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-opinior nplav.c al budget ci Apparently the S. make a decision. W passed the financial days before a 2.4 pen by the state Budget take effect. Now all that is nec< signature, and the sp disappear. This is good news especially for USC, v five programs for pos million budget deficit A 2.4 percent cut i have had severe eff might have caused t week, and it could ha^ extra $175, althougl Holderman said he \ option. The Legislature's i lot of unneeded worn students. When the G in January, the lawn facing a $60 million sli they do anything abou For two months, le one cent increase in tl solved the problem, authorizing agencies t furlough without pay Means Committee un was decided. Meanwhile, the Bud ordering state agenci cent budget reduction the shortfall. With time running defeated the sales t authorization was lan 3 percent cut seemed < Enter the Ways an ported by State Audit no crisis. The $60 m illusion because th< acquired by tapping and speeding collectic The announcement legislators who felt tl Ways and Means C auditor. There were c. The Budget and Co for today for the legi: General Assembly ar or state agencies w( percent budget cut. rnl f -1 1 ' me xuror aiea ao passed with two day: The lawmakers ha> models of inactior something when forcc If South Carolina fa< will have a tough tin tax increase is needed I? Gorr Edi Rict Copy Desk Chief Ann Appleyal Asst. Chief James Sokolowsl News Editor Chris Hand Asst. News Editor .... Janet Eden Asst.'News Edit. Rachel Waterhous Ent. Editor John Vaugha Asst. Ent. Editor ... Jim Van Arsdal Sports Editor Johnny Bogg Asst. Spoils Editor. . Dennis Swit/e Opinion Page Editor ... Leslie Kai Wire Editor Leslie Potas Newsroom 777 7 18 Business Office 777 388 The Gamecock welcomes letters pHitnrialc mncf ho tunouuritton trinlo. oi Letters should be no longer than 30C to one newsworthy subject no longe editorials MUST be signed with the address, class standing or faculty \ ceptable, but the writer's name may bi warrant. We reserve the right to edit guest edi Address letters and columns to: Opm Columbia, S C. 29208 - - mm mm - ? most make Lits a reality C. General Assembly cai ednesday the state Senat< bailout package just tw< lent budget reduction ordei ana control Board was t< essary is Gov. Dick Riley'i ectre of the budget cut wil for all state agencies, bui /hich is already examining isible cuts to deal with a $1( idded to this deficit woulc ects on the university. II he closing of school for a /e forced students to pay ar h USC President James vould not recommend this naction until now caused a ^ing by administrators and eneral Assembly convened lakers knew the state was lortfall in revenues. But did it it? No. igislators wrangled over a le sales tax that could have Af f ~ Li" LUC; acinic unit;, a Ulil o put workers on a five-day sat in the House Ways and itil the fate of the tax bill get and Control Board was es to prepare for a 3 perif legislators did not erase out, the House acted. It ax bill, but the furlough guishing in committee. The a certainty. d Means Committee, supor Edgar Vaughn. There is lillion shortfall is only an 3 needed funds can be a few state bank accounts >n of some taxes. t created a furor amone ley had been duped by the Committee and the state alls for Riley's resignation, ntrol Board set a deadline slation to be passed by the id signed by the governor, )uld have to endure a 2.4 wn and the package was 5 to spare. /e shown themselves to be 1 who can accomplish id to. ces a true crisis, legislators le convincing the people a \ocr\r U 1 tor in Chief lard Meyers e Photo Editor Michael Becker ki Asst. Photo Edit Ruth Schooler al Copy Editors David DeWitt. Mark s Farmer. Leigh Jones and Ralph Slice in General Manager Ron Emler le Ad Manager I inda S. Haines is Business Manager Jean Hatched >r Production Mgr. Mark McEwan ; Graduate Asst Wanda M Hite h Adviser Mark Ethridge Jr. 1 Advertising 777 4249 8 Production 7 7 7^2833 and guest editorials. All letters and guest paced on a 65 space line ) words and guest editorials should be limited r than four typed pages, l etters and guest writer's name, telephone number, mailing josition and major. Pseudonyms are un^c 2 withheld upon request if the circumstances torials and letters. ion Page Editor, Gamecock, Drawer A, USC, -letters Which stude By Or. Lorin W. Anderson Recently, I ran across a study conducted 10 years ago by two educational researchers who went into schools and asked teachers how many of their students would learn what they were taught. The most nrovalpnt rpcnnnco uiac fhat one-third would learn well, one-third would learn well enough to "get by" and one-third would learn little, if anything. I was struck once again by the implication that the typical teacher begins each lesson believing that at least one-third of his students won't learn the lesson. Supposing this to be true, I asked myself "why?" Does this finding imply that one-third of the students in our schools can't learn? Or are there other reasons for this perception on the part of teachers? Unfortunately, the failure to learn often is attributed to the students themselves. Such an attribution is nothing new. Alfred Binet, the Droclairned fathpr of thp int#?l]ia#?nr>o test, was commissioned by the French Ministry of Education in the late 19th century to develop a test that would allow school people to distinguish students who failed to learn because they were unmotivated from those who failed to learn because they lacked the intellectual capacity. Lack of capacity and lack of motivation remain two of the major categories of reasons that are given to explain why students do not learn. What is new is the degree of sophist5cation used to categorize the reasom. ind the degree of precision with which we assign students to these categories. Labels such as "educable mentally handicapped," "trainable mentally handicapped," "learning disabled," "under-achiever," "emotionally disturbed," "culturally deprived" and "just plain lazy" have provided handy "boxes" in which to "dump" Band membf Editor: Carolina's victory over Marquette on ( have been one of the major highlig basketball season. Too bad a small numl had to pick this particular televised gi gross ignorance of sportsmanship. It is well accepted at basketball gan opposing players when they are atten throws from the charity stripe by the making a cacophony of noise by the s group of highly visible Carolina represe unison, "Hey No. 33, your mother's a sli center Terrell Schlundt was at the foul any discernible level of intelligence one MHMHMBDHnnD H OLAKYW? mm Wt CONTROL BWIKS nts can learn guest editorial students who don't ? or I mean, can't ? learn. These categories have been developed by educators who have spent many hours studying the differences among students believed to have difficulty learning in school. Students are placed into these categories on the basis of their performance on increasingly sophisticated tests, clinical interviews and other methods of assessment. These new methods tend to provide more reliable information about students; however, the validity of that information is open to question since in many ways the validity depends on the meaningfulness of the categories. We must believe, for example, that there really are "learning disabled" students, all of whom possess certain qualities or characteristics, if we are to interpret test scores as indicating Freddy or Patty is "learning disabled." The point is not that some students ? perhaps even more than one-third ? don't learn in schools. Data gathered from a variety of tests (such as the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills and the Basic Skills Assessments, both batteries used in South Carolina) provide adequate documentation that a large proportion of children simply don't acquire the most basic skills. The point to be made here is that "don't learn" and "can't learn" are two rliffprpnt fhinttc In fant v>.v uiuigo, in lavi, iw HUtliy of our children who don't learn can learn. They don't learn because they are taught improperly or not taught at all. Many of our so-called "learning disabled" children are in fact "schooling disabled." By saying this I do not mean to imply that the fault jrs disrespect in "college" student :BS-TV Feb. 27 could the sandbox with th hts of the Carolina room, whichever is n t>er of band members I should hope the b ime to portray their under his tutelage detrimental to Caro les to try to distract game. There was als ipting to make free this blatant denigrati waving of arms and at the game and wal pectators. But for a sense of pride and sp< ntatives to yell out in somewhat disheartei lit." while Marquette victory marred by th< line, falls way below would expect to find } in schools ? rests entirely, or even mostly, with teachers. The fault resides almost entirely in the nature of schools. Put simply, schools are organized for administrative convenience, not for most effective student learning. 5 Similar-^ged students are scheduled into fairly large classes and spend nxea amounts ol time per day studying various subjects and topics. Such scheduling in no way facilitates student learning. Rather, such scheduling reflects several key facts. First, there are only so many teachers school districts can afford to hire. Hence, class size is determined primarily by economic realities. ^ Second, uniform age of entry into school permits easy identification and monitoring of who should and should not be in school. Furthermore, by subtracting five years from a child's present age you know in what grade he or she should be enrolled. Eightyear-olds, for example, should be in third grade. This knowledge permits tho nlanninii r\C ~f 1 ? mv ^luiuniig vji me uuiuuci ui giauc levels in school buildings and the number of classrooms and teachers to ^ be assigned to each grade level. Third, the allocation of uniform time for lessons on various school subjects is necessary if the requisite number of subjects mandated by state departments of education (such as the Defined Minimum Program in South Carolina) are to be covered each day or week. In addition, at the high school level, uniform time allocations permit students to pass from room to room at ** I the same time, thus Drohibitine constant movement of students in the schools. While administrative concerns are real, we must nonetheless examine the impact of such administratively oriented decisions on student learning. Anderson is assistant dean for educational studies and services in IJSC's College of Education. fill on TV 11 s. That type of behavior belongs out in ie six-year-olds or the band's practice lore convenient for the band members, and director informs the boys and girls that this type of behavior is very Una's image to the spectators at the o the compounded impact of displaying on on national television. For those of us :ching on television who embody a true >rtsmanship in Carolina athletics, it was ling to leave the Coliseum with a great e ignorance of a few. Jim Rollison Law student