between single-parent households and child poverty has
been well documented and well studied, much less attention has been paid to the impact of
family disruption on health. A recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics
found that children living in a single parent or stepparent family suffer more ill health and
emotional distress than children living with their biological mother and father. Even after
controlling for age, sex, race, and socio-economic status, if you are a child raised in a single-
parent home you are more likely to get sick than your peers from two-parent homes. You
are 20 to 40 percent more likely to suffer health problems than children living with both
biological parents. You are more likely to be treated for emotional or behavioral problems.
If your parents have divorced, you have an increased risk of accidental injury. Accidental in-
juries are the leading cause of childhood morbidity and death.
What about infant mortality? The U.S. spends a greater share of its gross national
product on health care than any other developed country - yet it ranks behind 22 other na-
tions in infant mortality.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has over 93 programs administered
by 23 agencies to reduce infant mortality. We have an enormous investment in trying to
solve that problem through governmental action. The President in his FY 92 budget an-
nounced a new initiative to target ten cities where there are extremely high infant mortality
rates to try to solve this problem by bringing to bear the resources the federal government
can provide. That is in addition to the $4.46 million the federal government now spends ad-
dressing infant health. However, we have no illusions about the degree of contribution that
effort can make to solving the problem.
Leading Killer. Disrupted families and lack of social support are major risk factors for in-
fant mortality. Nick Eberstadt at the American Enterprise Institute has studied infant
health internationally. He has concluded: "If viewed as a medical condition, illegitimacy
would be one of the leading killers of children in America." Unmarried mothers are more
than three times as likely as married mothers to obtain late or no prenatal care.
Studies among migrants and refugees show that even very poor people can have healthy
pregnancies, if the supporting social structure is intact - marriage, family, or close friends
who help a lot.
Beyond the family is the question of the community; what do we need our communities to
provide for children that they are not providing? The list is long. Let me focus just on one
thing communities need to provide. We need busybodies watching over our children. We
need people so confident of what is good for children that they do not hesitate to intervene
with the children of strangers when they see a problem.
Right now, our children are unsupervised, even in the presence of adults. Recently, in a
Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., a young child, maybe about 3 years old, wandered out
of her house and down the street. A neighbor looked out her window, saw the child wander-
ing in the street, and became extremely concerned. The child was in great danger of being
4
hit by a car or of being lost. So what did the neighbor, a young mother, do? She called the
police and asked them to come pick up this girl and take her home.
Frightened Neighbor. Now what kind of isolation must our children feel in their neighbor-
hood when this woman was too afraid, as she said later, of being called a busybody, too
afraid of being viewed as judging her neighbor's child-care capacities, too afraid of impos-
ing her own views on what children needed by way of supervision, and too strange to her
neighbor. She did not know her neighbor, and therefore, she was afraid of all these things.
That is an extreme case of a phenomenon which is real and subtly corroding our children.
Our adults increasingly fear their own judgments about children so much that they cannot
take simple, direct life saving actions on their behalf.
Why is this happening?
The reasons are many and complex. I will adduce two that stand out and are remediable.
One is that we adults spend very little time in relaxed sociability with our neighbors, even
with our co-workers, but especially with our neighbors.
We spend very little time with our children. Policy Review's winter issue had a remarkably
interesting piece on the subject of how little time parents spend with their children. Why do
we spend so little time with our children? It is not because we do not love them and it is not
because they are not endearing and wonderful; it is because we are working all the time.
But that is a problem we can remedy both by personal choice and by public policy.
How can we remedy the problem of spending too little time with our children by personal
choice? We can work fewer hours, we can consume less and spend more time with our
children and neighbors. That can be a conscious decision that we make as private in-
dividuals.
What about public policy? How can public policy support our capacity to spend more
time with our children? One way is to use the tax code to support the presence of parents in
the home. Public policy can become explicitly pro-natalist and pro-family.
Our national productivity is falling in part because we spend too little time with our
children - not because we don't spend enough time at work, but because we spend too little
time with our children. That counter-intuitive statement has a simple explanation.
Downward Spiral. If we spend too little time with our children, they grow up less
equipped to be productive themselves. They enter a downward spiral. Ironically, if we want
to increase national productivity and increase our revenues, we ought to forgo some of
those revenues right now up front, by tax advantaging parent time in the home. That time
will be enormously well spent in producing productive citizens in the future, and those
revenues will come back. It's guaranteed.
One of our problems with national productivity is the deterioration of our human capital;
it is less educated, it is less healthy, it is less emotionally equipped for work. And part of the
reason is that we have not made parental investments. There is a role for both public policy
and private choice here.
Something else that children need is religious belief and aspiration toward the ideal. I
have to say I speak as someone who is part of the secular culture, but I have observed in my
lifetime, in my former work as an educator, some very interesting things. We remember the
period of "values clarification" and "value neutrality" in the schools. We were to be free of
5
values and were to be "non-judgmental"; children were to work this all out themselves,
each child write his own little testament.
It did not work.
Deprived of the Ideal. First of all, they couldn't write. This trend was accompanied by an
elite alienation from religious experience that has informed attitudes toward child-rearing
in all the institutions affecting children. These two trends are related and have combined to
deprive children of a portrait of the ideal toward which to aspire. The opposite of aspiration
is depression, and that's what we've got.
Now there is a move to introduce moral education into the schools. I think that is probab-
ly a good thing, but I can tell you it will not do the job. It will be helpful, but it will not do
the job.
What we need is the real thing; we need to be taught religious faith. Now, faith can be
defeated by critique - an intellectually-based critique or an experientially-based critique.
There are all kinds of ways that faith can be defeated - so be it. It happens to many people.
But when a child has been taught religious belief, and then that belief is defeated, the
moral teachings remain. And it is the residue of moral teachings that we are now beginning
to miss in our culture. It's those old rules of living, those old aspirations toward an ideal that
are emptying out of our lives.
When I was a high school teacher, I taught an honors course in world literature. I taught
Dante to a group of children, the children of the Washington - how can I put it - the
children of the new class.
They had been raised in a secular fashion, by and large, raised without religious educa-
tion. They were really good kids, really smart kids and their parents who had all been raised
with religion, had nonetheless taught these kids some good behavior and good ways to go,
and good moral conduct.
Nonetheless, there was something missing, and what was missing was that they had never
been afforded a structure for understanding moral requirements.
I taught them Dante's "Inferno" with all its layers of hell for different sins, for the ab-
sence of virtues - all those old sins and virtues that we used to teach through religion.
Enraptured Students. These students were enraptured by "The Inferno," simply enrap-
tured by it. They drew paintings of the circles of hell; they wrote their own contemporary
versions of it, and not because I assigned them to do this - they just did it. They had an enor-
mous craving for a structured moral experience, moral learning. And that taught me
something about what was missing in our children's lives.
The question for public policy is this: is there a role for public policy in thinking about
this question? That is a very delicate question. Let me try to answer it very carefully.
The first role for public policy in this realm is the old injunction to physicians: "do no
harm." Public policy should do no harm to religious belief.
Now there are two obvious ways that public policy can do harm. One way public policy
can do harm is by ignoring the reality of religious belief, just acting as if it isn't there, dis-
counting it, so it disappears from public consciousness. That is one way. (There is, for
instance, evidence of a strong correlation between religious practice and good health.
Health officials won't talk about it, because of either prejudice against religion or fear of
6
political disapproval.) The other way is by showing overt contempt for it, which is not un-
heard of among people who participate in influencing or forming public policy.
I saw a private sector instance of this on a network morning news show. The staff had
poorly prepared the interview. It took unanticipated turns.
The anchorwoman was interviewing four former drug addicts; the purpose of the inter-
view was to discover how these addicts had gotten off drugs and stayed off drugs. They had
all been very successful in staying off drugs for a sustained period of time.
The interviewer inquired of the first former addict: "Tell me how you got off drugs." The
reply was: "Well, first I found Jesus. Jesus helped me get off drugs." This really threw the in-
terviewer, because then, what was the next question? And so she moved quickly to some
other item with this person, and then she moved on to the next person and said, "Tell me,
what was it in your life, your community that helped you get off drugs and stay off drugs?"
"Well, first I started going to church and then I found Jesus," and so on, and then to the
third person, with the same result. When she got to the fourth person, the interviewer had
regained control and said, "Now I'm sure you had some religious experience, but what else
helped you get off drugs?"
Children and adults cannot live without an aspiration toward a better way. If religion is a
very strong support for that aspiration, if it structures a good life, then it is a good thing
regardless of one's assessment of theological truth.
If social science is to guide our opinion elite, then social science must at least look at the
utility of religion as a social support and as a source of wisdom about how to live. Public
policy does not need to tread on the ground of theology to look at religion in this way.
Vulgarity and Violence. Theologian Michael Novak has spoken about the popular culture
in which our children are immersed, and of the awful impact of televised vulgarity and
violence. homes." He has referred to what he calls "the ecology of symbols and images in our
If you turn on television, you will see no portrait of an aspiration to love, to honor, to
truth, to caring and concern for others. What you will see is sadomasochism, brutality
toward women, spite, idolatry of the immature, grownups behaving without wisdom, but
adulated, and a lot of bitter self-contempt. A lot of it.
We cannot deal with this problem through law, we should not even try - but we should
deal with it. Public policy and the rhetoric of public officials should reflect not only a com-
mitment to the right of free expression, not only to the exchange of ideas in the marketplace
of ideas, as it now does; it should also talk about and reflect a commitment to the civic
obligation to take private action where necessary.
Turn the television off; rail against it publicly; boycott its commercial underwriters.
Public policy and American politics should permit a climate in which public officials assert
their freedom to express moral judgments.
The excesses of both the right and the left collide to deter the wholesome public expres-
sion of moral judgments. On the left, there are some who want to undermine private virtue
in order to destroy civic strength so as to strengthen state power.
Among the right, some are drifting into a self-indulgent libertarian nihilism - "as long as
we're free, we don't care what the consequences are." We have children, rich and poor, who
7
are in dire trouble from drug and alcohol addiction, promiscuity, illiteracy, out of wedlock
childbearing, suicide and attempted suicide, criminality, and even easy murder.
The children who are in this condition right now are not going to be transformed into
fine, steady, contributing adults. Our nightmare with them is only beginning to unfold.
We need to do everything we can do in a massive course of public and private action to
help these children. But we should be under no illusions that we can pick up all these
pieces. What we have to concentrate on urgently is the need to stop creating children like
this, to change the environment so they are no longer produced.
We need a new interweaving of private virtue, communitarian values, and government ac-
tion. Right now we don't have enough of any of those.
We need to name good and evil to ourselves, among our neighbors and within the halls of
government. Only then will all our acts be legitimate, as Havel's were when he finally took
power.
Fewer Theories. We need to destroy the shards and remnants of the liberal theory in its
final redoubts in the universities and in the TV studios. We need to avoid the destructive im-
mature pleasure of irresponsible libertarianism. We need to do away with the adulation of
theory, which is an adult pleasure, and turn to received wisdom with all its hard applica-
tions, its self-denial and above all, its requirement for rock hard commitment.
The Earl of Rochester 300 years ago wrote this: "Before I got married, I had six theories
about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories!"
And perhaps that is a condition we need to bring ourselves to - more children, fewer
theories. It is dangerously late. We are not a country incapable of action when we finally
confront a problem. I have every confidence that we will take action, but we surely need to
do it fast.
8
10 Free the Universities
By DINESH D'SOUZA
and Hispanics at the most selective
colm X Society, for instance, would not at-
As the classes of 1991 walk down the
schools, this change could have the posi-
tract any white or Hispanic or Asian stu-
aisle to accept their diplomas, and atten-
tive effect of placing many of these minor-
dents, but even if only blacks do happen to
tion turns to next year's crop of students, it
ity students into colleges where they would
join, at least others would have been ex-
is an appropriate time for the discussion of
effectively compete with their peers, and
tended the opportunity. In some cases, per-
the future of higher education to move to a
graduate at comparable rates. Race-based
haps, groups will be formed on the mere
more mature stage. Rather than exchange
preferences often have the effect of mis-
pretext of a shared idea, but inevitably this
1
heated allegations of "racial insensitivity"
placing black and Hispanig students into
pretense will be challenged by some per-
and "political correctness." we need to be-
academic environments where they are
sistent outsider who insists on signing up
gin a debate on concrete proposals to rem-
dramatically outmatched by their class-
and who cannot be refused membership.
edy the crisis facing our colleges and uni-
mates, and this contributes to extremely
In the curriculum: Universities should
versities. Toward this end I offer three
high dropout rates among these groups.
retain their core requirements emphasiz-
Washington Post
proposals.
Finally socioeconomically based affirm-
ing the classics of Western culture, but
As the testimony of many voices across
ative action would not create the special
they should broaden the reading list to ex-
5-10-91
the political spectrum indicates, liberal ed-
stigma that is attached to racial prefer-
pose students to the greatest works of
ucation is in danger of abandoning or even
ence. No longer would universities be
other civilizations as well. What Matthew
inverting three of its most cherished prin-
forced to explain the anomaly of enforcing
Arnold termed the "best that has been
ciples. At most universities, equal opportu-
racial discrimination as a means to com-
thought and said" would remain the crite-
nity in admissions policy has given way to
bat racial discrimination. The euphemism
rion for selection of books, only now the ge-
preferential treatment based on race. The
and mendacity currently employed to jus-
ographical range would not be limited to
goals of racial integration and the close in-
tify ethnic preferences can stop-the new
Europe but would cover the entire globe.
teraction of diverse perspectives have been
program can be explicitly stated and de-
In practice this means that Homer, the Bi-
replaced by a new segregation on campus.
ble, Shakespeare and Faulkner would be
Finally, standards, academic freedom and
free speech are under attack at many col-
Universities
should
read in conjunction with the Bhagavad
Gita, the Koran and "The Tale of
leges. My proposals are intended to re-
discourage minority self-
Genji."
verse these illiberal trends.
Young people must be familiarized with
In admissions policy: Universities
segregation by refusing to
the fundamental texts of their own civiliza-
should retain their policies of preferential
treatment, but should alter their criteria
fund any group that is
tions. Just as it would be embarrassing to
encounter an educated Chinese who had
from race to socioeconomic disadvantage.
racially separatist, or that
never heard of Confucius, however well
This means that admissions officers would
versed he might be in Mark Twain, so also
take into account such factors as the appli-
excludes students based
it would be a failure of liberal education to
cant's family background, financial condi-
on skin color.
teach Americans about Asia without im-
tion and primary and secondary school en-
mersing them in their own philosophical
vironment, giving preference to disadvan-
and literary tradition. American students
taged students SO long as it is clear that
fended. Students are to be judged as indi-
of all races should know something about
they can be reasonably expected to meet
viduals, based on their ability, in the con-
the Constitution and the Declaration of In-
the academic challenges of the university.
text of their circumstances.
dependence. and about the civil war and
Race or ethnicity, however, would cease to
In life on campus: Universities should
the civil rights movement.
count either for or against any applicant.
discourage the practice of minority
Self-Knowledge
self-segregation by refusing to recognize or
Academic Merit
fund any group that is racially separatist,
In fact such self-knowledge can prepare
Ordinarily the admissions policy of se-
or that excludes students based on skin
Americans to better understand other cul-
lective colleges should be based on aca-
color. Universities should, however, sanc-
tures. And it is useful, as the world be-
demic and extracurricular merit. Prefer-
tion groups based on shared intellectual or
comes a smaller place and as this country
ential treatment is justified. however,
cultural interest, even if these groups ap-
becomes more diverse, for students to
when it is obvious that measurable indices
peal predominantly or exclusively to mi-
move beyond their own cultural shores.
of merit do not accurately reflect a stu-
nority students.
For instance young people should not grad-
dent's learning and growth potential. Ev-
uate in the liberal arts without knowing
What this means in practice is that uni-
ery admissions officer knows that an SAT
something about the rise of Islamic funda-
versities would not permit a Black Stu-
score of 1,200 out of 1,600 by a student from
mentalism, and for this purpose it is help-
dents Association, but they would permit a
Harlem or Anacostia, who comes from a
ful to read the Koran. We hear about Max
W.E.B. Du Bois Society based on interest
broken family and has struggled against
Weber's doctrine about the Protestant
in the writings of the early 20th century au-
negative peer pressure and a terrible
ethic and the rise of capitalism; is there a
thor. Colleges would refuse to support a
school system. means something entirely
"Confucian ethic" that explains the enor-
Latino Political Club but they would per-
different from the same score from a stu-
mous success of Asian entrepreneurs?
mit a Sandino Club based on interest in
dent from Scarsdale or Georgetown, whose
These sorts of questions constitute au-
the thought of the Nicaraguan revolution-
privileges include private tutors and SAT
thentic multicultural education, which may
ary hero. This principle could extend be-
prep courses.
be contrasted with the bogus multicultura-
yond race, so that universities would de-
Universities are entirely justified in giv-
lism currently practiced on many cam-
cline to fund a homosexual association but
ing a break to students who may not have
puses, where texts are selected largely
would fund a Sappho Society.
registered the highest scores, but whose
based on the race, gender or sexual habits
record suggests that this failure is not due
In all cases, university-funded groups
of the author, and where non-Western
to lack of ability or application, but rather
should be built around intellectual and cui-
study amounts to little more than ethnic
to demonstrated disadvantage. Admissions
tural interests, not skin color or sexual
cheerleading or Third World romanticism.
officers are right to see the academic po-
proclivity. Thought and expression are the
combined with intemperate invective lev-
tential in these students.
currency in which universities trade and
eled against racism, sexism and homopho-
Socioeconomically based affirmative
specialize. The consolidation of identity
bia in the West. If students learn to eschew
action offers many advantages over the
based on race or sexuality may be a proj-
such vulgar reductionism, then the great-
current race-based approach. No longer
ect that some students ardently seek, but it
est works of the human mind can help to
will the children of relatively affluent
is not always consistent with the mission of
liberate them from their provinciality and
black and Hispanic families receive prefer-
universities.
prejudice, SO that they can develop
ence over the children of lower middle
If this solution is adopted, no longer will
stronger rational and moral bases for
class and poor white and Asian families.
universities have to justify the double stan-
adopting the norms of others, or for reaf-
Yet all minority groups would dispropor-
dards that profess allegiances to cultural
firming their own.
tionately benefit from such a program. be-
exchange, and then foster minority subcul-
cause they are disproportionately repre-
tures on campus: that encourage minor-
Mr. D'Souza, a research fellow at the
sented in the ranks of the disadvantaged.
ity-pride groups and ethnic fraternities
American Enterprise Institute, is the au-
While it is true that extending affirma-
while prohibiting white-pride groups and
thor of "Illiberal Education: The Politics
tive action benefits to all groups would
segregated white fraternities.
of Race and Sex on Campus." recently
tomewhat reduce the number of blacks
There is no reason to think that a Mal-
published hu the Free Press Macmillan
The Schools' Burdens
President Bush was right to focus
dures, condoms and racial balance
the nation's attention on its lagging
are unending.
schools performance. Any country
Suburban systems are calmer, but
that still sends 18-year-olds into the
crazy in their own ways. Not too
world saying, "I got no idea"-with
many U.S. high-school students may
matching skills in writing and arith-
be able to tell you in which half of the
metic-is probably going to come up a
19th Century the Civil War occurred
little short in the next century's eco-
(a recent survey revealed) but they
nomic competition. We're glad to join
can tell you a lot about recycling,
the swelling chorus of support, and we
whales and safe sex. Johnny can't
wish the President luck-of the sort
add, but he's learned to be con-
Washington Post
Indiana Jones needed in the Temple
cerned.
One of our favorite nonacademic
5-10-91
of Doom.
Everyone knows what Indiana
burdens has been federally mandated
Jones usually has to overcome to
asbestos removal. Some 670 school
make it to the jewels-machete-bend-
systems that answered a survey by
ing jungles, snake pits, crazed mobs,
the National School Board Association
collapsing walls, booby traps, bullets,
reported accumulated removal costs
wild-eyed fanatics. Of course you re-
of $6 billion. What an extraordinary
call that Indiana Jones is a teacher.
misallocation of scarce and precious
educational dollars. Congress created
We think America's schools have
the law.
gotten into SO much trouble academi-
Loopy crusades routinely roll over
cally largely because their central
the system. Recall the curriculum on
mission-teaching-has become over-
preventing nuclear war introduced by
whelmed by so many nonacademic
the NEA, the country's largest
mandates. Over the past 20 years,
teachers' union. Or the great Alar poi-
America's political system has bur-
soned-apple scare of 1989 in which ad-
dened the schools, their teachers and
ministrators in California and New
administrators with many objectives
that steal time from core instruction.
York dramatically (and preposter-
ously) pulled apples from their lunch
Perhaps we can put it this way:
programs.
A is for asbestos removal.
Meanwhile, biologists and mathe-
B is for busing and bilingual ed.
maticians have both issued recent re-
C is for child-care programs.
ports pleading for reforms in the
D is for discipline problems.
teaching of their disciplines. The re-
E is for Earth Day.
ports sank like rocks. But Hollywood
actresses get instant access to televi-
If school choice has become popu-
sion to wail about pesticides and chil-
lar, we would suggest it is because in-
dren. The U.S. is a diverse country
creasing numbers of parents are flee-
with many lively interests, but it is
ing from the modern ABCs of public-
very susceptible to letting politics di-
school education, a system that has
vert and smother its institutions, most
been turned into a pack horse for all
notably its schools.
the woes and worries of American so-
One of the recurring charges
ciety, or at least its most activist
against efforts such as President
worrywart members. Often these par-
Bush's is that they won't commit
ents are seeking private or parochial
"enough resources." Here are the lat-
schools that are better able to fend off
est available figures on per-pupil
nonacademic crusades and stay fo-
spending for public education in the
cused on learning.
U.S. and countries with which we are
Large urban systems are espe-
often compared unfavorably. The
cially burdened, so much so that some
U.S.: $3,603; Britain: $2,687; France:
cities, such as Boston, recently have
$2,393; Japan: $2,096; West Germany:
had great problems hiring new super-
$1,941.
intendents. Corrosive local politics-
The lesson is clear. If America's
not the daunting educational chal-
schools are in trouble, it's because
lenge-make the jobs unfillable. Bat-
they've been turned into political play-
tles over ethnic entitlements, bilingual
pens. Before this country gets back to
requirements, disciplinary proce-
basics, it needs to get serious.
Washington Post
5-10-91
A Simpson-Mazzoli Riot
The riot in the Mount Pleasant
for agreeing to hire an illegal
neighborhood of Washington, D.C.,
worker.
was sparked by an alleged abuse of
It didn't take long for employers to
force by a police officer against an
figure out that their choice often came
timmigrant from El Salvador. The kin-
down to discriminating or risking
dling for the violent reaction, how-
trouble with the feds. Hispanic groups
ever, may have less to do with the po-
have cited the INS crackdown in the
lice or Hispanic complaints about a
Washington area, and by now resent-
largely black-run city than it does
ment against the immigration agency
with the larger plight of immigrants
is palpable in Mount Pleasant. When
in America.
word got out that the INS was helping
The neighborhood not far from
police check the backgrounds and
downtown Washington has a great
identities of those arrested, area resi-
concentration of immigrants from
dents were outraged. "Whatever we
Central America, mostly from Salva-
can do to keep calm is what we need
dor, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Many
to do," Mayor Sharon Pratt Davis
inevitably are here illegally, but even
said yesterday. "To the extent that it
Hispanics here "legally" bear the bur-
might inflame passions, then I would
den of the 1986 immigration law that
prefer [the INS] not do that at this
criminalized the hiring of undocu-
time." An INS spokesman promised
mented workers.
that the agency was not checking out
The bill backed by Senator Alan
the citizenship of arrested Hispanics
Simpson for the first time put the bur-
for possible deportation, but there is
den on employers to guarantee that
skepticism.
workers were in the U.S. legally. Em-
There can be no excuse for vio-
ployers in the Washington-area res-
lence or rioting. This ugly episode is a
taurant and hotel businesses were
reminder, however, that we only add
leading employers of Hispanics until
to the burdens of urban living when
several of these companies became
we make it harder for immigrants to
key targets for Immigration and Nat-
find and keep jobs. As city officials
uralization Service raids. The INS
try to come to grips with what hap-
picked D.C.-area firms as national ex-
pened in Mount Pleasant, federal offi-
amples of what happens to employers
cials and politicians need to recon-
who hire illegal workers. In addition
sider an immigration bill that only
to fines, employers can now go to jail
contributes to resentments.
Washington Times
5-14-91
MIKE ROYKO
don't remember the exact date.
I
But I should have made a note
It's a fur,
Why else would that woman have
not suffering from malnutrition.
assumed that the great social safety
Nine months, a regular job, shelter
of it because it was personally
net provides a soft landing for some-
and a full tummy, and he's already
significant - the day I under-
one whose mink coat is shedding?
complaining. I wonder if he's
went a change in my political and
social views.
fur better
thought about giving Bangladesh a
Every day we hear about schools
try?
It began with a simple phone con-
and how they are failing to do the job.
Or maybe he will stick around
versation, much like dozens I get ev-
The administrators get most of the
long enough to complain that his
ery day.
thing
heat, and they deserve some of it.
wife's mink coat is shedding and de-
The woman said, "I have a prob-
The teachers take their knocks, and
mand that an agency can resolve the
lem that I wonder if you can help me
some need it.
problem.
with."
But you almost never hear about
Anyway, this is why I'm glad to
I asked her what the problem
investigating complaints about
the fundamental reason so many
see that there has emerged in the
was.
shedding mink coats, I wasn't aware
Her voice rose in anger as she
kids drop out of school or muddle
Democratic Party a faction called
of it.
through without learning anything.
the Democratic Leadership Council.
said: "I bought a mink coat about 2½
"Well, is there an agency that
years ago from [store name] on
Go to their homes and see how many
It's made up of Democrats who
would know?"
Michigan Avenue. And now the coat
books or other forms of reading ma-
have decided that the party can no
You mean a government agency
terial you'll find. Ah, but the TV set
longer try to appeal to every special
is starting to shed. I've complained
that could recommend another gov-
will be going full blast. Ask the par-
interest group that believes govern-
to the store, but they aren't doing
ernment agency that deals with the
anything about it. So I thought you
ent or parents if they ever check to
ment must solve its problems; that
problem of a mink coat that sheds?
might want to write about this."
see if the kid is doing homework. Or
for every lack of individual respon-
"Yes."
I told her that I was sorry, but I
if they even check to see that he's
sibility, there is a government pro-
I told her I didn't know about that,
wouldn't write about her shedding
home at night.
gram; that for everybody who sticks
either.
out his hand and says "Where's
fur coat.
"Then what should I do?" she
mine?", there's an automatic hand-
"Why not?" she asked.
asked.
out.
I explained that it was likely that
Ate
teacher in a city school has a
many readers have problems more
You might talk to a lawyer.
room full of kids about six
These radical ideas have upset
"I don't see why I have to pay a
the Democrats who have been run-
serious than a shedding mink coat
hours a day, five days a week,
and they might think it a strange
lawyer for something like this. Isn't
nine months a year. Minus weekends
ning the party for the last few dec-
subject for a column.
there anyone else on your paper who
ades, giving us the political conven-
and holidays. And the teacher is sup-
handles things like this?"
tions that sent forth Michael Duka-
She accepted that. But then she
posed to make up for what the par-
asked, "What agency should I call?"
I'm afraid not.
ents fail to do the other 18 hours a
kis, Walter Mondale, George Mc-
"Well thanks a lot," she said, and
Govern and other giants. They say
Agency?
day, plus weekends, plus holidays,
hung up.
these less weepy Democrats are
"Yes. Who handles problems like
plus summer vacation.
That's when I became convinced
abandoning the party's traditions of
this?"
that politicians, especially Demo-
Then there is Armando. He lives
compassion for the downtrodden.
You mean a government agency?
"Yes."
crats, had done too good a job of
in the Washington neighborhood
I don't agree. I think that what
I told her that if a government
persuading many Americans that if
where the riots took place this week.
they're saying is that they want to
agency existed for the purpose of
they have a problem, just about any
Armando says he is angry at society.
show the downtrodden how to get up
kind of problem, a social agency
He has not found life in this country
so he doesn't get trod on anymore.
should be there to solve it. And if no
good enough.
And I wish them success. If they
agency existed, a law should be
Armando, 29, has been here nine
don't make it, we might wind up with
Mike Royko is a nationally syndi-
passed creating one.
months. He has a regular job as a
the Department of Shedding Mink
cated columnist.
waiter. He has a place to live. He is
Coats Investigations.
New York Times
5-14-91
More Health Care for Less Money
By Joseph A. Califano Jr.
medical procedures work. Any doctor
of service and price, not on the basis
is three to 10 times higher. Pharma-
who follows those standards should
of who can attract the most low cost
cists can help counsel about potential
have a defense to any charge of mal-
patients. Now most insurers and
drug interactions, but their monopoly
he $750 billion Amerl-
practice. Where providers are negli-
managed care plans vie for the
over filling more than a billion pre-
T
cans will spend on
gent, states should limit recovery for
healthiest beneficiaries. If all plans
scriptions a year is rooted in self-
health care this year
pain and suffering and sharply re-
were community based - with rates
interest, not consumer protection.
- and the trillion dol-
duce contingent legal fees.
determined by the needs of the entire
Change the way we pay doctors.
lars in 1994 - should
Relax the doctors' monopoly over
community - and were required to
It's time to pay doctors to talk with
be an opportunity to
the practice of medicine. Once essen-
cover anyone who could pay, they
us, not just to do something to us.
release the poor from rationing and
tial to protect patients from quacks
would be forced to compete on the
Fees for such consultation are better
give all Americans all the health and
and charlatans, the doctors' monop-
basis of price, service and efficiency.
spent, particularly when physicians
long-term care they need. Instead, to
oly is now an economic hammerlock
Medicare, Medicaid and private in-
are talking about health promotion
stem rocketing costs, Richard
surers should refuse to reimburse (or
and life style changes. It's also time
Darman, Director of the Office of
at least reduce payments to) hospi-
to pay family practitioners more and
Management and Budget, some legis-
tals operating at less than 60 percent
some specialists less. Medicare is
lators and the General Accounting
Office suggest rationing health care
Rather than
capacity. We've got to eliminate the
moving in this direction; private in-
inexcusable level of excess capacity
surers should follow.
for all of us.
ration, change
in our hospitals. Residents of towns
There are other things we can do to
No politician or bureaucrat has the
with hospitals where doctors and
reduce costs. Insurers and the Gov-
wisdom to decide who should suffer
how we spend.
nurses don't perform operations
ernment should promote disease pre-
how much pain for how long, who
enough to maintain proficiency, much
vention with financial Incentives to
should walk and who should limp,
less attain excellence, would be bet-
take care of ourselves. And everyone
who will live and who will die - and
ter off investing in a first-class pri-
involved in the health care industry
when. Here are some ways to free up
mary care clinic and a helicopter.
should sign a paperwork nonprolifer-
resources to provide all Americans
that keeps costs high and denies us
Insurers would save money by pay-
ation treaty. Electronic processing,
with the care they need for what we
the savings and efficiencies of mod-
ing for of such transportation rather
standardizing and simplifying claims
are now spending, or less.
ern technology. Today, trained nurses
than to keep the hospital open.
and audit procedures could save a
Revamp the medical malpractice
can perform all sorts diagnoses and
Eliminate the pharmacists' mo-
quarter of the more than $100 billion
system. The Bush Administration is
treatments of common ailments like
nopoly over dispensing drugs. The
we will spend this year to administer
right to use Federal programs to prod
respiratory diseases, sprains and
era of doctors writing in Latin and
the system.
state malpractice reform. We should
breaks, just as competently and far
pharmacists mixing powders and po-
Before politicians and bureaucrats
develop standards of care to establish
less expensively than doctors. Mid-
tions is long gone. Today, virtually all
resort to rationing for everyone, they
under what circumstances which
wives can handle normal deliveries.
prescriptions can be filled by anyone
should stop tinkering and make fun-
These physican assistants earn less
who can read and count. Mail order
damental changes in the way we de-
Joseph A. Califano Jr., a lawyer, was
than half the income of doctors.
houses do it and some provide pre-
liver care. Then we can provide high
Secretary of Health, Education and
Require that insurers and man-
scriptions for as little as 50 cents an
quality care to all - rather than a
Welfare from 1977 to 1979.
aged care plans compete on the basis
order. The cost at retail pharmacies
declining quality of care to some.
NEW
Cash-Strapped Cities Turn to Companies
to Do What Government Once Did
Such arrangements have become
services and, in some cases, turning
By MICHAEL deCOURCY HINDS
relatively common around the nation,
money losers like vehicle towing into
though much less so in large older
Special to The New York Times
small profit centers. Lansing, Mich., is
cities like Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA, May 13 - Seventy
looking for companies or not-for-profit
Many cities have experimented with
years after Philadelphia helped launch
organizations to take over the city's
privatization, according to a survey
a new era in American politics by hav-
ambulance service, cemetery and
last year of 82 municipalities in 34
ing public workers provide most public
recreation programs.
states by the Mercer Group, a manage-
services, many politicians here are
ment consultant in Atlanta that advises
saying the city's survival may depend
And among Northeastern cities,
cities on ways to contract out services.
on bringing that era to a quick close.
Newark has taken the lead by contract-
The savings that result from con-
To help solve the city's fiscal crisis,
ing out a dozen functions, including a
tracting out services are hard to meas-
third of the city's trash collections.
say four of the eight politicians who are
ure, but numerous studies put the sav-
vying to be Philadelphia's next mayor,
"The hardest part of it is laying off
ings at a 10 percent to 40 percent reduc-
men and women who live in the com-
the city must put many costly public
tion in costs, with the greatest savings
munity," said Mayor Sharpe James.
services, including trash collection and
coming from contracting out labor-in-
custodial services, out to competitive
Reversal in Phoenix
tensive services. Savings also vary de-
bid by private companies.
In 1978, Phoenix set up a competitive
That kind of radical rearrangement
system in which private contractors
would normally be unthinkable in this
bid against the city for trash collection.
overwhelmingly Democratic and
A time of fiscal
For several years, the department was
highly unionized city. But public policy
underbid and lost contracts to serve
analysts say the time is ripe for radical
change here and in many other cities,
crisis in big, tired
half the city. But by 1987, the depart-
ment had won back all the contracts.
particularly older ones in the North-
cities is a time
"Competition forces you to improve
east and Midwest.
productivity, develop teamwork and
An exception is New York, where
raise morale," said Ron W. Jensen, di-
there is a fiscal crisis but SO little impe-
ripe for change.
rector of the department. A city audit
tus toward shifting public services to
estimated that competition had saved
private companies that Mayor David
the city $20 million in the last decade.
N. Dinkins has not even mentioned it in
his recent statements on the city's
pending on how bloated a city's work
Despite the boom in privatization, ex-
force is and how out of line city com-
perts say it is easy to do wrong, be-
financial problems.
Felix G. Rohatyn, chairman of the
pensation is with the marketplace. But
cause public officials are just learning
most estimates do not include many
to write these novel contracts. In
Municipal Assistance Corporation, the
state agency that monitors New York
hidden costs like writing and bidding
March, for example, Los Angeles
contracts, monitoring contractors,
County officials canceled a five-year
City's finances. favors contracting out
more services and attributed the lack
cost-overruns and employee sever-
contract to maintain city vehicles be-
cause of cost overruns.
of action to political inertia.
ance.
Labor leaders, facing the prospects
Move to Shed Services
State. governments have been gen-
of layoffs, say that contracting with
erally less experimental than local
Elsewhere, the trend is clear. "Since
private companies to run public serv-
governments, but many states have
the beginning of the 1980's the prevail-
ices is merely a way for politicians to
started to hire private companies to
ing political philosophy has been that
hide their own management failures.
manage prisons, roads, parks, com-
governments should shed what serv-
muter railways and hospitals. Cities in
Philadelphia is not in a mess just be-
ices they can," said Dr. Anita A. Sum-
the South and West, where unions are
cause of union work rules," said Linda
mers, professor of public policy and
weaker and where growing populations
M. Lampkin, director of research for
management at the Wharton School of
have strained public services, have
the American Federation of State,
Business at the University of Pennsyl-
been the most active in contracting out
County and Municipal Employees.
vania. "When you add to that prevail-
public services.
Savings Can Be Small
ing philosophy the fiscal imperatives
that are arising in a lot of cities - and
Los Angeles County recently con-
Even where there are considerable
none are more urgent than Philadel-
tracted out the management of five
savings in some departments, they can
phia's - you add a lot more momen-
small airports, and the Los Angeles
be relatively small compared to the
tum to the privatization process."
City Council last month discussed sell-
overall budgets of many cities. And
The buzzword here, in both Demo-
ing the Los Angeles International Air-
Paul Starr, a sociologist at Princeton
cratic and Republican circles, is priva-
port. Fort Worth is turning the opera-
University, said that in many privati-
tization. The term, popularized by the
tion of its ZOO over to a not-for-profit or-
zation plans the savings are largely a
Reagan Administration, refers to a
ganization that will seek charitable
result of private companies' paying
process of stripping government to the
donations to cover annual deficits.
low wages and providing minimal
health benefits.
bones: While public officials continue
Chicago is contracting out a string of
to regulate and administer the city gov-
ernment, private companies bid to pro-
vide public services.
continued
Cities
page
2
Public Services, Private Contracts
Criticism of Contracts
Of 82 cities surveyed, the percentage that contracted each service
The candidates with backing from
to private companies.
city unions oppose contracting out
services.
Food services at public facilities
100
Former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, who
Major construction projects
100
is running as a Republican, is one of the
Janitorial services
62
staunch opponents to privatization.
Solid waste collection
"I'm pro union, I've been that way all
38
my life," he said at a recent candidates
Building maintenance
37
forum the issue.
Security services
33
James S. White, a Democrat and for-
Automobile towing
28
mer managing director of the city who
Parking garages
just dropped out of the race, said:
26
"We've already privatized the health
Park maintenance
25
care in prisons, solid waste disposal,
Tree trimming
23
the golf courses, the trolley service in
Data processing
Fairmount Park, certain custodial
21
services in certain buildings and all
Street maintenance and repair
21
road resurfacing."
Golf courses
18
But in New York, Mr. Rohatyn said:
Health and medical services
17
"When you begin to talk to politicians
Animal control services
about privatization, they look at you
15
with blank stares because they know
Ambulance services
13
From a survey in 1990
that kind of process takes years here."
Bill collection
12
of 82 municipalities in
He recalled that in the midst of the
Street sweeping
34 states conducted by
city's mid-1970's fiscal crisis, the
11
6
the Mercer Group Inc, a
assistance corporation proposed con-
Municipal cafeterias
management consulting
tracting out trash collection but that
Jail food services
6
firm based In Atlanta
the proposal died after running "into a
brick wall of opposition," mostly from
unions and private trash haulers.
The New York Times
Philadelphia's fiscal crisis has
turned up the volume in the debate
over contracting out services, but it re-
mains to be seen whether a new Mayor
Apart from the individual hardship,
search organization.
he said, the net social result was that
could persuade the City Council to lay
She said a conservative estimate of
off city workers. Three years ago,
one branch of government saved
savings produced by these contracts
when the city first invited competitive
money while social welfare agencies
was $20 million to $30 million a year;
bids for collecting trash, the council re-
and public health agencies spent more
other experts in privatization say the
jected a contract that its advocates
because more city employees were out
savings would be much higher. The
of work.
said would have saved the city $40 mil-
savings would only dent the city's defi-
lion in the first year. It chose to keep
Ray F. Ybarra, business manager of
cit, which is over $230 million on this
sanitation workers on the job and con-
the Phoenix sanitation workers' union,
year's $2.1 billion budget, but would
tract out only waste disposal.
said the private contractors were
be "psychologically significant," she
hardly free of problems and added:
said.
To some local history buffs, the de-
"The city is wasting money going
Many of the mayoral candidates who
bate echoes one that took place more
through the bidding process. It's a
are lining up for the May 21 primary
than 70 years ago, when city ordi-
myth that competition keeps you on
have prescribed more state aid and
nances required officials to contract
your toes."
contracting out services as the most
out all services. Corruption was ramp-
In Philadelphia, there are discus-
powerful remedies for Philadelphia's
ant. Then in 1919, Philadelphia re-
sions about selling the city-owned gas
financial ills. Mayor W. Wilson Goode
pealed those ordinances and developed
and water utilities, Veterans Stadium,
professionally managed service agen-
parking garages and the Philadelphia
cies.
International Airport, which, like
Frederick L. Voight is executive sec-
nearly all other airports that receive
The fashionable
retary of the Committee of Seventy, a
Federal subsidies, is operated as a not-
not-for-profit group founded in 1904
for-profit entity. But laws, politics and
after the muckraker Lincoln Steffens
opposition from companies that benefit
word is
wrote that Philadephia was "corrupt
from current arrangements make it
and contented."
unlikely that major city-owned assets
'privatize.' The
would be sold or leased any time soon.
"We have to be very careful," Mr.
goal is survival.
Voight said, "about going private in a
Time for Consideration
way that we don't repeat the mistakes
But the city's labor contracts, which
of the past under the guise of doing
prohibit layoffs, expire next year, and a
something new and different.
new mayor could consider contracting
is completing his second term and by
out things like trash collection, cus-
law cannot run for a third consecutive
todial services, vehicle repairs and
term.
building maintenance, said Dianne E.
"Contracting out public services can
Reed, director of the Pennsylvania
produce significant savings and re-
Economy League, a not-for-profit re-
store credibility to the city in Harris-
burg and up on Wall Street," said Ed-
ward G. Rendell, a former Philadel-
phia District Attorney and a Demo-
cratic candidate for mayor.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1991 B1
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Law: Judge criticizes U.S. over
alleged dumping at Love Canal
Page B8.
MARKETPLACE
Media: Senate panel approves bill to
curb rise in cable TV fees
Page B8.
Whittle Develops Plan to Operate Schools for Profit
By GARY PUTKÁ
development leading to innovative model
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDUCATION
schools is what President Bush offered last
Whittle Communications Inc., which
month in his "America 2000" education
broadcasts to schools a news program that
that offers quality, my experiences with
months old. Mr. Whittle also told them he
strategy. In his briefings, Mr. Whittle re-
includes advertising, plans to launch a di-
Chris Whittle lead me to be suspicious of
plans to develop his own curriculum, texts
peatedly referred to his concept as "the
vision that will operate schools for profit.
the whole thing. He tends to let the com-
and video and computer resources.
new American school," the same term Mr.
The venture, expected to be announced
mercial side take precedence over the edu-
Albert Shanker, president of the Ameri-
Bush used to describe 535 model schools he
by Whittle tomorrow, includes several ele-
cational side."
can Federation of Teachers and one of
wants the federal government to fund.
ments that mesh with President Bush's ed-
A spokesman for Whittle, based in
those briefed by Mr. Whittle, said the plans
President Bush's plan also calls for a
ucation strategy unveiled last month. It
Knoxville, Tenn., and 50%-owned by Time
"could change the whole ball game," add-
private, not-for-profit company funded by
also promises to stir up more furor about
Warner Inc., would say only that the con-
ing: "He's talking about a massive invest-
corporate philanthropy to raise $150 mil-
Whittle, whose Channel One news show has
cern "will make a major announcement"
ment and a chain of schools around the
lion to $200 million for research and devel-
drawn criticism from many educators for
about "a new entry into education."
country. A private, for-profit sector pres-
opment that will be contracted out.
commercializing the classroom.
But education lobbyists and others
ents good possibilities. It would have the
Although Mr. Whittle indicated he
The plan raised questions about
briefed by Mr. Whittle say he has done ex-
freedom to try things that the public edu-
would charge tuition, he said he wanted a
whether Christopher Whittle, the com-
tensive work on an ambitious plan for
cational bureaucracy can't do. The danger,
per-pupil cost no higher than public
pany's chairman, would use the new
profit-making education. They say Mr.
of course, is that it could descend into
schools, about $4,500. Those Mr. Whittle
schools as an expanded outlet for his edu-
Whittle plans to hire 100 education re-
crass commercialism."
briefed suggested that one way of making
cational advertising, which touts such
searchers in a new unit in Knoxville to
Mr. Shanker and others say Mr. Whittle
a profit would be to sell advertising that
things as Nike sneakers, Gillette razors
"find out what works," followed within one
spoke, perhaps hyperbolically, of investing
would appear in the halls, in texts and in
and Burger King restaurants.
"Watch out," says California school su-
or two years by schools incorporating their
"billions." Whittle, which publishes spe-
any broadcasting feeds used by the
perintendent Bill Honig, who has banned
findings. The schools would enroll students
cialty magazines and sells advertising, ex-
schools. Mr. Whittle said he would "lend or
Channel One in his state. "While theoreti-
from kindergarten to 12th grade and offer
pects $210 million in revenue this year.
sell" the school model he devises, or ele-
cally you could run a for-profit operation
day-care starting with children three
The framework of private research and
ments of it, to public school systems.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1991
A15
The Litigation Explosion and Quayle's Time Bomb
Dan Quayle's aides complain that only
includes Justice, Commerce and Treasury
settling for less now rather than suffer jus-
other side's discovery costs.
his snafus ever get any attention, SO here-
Department representatives, has some am-
tice delayed.
Once the White House proposes these
with an account of a speech the vice presi-
bitious proposals for legislative and judi-
dent gave last Thursday that received no
The working group also wants to en-
changes, it will be fascinating to see how
cial reforms on how we try cases.
coverage in the general press. Fair or not
courage more control by trial judges over
the politics plays out. Almost no one de-
According to sources in the working
abusive discovery. Once a case is filed,
fends the American way of trying cases; or
to Mr. Quayle, the silence deprived contin-
group, one proposal is no less than to abol-
judges' would create a "discovery plan"
doubts that many useful products are un-
gency-fee lawyers and other interested
ish punitive damages. This would be a
parties of any warning about some potent
that would limit the amount of fishing on
available here because of unreasonable lit-
wonderful contribution to justice. These
proposals the White House plans for re-
both sides. The working group is also con-
igation risks. The added costs of legal ün-
quasi-criminal fines once were limited to
forming the litigation system.
sidering a neat way of ending the abusive
certainty clearly make U.S. businesses less
egregious intentional injuries, but now are
use of warring "expert witnesses" in
competitive. All this makes legal reform a
routinely doled out as punishment in even
trials. This would be to limit the percent-
popular cause, which means there is some
Rule of Law
the most trivial accidents. Punitives have
age of income a person can earn by testify-
chance that the debate won't be partisan in
become a serious drag on the economy,
ing in trials and still be judicially recog-
the predictable way.
creating enormous and unpredictable costs
By L. Gordon Crovitz
nized as an expert in a field.
and even bankruptcy (remember Texaco).
Indeed, a recent meeting of the working
The occasional plaintiff and contingency-
Among the other
group included a broad collection of legal
"I don't want to bash lawyers," Mr.
fee lawyer get windfalls, but the purpose of
ideas under consid-
experts, from Robert Bork and federal ap-
civil litigation is to compensate for losses,
eration is changing
peals Judge Frank Easterbrook to federal
Quayle said (noting that this group in-
not to redistribute money. A law abolishing
the way we finance
appeals Judge Stephen Breyer, who was
cludes his wife and him), and SO bashed
punitive damages also would save the Su-
lawsuits by forcing
chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Com-
the legal system instead. He said that by
preme Court from again having to consider
the losing party to
mittee under Sen. Edward Kennedy, and
now every neurosurgeon in Washington,
when these arbitrary punishments violate
pay the winner's le-
Mark Gitenstein, who held the same post
D.C., has been sued at least once, there's
constitutional due process.
gal bills. This is
in Sen. Joseph Biden's Judiciary Commit-
one lawsuit filed each year for every 15
Any proposal by the White House to
called the English
tee. The president-elect of the American
Americans and the liability crisis is now a
rule on attorneys'
Bar Association also attended.
$300 billion annual drag on the economy.
abolish punitive damages probably would
cover only federal cases, though with
fees. though more
Punitive damages didn't come up, but
"It used to be that people could reach
many state judges encouraging juries to
accurately it is the
according to several participants, there
across the table, shake hands and know
sock it to out-of-state defendants there's an
Everywhere-but-
was little disagreement on the broad point
they had a deal," Mr. Quayle told the an-
argument for abolishing punitives in the
America rule. Mr.
that the civil-justice system needs a major
nual conference of the U.S. Court of Ap-
states as well. Punitive damages have
Quayle said the idea
Dan Quayle
overhaul. There was even a consensus that
peals for the Federal Circuit, but the law
been abolished in several states with no
might be controver-
we should move to some version of the
has been corrupted to the point where "the
apparent harm.
sial, but it could be "a powerful incentive
English rule, at least when the discovery
idea of binding agreements is almost
The group also plans to cut back on the
against frivolous and abusive litigation."
process is abused in cases between big cor-
laughed at." He also criticized the Racke-
costly and time-wasting discovery process.
(I got interested in the subject after study-
porations.
teer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
"Anyone who has ever been sued or whose
ing law in England and the U.S., SO was
The main lobbying group in opposition
aw. He said, "No wonder people lose con-
company has been sued knows that discov-
asked by the working group to brief them
to reform, as always, will be the contin-
fidence when legitimate businessmen-
ery rules allow lawyers to go on what is es-
on the English rule.)
gency-fee plaintiff lawyers. The influence
even parties to divorce actions-have
found themselves in federal court, charac-
sentially a cost-free fishing expedition,"
In its pure application, winners of law-
of the Association of Trial Lawyers of
terized as 'racketeers' under a law that
Mr. Quayle said in his speech. He said one
suits (plaintiffs or defendants) would have
America never should be underestimated,
proposal the group is considering is a re-
their legal rights totally vindicated by not
especially in a Congress that includes sev-
was clearly aimed at criminal organiza-
tions."
turn to the requirement that parties plead
being stuck with any legal bill when the
eral former members.
their cases in some detail. No longer could
case ends. Another version of the idea is
The big news in Mr. Quayle's speech
On the other hand, legal reform appar-
parties start cases simply by alleging
that parties who turn down reasonable set-
ently has a champion in Mr. Quayle. who
was that the Competitiveness Council he
some general wrong and ask to see all the
tlement offers and then lose at trial must
could use the gravitas of taking on a seri-
runs in the White House soon will get a re-
other side's memorandums, reports and
pay the other side's legal bills. One pro-
ous issue. The political pundits would
port from its Working Group on Civil Jus-
analyses. Nor could defendants any longer
posal under serious consideration is for
never imagine that a lightweight could re-:
tice Reform, which is headed by Solicitor
insist on thousands of pages of depositions
losers in federal cases except for civil-
General Kenneth Starr. The group, which
verse several decades of the litigation ex.
to harass a plaintiff with a good case into
rights cases to pay at least some of the
plosion.
and
aren't likely to go away, since they indicate genuine
dren, but the shortfall isn't close to 65 percent. CDF
envi-
ideological fault lines within the party. No crisp, parti-
now urges more spending to improve programs (e.g.,
san message can emerge until a candidate capable of
converting half-day programs to all day) rather than
ent.
delivering one steps forward. "The Democratic Party is
simply to cover "eligible" kids. "The focus on num-
mit-
now up for grabs," says Michael McCurry, a former DNC
bers isn't the issue," says CDF's Helen Blank. Now they
As-
official. "Anybody who wants it can have it."
tell us.
2.
"
nich
and, despite President Bush's promises, the Women
tage
Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program reaches only
about half those eligible. "True, but misleading. MIC serves
een
nost
lower-income women who are pregnant or have chil-
A speechwriter's guide.
Val-
dren under 6. Pregnant women get priority; 70 to
letz-
85 percent of them are already receiving WIC. Also, eli-
iter-
gibility for WIC extends way above the poverty line, to
re,"
families of four with incomes of $24,000. You could eas-
FACTS FOR HACKS
ily cover all remaining poor mothers who wanted the
mpt
on."
program without doubling it.
the
3. "A startling number of American children [are] in danger
on
of starving.
One out of eight American children under
S on
the age of 12 is going hungry tonight.' Dan Rather said
DLC
By Mickey Kaus
that. It's crap. Rather misreports a "study" by the
leve-
Food Research and Action Center, a Washington orga-
n presidential campaigns, the "message" comes
nization that lobbies for government food aid. The
nany
[ the
I
first. Then speechwriters insert the facts to back it
study did not measure malnutrition, much less starva-
eting
up, preferably startling facts. This process does not
tion. It purports to identify children whose families
hern
lend itself to scrupulous accuracy. Ronald Reagan
were strapped for cash to buy food at any time over
like
set the modern standard here, which is lax.
the previous year (not each night). Low-income peo-
il Si-
Even as you read this, Democratic hacks and young
ple were asked eight "key questions," some of which
idealists eager to serve the party's 1992 candidates are
might draw affirmative responses from Donald Trump
loading up the save-get keys on their computers with
(e.g.: "Do your children ever say they are hungry be-
statistics from groups like the Children's Defense Fund
cause there is not enough food in the house?").
and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Some
Those who said yes to five of the eight questions were
TAGE
of these facts will be right. But some will be misleading
pronounced "hungry." Those who gave even one
ARY
in ways that reveal deep gaps between the Democratic
"yes" were deemed "at risk" of hunger. The results of
LED
HE
message and the real world. Until a few years ago, for
seven small, unrepresentative surveys then were trans-
STATES
example, Democrats routinely argued that "the aver-
formed, somehow, into a national number. The sur-
age length of stay on welfare is only two years." Then
veys were conducted by local advocacy groups with an
David Ellwood of Harvard discovered it was 6.6 years.
interest in getting "yes" answers (e.g., the Alabama
Could this help explain why Democratic rhetoric on
Coalition Against Hunger). They were financed by
welfare failed to resonate with voters?
Kraft General Foods, a major corporate beneficiary of
Once the 1992 campaign is under way, popular Dem-
federal food subsidies. The whole project oozes
ocratic "facts" will become unassailable matters of
phoniness.
faith. That means the time for Democrats to get their
4. "Average weekly earnings in America today are lower than
facts-and, maybe, their message-straight is now, be-
they were in the last week that Dwight Eisenhower was presi-
fore the campaign begins. Even when the statistics are
dent. "If this stat-bite from Senator Daniel Patrick Moy-
unrevealing clichés, stacked up like bricks in the mid-
nihan is true, the country's really gone to hell. But it
dle paragraphs of stump speeches, they might as well
isn't true. Moynihan uses data from the Bureau of La-
be right. What the hell. In that spirit, here is a brief
bor Statistics for "production and nonsupervisory
critical guide to the potential Democratic stat-bites of
workers." The BLS survey is screwy, in part because it
1992:
has been measuring a smaller and smaller segment of
1. "Due to lack of funding, the Head Start preschool educa-
the labor force as the economy shifts to white-collar
tion program reaches only 20 percent of the eligible children in
work. Figures for the entire work force, from more reli-
this country
"
Obsolete. The old rallying cry of the
able Social Security records, show an average 30 per-
Children's Defense Fund was indeed that Head Start
cent gain since Ike's day.
issues
served only a fifth of poor preschool kids aged 3, 4, and
5. "Real, after-tax income fell for most American families in
5. But funding increases have now raised the CDF num-
the '80s.' Nope. Like Moynihan's, this statistic (used by
squab-
ber to 35 percent. And of the remaining 65 percent,
William Raspberry and Time, among others) is a bit too
urrent
some kids are in state preschool programs, some are in
bad to be true. One problem comes in measuring in-
other.
private programs, some are scattered in rural areas that
come by "families." Families are getting smaller. A
e tem-
are difficult to serve, and some wouldn't want to use
couple with one child living on $30,000 in 1990 is a lot
spats
Head Start. Head Start doesn't reach enough poor chil-
better off financially than a family of six trying to make
MAY 20, 1991 THE NEW REPUBLIC 23
do on the same real income in 1950. When the Con-
during pregnancy. "Drugs" includes alcohol as well as
gressional Budget Office corrects for these shifts, the
illegal substances. There are not 375,000 drug-addicted
bottom 40 percent (not "most") of the population has
babies. There are not 375,000 cocaine-exposed babies
lost ground since 1977. But significantly (for Demo-
or anywhere near 375,000 "crack babies."
crats, anyway) the bulk of the damage occurred before
9.
and it's a disgrace that 3 million Americans are home-
1980. In the much-maligned '80s, the top 70 percent of
less each night. "The 3 million number was promoted by
families gained, with or without the CBO adjustments.
homeless advocates in the mid-'80s. Not even they
Sorry.
bother to defend it anymore. What's the right number?
6. "Since 1980 the share of after-tax household income has
Clearly higher than the 250,000 homeless the Census
fallen for everyone except the richest 20 percent." Correct.
actually counted one day last year. A 1988 study by Mar-
Even when most Americans gained, those in the mid-
tha Burt of the Urban Institute came up with 600,000
dle didn't gain nearly as much as those at the top. In-
as a maximum estimate. Any number between 250,000
equality of income has grown. This stat-bite is probably
and 600,000 is defensible, and still a disgrace.
accurate even if you count government "non-cash"
10. "Fewer than 10 percent of families today fit the old 'Ozzie
benefits like food stamps. It's also true that "inequality
and Harriet' model of homemaker mother and breadwinner
is now at the highest level since World War II." But are
father.' Representative Pat Schroeder's favorite factoid
Republicans to blame? This brings us to
is misleading. It's concocted either by
7. "[S]ome two-thirds of that shift in after-
counting only families with exactly two
tax income toward the top 1 percent
kids, or by inflating the number of
can be attributed to the supply-side
non-Ozzie "families" by includ-
tax changes of 1977 and, espe-
ing seniors, roommates, cou-
cially, 1981
An interest-
ples without children, and
ing, but dubious, statistic
single people living alone.
from Robert S. McIntyre
If you look at only house-
of Citizens for Tax Jus-
holds with children,
tice. Most people
about 25 percent fit
who've studied the
the traditional model.
subject conclude that
About 45 percent of
tax cuts played only a
mothers work full-
small role in the in-
time. That's still a
equality of the '80s.
huge shift from the
Changes in the under-
1950s.
lying economy caused
11. "Between now and the
the rich to earn more be-
year 2000, most new en-
fore taxes. But McIntyre
trants into the work force
argues that the rich invest-
will be minorities. "A "net"
ed their tax cuts, and the
vs. "gross" scam is at work
earnings on that investment
here. As Lawrence Mishel and
showed up later as a rise in pre-
Ruy Teixeira note in a recent pa-
tax income. His calculation re-
per, white non-Hispanics will still
quires some peculiar assumptions,
make up the vast majority (66.8 per-
though. For example, he measures his "tax
cent) of people entering the work force.
cuts" not from the tax code as it was in 1977 before the
But because they will also be the vast majority of people
cuts, but from a hypothetical code he assumes would
leaving the work force, their contribution of "net"-or
have been constantly changed to preserve progressivity.
"new"-workers will be less than 50 percent. The work
Nor is it clear the rich invested, rather than consumed,
force will become a bit less white. But its majority won't
their tax windfalls. Even McIntyre concedes that inequal-
be minority anytime soon, if ever.
ity would still have risen without the tax changes. It's saf-
12. "Approximately 64 percent of all poor children-or nearly
er to stick with Kevin Phillips's fudged formulation: tax
two of every three-live in families with one or more workers."
shifts "go a long way to explain" rising inequality. Who's
This stat-bite from the Center on Budget and Policy
going to argue about what a "long way" is?
Priorities is designed to shock voters who think the
8. "Some 375,000 drug-exposed babies are born each year,
poor don't work. But it counts someone as a "worker"
11 percent of all births." Handle with care. The National
even if they work only a day or two a year. Unfortunate-
Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and Edu-
ly, many people don't work much more than that. Less
cation sent out a questionnaire to hospitals. Some had
than half of poor families with children field even a
conducted detailed interviews of new mothers for drug
quarter-time worker. Fully 40 percent do no work at all.
exposure. Some hadn't. NAPARE concluded, according
Only 25 percent are families where the total work effort
to a spokesperson, that 11 percent of newborns or "as
adds up to 35 hours a week.
many as" 375,000 babies "may have been affected" by
13. "The popular idea of a so-called black underclass is mis-
drugs because their mothers took them at one point
taken. Blacks made up only 45 percent of all welfare recipients
24 THE NEW REPUBLIC MAY 20, 1991
in 1969. That percentage actually fell to 40 percent in 1987.
a Republican tide grow significantly.
Contrarian liberals are starting to produce numbers
Nor does the prospect of a Democratic president
that dispute the notion of a black underclass. Don't buy
thrill them. Many Democrats have more clout with a
them. Yes, blacks are about 40 percent of welfare recipi-
Republican in the White House. If there's a Democrat-
ents (as are whites; the Hispanic share has grown to
ic administration, "policy direction shifts from a com-
16 percent). But a majority of families who are on wel-
mittee chairman to a Cabinet secretary or a White
fare for a long period of time are black-including
House aide," says Democratic Representative Robert
63 percent of people who got most of their income
Torricelli of New Jersey, who worked in Jimmy Carter's
from welfare in at least eight of the ten years from
White House. Senior Democrats, who are full negotiat-
1975-84 (according to Michigan University's Panel
ing partners with a Republican president, would be-
Study of Income Dynamics). If you define the under-
come mere followers with a Democrat in the White
class as urban neighborhoods with extreme poverty, it
House. They know this. So electing a Democratic presi-
is 68 percent black. If you define it as neighborhoods
dent is not a high priority.
with extreme social problems, it is 58 percent black.
14. "72 percent of black children born from 1967 through
t's a Faustian bargain. In exchange for control of
1969 had spent at least a year on welfare by the time they
I
Congress and almost certain re-election, congres-
reached age 18. Another bizarre statistic promoted by
sional Democrats have ceded national policy-mak-
Moynihan that, if accurate, would show the country to
ing to Republicans. Sure, Democrats have a policy
be in terrible trouble. There is a difference, though.
role. They bargain with the White House and some-
This statistic startles not by confounding the crude,
times, as in last year's budget deal, they affect policy
popular wisdom but by confirming it. There's another
dramatically. But mostly they pursue the interests of
difference: the statistic is accurate.
the Democratic pressure groups, collect PAC money,
and win reelection. They're in fat city. Most Democrats
on Capitol Hill are chairmen of a committee, subcom-
mittee, or select committee. In the Senate, there are
The complacent congressional Dems.
103 chairmanships to spread among 56 Democrats. In
the House, there are 166 chairmanships for 267 Demo-
crats. In the 1990 election, Democrats raked in 66 per-
cent of the PAC money that went to congressional in-
HILL POTATOES
cumbents. Small wonder they're complacent.
Until the 1980s Democrats had a congressional par-
ty and a presidential party, just like Republicans.
There was usually a titular head of the party, an Adlai
Stevenson or a Hubert Humphrey. Now there's only a
By Fred Barnes
congressional party. It turns out a steady stream of
clever legislative leaders, but few national leaders.
enator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas didn't fool
Those who rise in Congress are adept at putting to-
S
around with lofty idealism in recruiting congres-
gether a legislative agenda that can be enacted. But
sional Democrats as active campaigners for the
packaging a clear national message that dominates a
national Democratic ticket of 1988. He wasted
presidential campaign requires a different talent.
no time arguing that a Democrat in the White House
"One is the politics of compromise, the other the
would get America moving or create a fairer society.
politics of national inspiration and leadership," says
Bentsen appealed to political self-centeredness. With a
Michael McCurry, former spokesman for the Demo-
Democratic president, he said, Democrats in Congress
cratic National Committee.
would get credit for all the pork barrel they'd steered
Not only do congressional Democrats lack skill at
to their state or district. Instead of congressional Re-
presidential politics, they've come to resent those who
publicans, tipped off by a GOP administration, announc-
do-namely Democratic political consultants who fret
ing grants and federal projects, the Democrats would.
over the party's national image. Before a session of the
No longer, Bentsen insisted, would Republicans be able
DNC on March 23, House Speaker Tom Foley used a
to "steal the announcement."
line of labor leader John L. Lewis to zing consultants
Bentsen, knew his audience. A selfish appeal (even
who criticized congressional Democrats for their han-
it didn't work very well) was the only one with
dling of the war: "It ill behooves one who has supped
a chance of wooing congressional Democrats. Now,
at labor's table and who has been sheltered in labor's
after three clear, successive Republican victories,
house to curse with equal fervor and fine impartiality
congressional Democrats view presidential races with
both labor and its adversaries when they become
dread. "Most feel a presidential race can't help
locked in a deadly embrace." Foley got a noisy ovation.
them, only hurt them," says Richard Moe, a Washing-
Later he singled out consultants by name in addressing
ton attorney who's been involved in the last four
the House Democratic caucus.
Democratic campaigns. There's a reason they think
What Democratic consultants want is hardly outland-
this. In presidential years, their chances of losing in
ish. They think Democrats in Congress should do ev-
26 THE NEW REPUBLIC MAY 20, 1991
William E. Sauro/The New York Time:
At Plainfield High School in New Jersey, young mothers came after classes to pick up their children at the
school's nursery. The boy, not a father, was among other students invited to visit the nursery.
Schools to Help With Life as Well as Learning
By SUSAN CHIRA
Social Work
after-school programs and ad
Special to The New York Times
education.
PLAINFIELD, N.J. - At 7:45 each
Goes to School
Such "one-stop shopping" schools,
weekday morning, 20 Plainfield High
A special report.
they are called by educators and SOC
School girls descend from school buses,
service professionals, are trying
holding the hands of their children. In-
bridge the gap between the socie
side the high school, in a nursery filled
ity to learn, and to connect them with
American schools were intended f
with children's artwork and toys, the
social services they need.
and the one that exists today. T
toddlers will sing, play and sleep while
San Diego is placing city social work-
spread of poverty, drugs, single-pare
their mothers go to school.
ers, child abuse workers, probation
families and two-career couples h
officers and welfare administrators on
transformed the task of schoo
Plainfield High is part of a radical
the grounds of an elementary school. In
swamping teachers who try to be St
redesign going on in some schools
a dozen states from Connecticut to
rogate parents, social workers and ps
around the country: moving an exten-
California, selected schools offer year-
chiatrists.
sive array of social services, like the
round child care and teach parents
"Schools can't handle it alone
program here for teen-age mothers,
about child development.
they're overwhelmed," said Jan
into the schools. The idea uses schools
New York City is building three new
Levy, director of Joining Forces,
to reach troubled families whose prob-
schools specially designed to include
lems are crippling their children's abil-
space for health care, counseling,
Continued on Page A25, Column 1
THE NEW YORK TIMES EDUCATION WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1991
A25
A New Role for Schools: Directing People to the Social Services They Need
program is one of the oldest and most
Ing out candy for good behavior and
Continued From Page Al
successful in the country, according
subtracting points for misconduct.
to Ms. Levy. Students' attendance
Over a year and a half, the children's
records and grades are up, and fewer
grades soared from D's and F's to A's
Washington-based organization that
are dropping out, according to Ed-
and B's. Then the family moved, out
counts nearly 1,000 partnerships be-
ward Tetelman, who developed and
of the school district.
tween schools and social service agen-
oversees the program.
"I think of the man-hours we fed
cles around the country. from elemen-
A model for statewide efforts In
into this family," she said. "And I
(ary schools to high schools.
Kentucky and lowa, the Plainfield
wonder, did they have enough to sus-
While the programs are fairly new,
program offers an array of services,
tain them?"
preliminary results show improved
including dance and theater pro-
grades, attendance, and behavior. Ad-
grams in the summer, employment
vocates of one-stop schools say that
training with the local office of Amer-
Hurdles
linking children, families and schools
Ican Telephone and Telegraph Com-
not only makes sound educational
pany and child care and parental-
Stumbling
sense but could eventually save mil-
skills classes for teen-age mothers.
Jons of dollars spent on welfare, jails,
"Now 1 can come down here and
and hospitals. In theory, they say, the
see him whenever I want to," Jean-
On Regulations
Idea does not have to be too costly be-
nette Jordan said of her 2-year-old
son. "They read to him, and sing
Schools must not only battle en-
cause existing social service pro-
grams can be moved to schools.
songs, and it's all free."
trenched social Ills, but overcome a
number of hurdles to establish part-
But critics warn that already-over-
burdened schools may be taking on
Raising Their Sights
nerships with social service agencies.
Many of the teen-age mothers held
Atella Melaville, who studied
100 much, and that many schools are
jobs at A.T.&T. over the summer and
dozens of such efforts for a group of
400 inflexible to do the job.
made the honor roll. "We are not
school, government and business or.
grooming them to be day-care provid-
ganizations called the Education and
Case Studies
ers," said the program's director,
Human Services Consortium, found a
Yvonne Duncan. "I expect them to go
number of common problems. Turf
battles and disputes about confiden-
Many Needs,
to college."
In two years, only one student In 34
tiality are common. So is red tape.
has had a second baby, Ms. Duncan
Teachers and school administrators
Many Forms
said. To avoid political and religious
may be suspicious of the programs,
objections, the program dees not dis-
fearing that ultimately they will be
One-stop schools come in dozens of
tribute contraceptives, but refers stu-
held responsible and that money will
forms. The scope varies consider-
dents to a local health clinic.
name out of school budgets.
ably. from $31,000 to run a small ele.
Through the halls and up several
Many social service agencies and
mentary school program with one
flights of stairs is the program's main
schools have trouble sharing Infor-
full-times employee In Owensboro,
office, complete with pool and Ping-
William New York [Imas
mation with each other because of
'Ky., to much more comprehensive
Pong tables. By noon on a recent day,
"Nowl can come down here and see him whenever I
Tieem, who is cared for at an in-school nursery while
rules on confidentiality. Many agen-
programs, like the one In Plainfield.
students filled the office, joking and
cies draw up special walvers Here in
Last year, the Plainfield program
want to," said Jeannette Jordan, a senior at Plainfield
she attends classes. The nursery is part of the state's
jostling one another but obeying ad-
Plainfield, program officials keep
cost $400,000, half of which paid for
monitions on the blackboard to take
High School in New Jersey, of her 2-year-old son,
School Based Youth Services Program.
their cases out of official school files.
the teen-age parents' program and its
turns and avoid fights.
nursery.
The office is open every school day
Regulatory nightmares abound. In.
These figures represent start-up
until B P.M. and throughout the sum-
In danger of having children removed
a program to open this summer at a
them 10 consider children's family,
Plainfield, for example, when Ms.
expenses. Advocates of the concept
mer. Not only do students have some-
by the state.
local elementary school. The project,
emetional and social needs.
Duncan established the child-care
"say the one-stop schools could eventu-
thing to do after school, but by hang-
Some programs are more narrowly
"New Beginnings," will place city
One-stop schools go a step further
center, she wanted to buy a van 10 bus
mothers and their familles. The State
ally save money because social serv-
Ing around they come to know and
focused on child care and child devel-
and county social service workers at
by teaming schools with the otten.
ices would be streamlined. Counse-
trust the counselors.
opment. Matia Finn-Stevenson, as-
a center on the grounds of the Hamil.
bewildering array of social services.
Department of Education insisted on
lors or social workers are sometimes
While New Jersey is aiming at ado-
sociate director of Yale University's
ton Elementary School, In a neighbor-
But they are not a panacea. Even the
a more expensive school bus. The
paid for out of regular social service
lescents, many other programs are
Bush Center in Child Development
hood with high rates of crime and
concept's most committed backers
child-care center had to meet three
budgets, sometimes out of special
based In elementary schools, in an of-
and Social Policy, is working with ele-
child abuse.
say the problems are complex and
sparate codes. A dispute broke out
about whether Infant car seats on the
grants.
fort to resolve problems earlier.
mentary schools around the country
Families will have to register their
deeply-rooted and can seem Intracts.
The School Based Youth Services
In St. Louis, for example, the Car-
to develop such services in the cen-
children for school at the center, 50
ble.
bus had to be Installed by minority
contractors.
Program in Plainfield, one of 29 in
Ing Communities program serves
ter's "School of the 21st Century"
that staff workers can get to know
Those Who Got Away
"The schools are, In almost every
New Jersey, shows how the Idea can
pre-schoolers through fifth graders at
program. Its creators believe it
families, said Jeanne Jehl, who di-
work. Every school that participates
the Walbridge Elementary School.
makes more sense not to try to do too
rects the program. Teachers will
Despite considerable success In im-
instance, the agency that is stran-
must offer services in health, mental
Khatib Waheed, the project's direc-
much at once, she sald.
refer children and families with proh.
proving grades, attendance and
gling in red tape and bureaucracies
health, employment, substance abuse
tor, draws on state programs and on
Other programs, like the one in San
lems to the center, where city and
school discipline, Jill Rone is still
and rules and codes," said Milbrey
and family counseling in or near the
activities he has designed for the
Diego, are part of a nationwide move-
county workers who are being re-
haunted by the families she has just.
Wallin McLaughlin, a professor of
school, as well as recreational pro-
school's students, who are mostly
ment to reorganize the maze of differ-
trained as "family service advo-
For two years, Ms. Rone, a furmer
education at Stanford University.
black and poor, and their families.
ent programs that confronts and con-
cates" will guide them through the
toacher, has worked with 25 families
"People don't want to work with
grams. The program Is run by the
New Jersey Department of Human
The programs Include tutoring, after-
fuses many families in trouble. City,
supermarket of services.
as the coordinator for the Kentucky
schools because thye're such a pain in
Services.
school child care, parental-skills
Measures In New York
Integrated Delivery System program
the neck."
county. and education officials in San
Although only three years old, the
in Owensboro. She is their link to so-
But others who have tracked suc-
training and home visits for families
Diego have worked for three years an
In New York City's Washington
cial agencies for such services as
cegsful programs say they have over-
Heights neighborhood :he public
health screenings, psychological
COD'S such barriers. Martin Gerry,
schools and the Children's Aid Soci-
counseling, welfare or housing.
assistant secretary for planning and
ety are teaming up 16 finance three
evaluation of the Department of
one-stop schools, two of them elemen-
Ms. Rone tells of one family in
Health and Human Services, has ex-
tary and one junior high. Each school
which the father, an alcholic regu-
amineq one-stop programs In 15
will be designed to stay open late,
larly abused the mother. Thice of the
states and 15 citles.
with classroom areas in separate
four children were in school and all
wings so they can be closed at 3 P.M.
were in trouble. One child was ex-
Programs worked best, he found,
Extra street lighting will be installed
pelled from school for violent behav-
when they helped families as well as
to make it safer to be at school at--
lor; two others were scraping by.
individual children, set reasonable
night. The schools will offer health
Over a three-month period, Ms. Rone
goals, affered comprehensive serv-
care, counseling, adult education and
helped the family find 10 teniporary
Ices and involved parents and local
recreational activities to a largely
housing sites. At each one, the father
community organizations. They need
Dominican neighborhood that is one
would go on a binge, destroy property
high-tavel political support and must
of the city's roughest.
and end up on the street.
be judged by results, not just efforts.
Meanwhile, in a hint of what is to
Non do programs offering compre-
come, the school board, Children's
Drawing on contacts and advice
hensive services for families neces-
Aid. and a local community group,
garnered from monthly meetings
sarily have to be based in schools,
Attanza Cominicans: fire sponsoring
with representatives of social service
which some parents may shun be-
Meanwhile, In a hint of what is to
Nor do programs offering compre-
come, the school board, Children's
Drawing on' contacts and advice
hensive services for families neces-
Ald, and a local community group,
garnered from monthly meetings
sarily have to be based in schools,
Allanza Dominicana, are sponsoring
with representatives of social service
which some parents may shun be-
an after-school program. Every af-
agencies, Ms. Rone was able to place
cause they hated school when they
ternoon at Intermediate School 143,
the father In Alcoholics Anonymous
were young. But many program ad-1
150 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-
and counseling programs. She
vocates argue that schools are still
graders can get help with homework,
worked with the mother, trying to
the best place to reach childrer id:
eat snacks, and play sports.
convince her to leave her husband un-
their families.
less he stuck with his treatment. She
"If you can keep your eye on e
Viadimir Alvarez chewed a choco-
tutored the child who had been ex-
kids, you can Set through countless'
late chip granola bar and sipped fruit
pelied and enrolled him in a special
controversies,' said Roberta Knowl-
punch. Despite the chatter of other
summer cadip.
ton, director of the New Jersey pro-
chidren, the 13-year-old worked dill-
She mes weekly with the other two
gram. "If you look at the rules and
gently, reading an article about base-
children, going over homework, dol-
regulations, kids get lost."
ball stars and then writing a few sen-
tences about each one. Before the
after-school program started in Janu-
ary, he said, he would play outside
until dark and go home. "It's easler to
work here," he said. There are peo-
ple to help you."
Limitations
Some Problems
Seem Intractable
The approaches vary, but they all
recognize that trouble at home usu-
ally spells trouble at school. The phi-
losophy behind one-stop schools
draws on Ideas successfully tested by
the Head Start program and by
James P. Comer, a child psychologist
at Yale University who has helped re-
vive New Haven's public schools.
For 25 years, Head Start has helped
prepare needy pre-school children for
kindergarten by combining educa-
tional programs with health and
family counseling services. Head
Start teachers visit homes, and par-
ents help run the program.
Dr. Comer has turned schools
Ruby Washington/ the York Times
around in New Haven by creating
Carmen Melendez, a hygienist for Children's Aid Society, demonstrat-
teams of teachers, psychologists, SO-
ing good dental hygiene to 13-year-old Michelle Mangru during after-
clal workers and parents and training
school program at Intermediate School 143 in Washington Heights
a
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WEDNESDAY. MAY 15. 1991
How Affirmative Action Really Works
The following IS an abridgement of an
named Mendoza would count. A "boat per-
potential minority interviewees. In fact. we
vite three black candidates to campus
account of a faculty search that appeared
son" from Vietnam would not.
had about 20 minority applications in all.
fourth is held in reserve. The man fre
under п pseudonym in the April issue of
Applications began to arrive.
about half of whom were just not qualified.
Rutgers came. he saw. he conquered. I
Lingua Franca: The Review of Academic
Oct. 17. In a conversation in the hall,
We decided on four people to be inter-
paper was interesting and thoughtful.
Life, published in Westchester. N.Y. The
the chair told me that he had gotten a
viewed-with Ph.D.s from Princeton.
held up well under questioning. not over
author changed some details to protect the
bill from Black Opportunity for the adver-
Penn. CUNY and Rutgers-all blacks. as It
defensive but holding his ground. The oth
privacy of the persons involved.
tisement we had placed. It was for $300-
turned out. and none from this year's crop
two candidates more or less repeated the
approximately five times the cost of the
of Ph.D.s. Rather. they were faculty mem-
disappointing interviews. All three saw
Sept. 23. 1989. The first faculty meeting
advertisement in our association newslet-
bers in tenure-track jobs. If we hired. we
dean.
of the term for the Department of English
ter. This "academic mugging" seemed to
were going to be raiding other institutions.
Jan. 12. A startling development. T
at Midwestern State. One of our assistant
me disgraceful. if also a nice lesson in af-
(The remaining 10 interviews were sched-
dean was so impressed with two of the pe
professors was denied tenure last year.
firmative action economics.
uled with non-minority men and women.
ple on the short list that he has given
and. given the financial constraints on the
Nov. 2. I am screening the applications.
Dec. 28-30. Nobody who hasn't sat in a
permission to hire both of them.
university. we were anxious to find out
A problem emerges: How do you tell who
stuffy hotel room for nine hours a day of
We go around the room and get ever
whether we would be able to replace him.
is a minority candidate? The applications,
job interviews can fully appreciate the hor-
one's impressions. It becomes clear th
The chair of the department told us the fol-
the first offer is non-controversial. Inde
lowing: "The dean has authorized a search
it is unanimous: the man from Rutgers. }
at the assistant professor level for a 'mi-
I don't know if the applicant would have felt better
is in a field that we do not cover now. He
nority' candidate."
if I had said, "You're not going to get an interview.
highly qualified. He is not an America
Most of my colleagues-largely liberal,
black the's a West Indian) but that's u
left ideologically and disillusioned Demo-
You're white." But I would have.
dean's worry. What about the second 0
crats politically-were sympathetic to the
fer? Here things turn slightly nasty. It b
need to have minorities and women on the
quite reasonably. have no place to indicate
ror of it all. Virtually every applicant was
comes clear that the people in his area C
faculty. To this end. the department had
worse in person than on paper.
not think that he is good enough. The
been quite conscious of the need to hire
race.
One looks for subtle, or not so subtle.
One. however. the man from Rutgers.
have read his work and do not think it on
women-who. as a consequence. were rep-
clues. If the candidate has an undergradu-
actually proved more lively, more acute
inal or well argued. But. the argumer
resented at all ranks. including full profes-
and wittier than his letters of recommen-
from the opposition goes. we can't be sur
sor. Some years ago we had a black assis-
ate degree from a largely black school: if
dation suggested. He displayed a wide
that he isn't good enough. Why not hir
tant professor who left when he received
the candidate is working on a Ph.D. that
involves minority issues: if the candidate
range of learning and an analytical mind,
him and let the tenure process decide tha
a better offer from an Eastern university.
issue? Meanwhile we have an extra mem
belongs to a primarily minority profes-
impressing the entire committee. Of
All this had been done without any specific
course. we now had to read his work in
ber of the faculty. How can it hurt?
pressure from the administration.
sional organization: if the candidate was
born in Ethiopia: if the thesis supervisor is
more detail and he had to come give a pa-
But others. the majority. see anothe
First Compromise
per to the department. but so far. SO good.
scenario as more convincing. In six year
wily enough to somehow get in a reference
We decided to put an ad in the principal
not so easy without being open to charges
In addition. two other minority candidates
this person will have a long publication hs
English-literature-association newsletter
of patronizing or racist behavior ).
were possibilities. Neither did particularly
in respectable journals. He will have made
for job hunters. In doing SO, we made our
well at the interview. but they both seemed
the academic contacts to get good letter:
I usually checked with one of my black
of recommendation. He will have made
first affirmative action compromise: Al-
professional acquaintances. The grapevine
to be good teachers and their letters were
himself useful around campus. At that
though we had specific needs in certain
is sufficiently accurate that they are al-
impressive.
point. given that he is black. it will be
areas. we decided not to limit the search
most always able to make a positive identi-
That same day. one of the non-minority
impossible for the university to deny him
by area. Quite simply. to do so would have
fication. Only once did I actually have to
candidates we had interviewed. an ex-
tenure-no matter what the judgment of
reduced the minority-candidate pool to mi-
call a department to ask bluntly if a candi-
tremely promising young professor from a
his peers. So if we think now that the per-
nuscule. or even nonexistent. size. The ad-
date was black the wasn't). I began to de-
major graduate department. cornered me
son is unlikely to produce excellent work.
vertisement could not exclude non-minor-
velop moral qualms.
in the hall. He was currently in an un-
ity candidates from applying. It could only
Not. 10. My equivocal moral position
happy academic position that left him little
we must not make the appointment in the
soon took on a more personal cast. A can-
time for research. in spite of which he had
first place. Ultimately. that is the decision
state the "Midwestern State is an Affirma-
tive Action/ Opportunity employer.
just had a book published by Stanford Uni-
of the department.
didate at another school where I had been
Minority candidates are especially encour-
a visiting professor called me to inquire
versity Press. He was desperate to get an-
Political Realities
aged to apply."
about the job. While he was otherwise
other position. and he knew we had nobody
Ironically. in this case the candidate's
In addition to placing an ad in our asso-
quite promising. 1 knew that he really did
in his area of expertise.
race worked against him. Had he been
ciation newsletter. the chair placed an ad
not stand a chance of even getting an in-
"How did I do? Do you think I will get
white, many would have been willing to
in a magazine I'll call Black Opportunity.
terview. How much of the situation ought I
an invitation to campus?" Following my
give him the benefit of a trial period. But
a newsletter aimed specifically at listing
reveal?
policy of not revealing more than I had
political realities made that impossible.
jobs for minority candidates. In addition.
After some thought I decided that if
been explicitly asked. I told him that while
It's also true that had he been white. he
we wrote letters to the major Ph.D.-grant-
someone asked me whether the job was a
he had done well in the interview, the de-
would not have made it to the interview
ing departments asking them to recom-
"real one -i.e.. competitive in the normal
partment would make the decision about
stage.
mend minority candidates. Finally. a num-
way-1 would tell the truth: The position
whom to invite to campus, we had various
To his credit. the dean does not question
ber of us who had minority friends in vari-
had been "designated" by the dean as a
needs and priorities. blah, blah. blah. But I
the decision of the department. The search
ous departments called them and asked
minority position: it was extremely un-
knew that when he got the standard rejec-
is over. Now it is a matter of wooing.
them to recommend minority faculty who
likely that a non-minority person would be
tion letter he would blame himself for not
Jan. 17. I learn in the hall from the
already had jobs.
hired. On the other hand. If 1 were not
doing better in the interview, not getting
chair that the dean has made the candi-
A search committee. of which I was a
asked point-blank. I would maintain si-
that extra letter of recommendation. I
date the following offer. He will enter at a
part. was set up. We would receive about
lence about the limitations of the search.
don't know if he would have felt better
salary $4,000 greater than any other assis-
300 applications.
Not: 15. The search committee began to
if I had said. "You're not going to get
tant professor. including those who had
Oct. 15. The dean informed us that
make a short list of candidates to invite for
an interview. You're white." But I would
been in rank for five years longer. He is
blacks. "Hispanic-surnamed" persons and
interviews at our annual association con-
have.
offered a research fund of $10,000 a year
Native Americans counted as minorities:
ference. Given the time and faculty avail-
Jan. 5, 1990. The first faculty meeting
for three years. Unlike other research
East Indians and Asians did not. Someone
able. we figured we could interview 14 peo-
after the holidays. The interviewing com-
funds awarded to professors in the depart-
born in Argentina to a Jewish family
ple. but It was clear that we didn't have 14
mittee makes its report. We decide to in-
ment. this money could be used for sum-
mer salary. He will have a reduced teach-
ing load for his first year.
Jan. 27. The candidate. who was teach-
ing at a state university in the Northwest.
accepted.
Nov. 1. Now that It's all over. what is
my view of how affirmative action works?
It certainly does not conform to the picture
painted by opponents of "quotas." No un-
qualified individual was forced upon a de-
partment against its better judgment. at
the cost of passing up much better quali-
fied non-minority candidates. Had this
been a color-blind competition. our win-
ning candidate would almost certainly not
have made it to the interviewing stage.
where his talents were able to show. Nor IS
it the case that the department had "inter-
malized" the process so that, without being
forced to. it voluntarily lowered its stan-
dards as a means to a good end. On the
other hand, I do think that we were lucky:
The outcome easily could have been
worse.
Second City Rethinking
Deteriorating services and bloated
low Chicago students to attend any
budgets have cities all over the coun-
qualified school of their choice. Public
try treading water these days. Some,
schools could scrap a host of bureau-
such as New York, are reacting the
cratic regulations and allow teachers
old-fashioned way-by raising taxes
to do their best.
and cutting vital services as a first
Mayor Daley also pledged to step
step before making final appeals to
up his efforts to improve the delivery
state or federal leaders. But there's a
of services. A key weapon in that bat-
more hopeful story to tell as well.
tle has been "prudent privatization."
Other cities-from Phoenix to Chi-
This year the city of Chicago an-
cago-have decided they can no
nounced it would use competitive bid-
longer afford mismanagement-as-
ding to contract out sewer cleaning
usual and are questioning entrenched
along with drug- and alcohol-treat-
bureaucratic models of governance.
ment programs. Last year the privati-
The future of America's major cities
zation of parking-ticket collections
may lie in which approach they
alone generated $12 million in addi-
adopt.
tional revenues. "The concept of pri-
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a
vatization is now accepted here, be-
Democrat, has just begun his second
cause the benefits are SO obvious,"
term by declaring war on "the most
says Alejandro Bertuol of Chicago's
powerful force in government-iner-
Heartland Institute.
tia." In a boat-rocking inaugural ad-
But such lessons are still lost on
dress he pledged to downsize govern-
other cities. Though faced with a $3
ment by scrapping outdated programs
billion deficit and paying dearly to
and practices.
sell notes and bonds, members of the
Mayor Daley zeroed in on Chi-
New York City Council typically at-
cago's public schools, considered
tack privatization as "union-busting"
some of the worst and most spend-
and "part of the Reagan era of
thrift in the nation. "The call for new
greed." They complain that New York
money to sustain what many see as
has special problems other cities don't
the same, old system simply will not
have. They are right. No other Ameri-
fly," he declared. "The school bureau-
can city has adopted so many collec-
cracy still stands in the way of
tivist policies and yet clings to them
change, rather than leading it." He
in the face of all available evidence.
warned that if the bureaucracy didn't
Political leaders such as Chicago's
surrender its stranglehold on reform,
Mayor Daley who question the status
he would consider backing a voucher
quo won't find it easy to change
program for the schools.
things. Many of the practices Mr. Da-
The mere mention of vouchers sent
ley is challenging were popularized
the local educational politburo into a
when his late father served as mayor.
tizzy. Under relentless assault, the
But he and other mayors are begin-
mayor eventually suggested his
ning to realize that public-sector mo-
voucher program would only allow
nopolies are the policy dinosaurs of
students to attend other public
the 1990s. Cities that recognize that
schools. But his taboo-breaking com-
fact will survive and prosper. Those
ments will surely fuel support for a
that do not will increasingly be at a
true educational-choice bill backed by
competitive disadvantage, as resi-
members of the black caucus in the Il-
dents and capital depart to cities that
linois Legislature. It would create
have had the courage to innovate and
"scholarship accounts" that would al-
reform.
A Presidency President
Proponents of the interesting aca-
specific directions for carrying out a
demic discipline of Public Choice be-
particular law." The foreign-aid bill
gin with the assumption that politi-
for example, has become an interna-
cians act in their self-interest, which
tional pork-barrel system where Con-
explains, for example, campaign-fi-
gressmen get to "earmark" the most
nance laws that protect incumbents.
minute detail of how the $14 billion
The glaring exception to this rational
program is spent. Last month, the
incentive system has been the past 20
White House proposed new legislation
years of acquiescence by Presidents
that would "put an end to micromana-
to micromanagement of government
gement of all of our foreign economic.
by Congress beyond all reasonable
security and humanitarian assistance
bounds. Especially since the closing
programs."
days of the Nixon White House, Presi-
Mr. Bush emphasized that he sees
dents have done little to protect their
the veto as a strong weapon for fight-
constitutional turf. As a consequence,
ing back not just against bills he op-
concepts such as separation of
poses on their merits, but also legisla-
powers, limited government and ac-
tion that violates the constitutional de-
countability to voters are now weak or
sign. He noted that "six times in my
blurred.
presidency I have vetoed bills that
These heady subjects were the
would have weakened presidential
theme of a fighting speech last week
powers." Writing nearby, Terry East-
by President Bush. who in effect said
land describes this as the presidential
he's not going to take it anymore. Mr.
"self-defense veto."
Bush's announcement of his strategy
Mr. Bush has also declared in his
for winning back powers and duties
that belong to the executive branch
signing statements that dozens of par-
deserves some attention, especially
ticular provisions in bills are unconsti-
tutional and that he would therefore
after the performance of the Com-
mander in Chief in the Persian Gulf.
instruct his officials to ignore them.
These look like item vetoes to us,
"Although our Founders never en-
visioned a Congress that would churn
though Mr. Bush still asked in his
out hundreds of thousands of pages'
speech for the power to line-item veto.
which he said he would use to stop
worth of reports and hearings and
such absurdities as "the federal grant
documents and laws every year," Mr.
Bush said, "they did understand that
to study COW belches or a Lawrence
Welk museum." Mr. Bush pushed the
legislators would try to accumulate
item-veto debate further by reminding
power." He quoted James Madison's
his audience that "some believe that I
famous warning in the Federalist Pa-
already have that power under the
pers that "the legislative department
Constitution." But for some reason the
is everywhere extending the sphere of
White House hasn't tried a test case
its activity and drawing all power into
its impetuous vortex."
yet.
Here's some of what the vortex
Mr. Bush's commitment to finding
sucks in. "For fiscal year 1989 the
ways to correct the imbalance be-
Pentagon devoted 500 man-years and
tween the presidency and Congress is
over S50 million just to write reports
a far cry even from Ronald Reagan,
responding to congressional queries
who failed to veto the infamous Bo-
on such items as plans for manning
land amendments and reauthorized
tugboats and accounting for the num-
the special-prosecutor law. In addition
ber of bands," Mr. Bush said. He
to watching the Reagan presidency
noted that Pentagon staffers respond
founder on the criminalizing of policy
to 750.000 inquiries from congressional
differences known as Iran-Contra, Mr.
staffers every year representing the
Bush's experience as a Member of
107 congressional committees and
Congress during its continuing era of
subcommittees that "oversee" Penta-
imperial overstretch must have
gon programs. These never-ending re-
taught him how high the separation-
quests make it hard for anyone to
of-powers stakes have become.
function, and "waste the time and en-
It is appropriate that Mr. Bush
ergy of the executive." They are espe-
made these comments at Princeton
cially a waste now that we have seen
University, whose former president,
how well all those $600 toilet seats
Woodrow Wilson, wrote a classic polit-
performed against Iraq.
ical-science text many decades ago ti-
Mr. Bush also complained about
tled "Congressional Government." A
congressional meddling in trying to
power-grabbing Congress is nothing
mandate whom he appoints to various
new, but a President willing to fight
effices and the habit of "writing too
back is both new and overdue.