Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Bush to send first educational plan by Anjetta McQueen Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is wasting no time schooling the nation on its education agenda. Its first week is packed with education events, and it’s sending to Congress the outline of a plan for changing federal education laws that includes private-school choice. “President-elect Bush thinks this is going to be a powerful incentive to make sure that all our public schools live up to the standards that can and must be set for them,” Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said in laying out the initial schedule for White House reporters. “You can anticipate a lot of action on education,” he said. Bush, who made early, decisive action the cornerstone of his presidential campaign, starts off his first week with a meeting with literacy experts Monday and leading members of Congress on Tuesday. Later that day, he’ll send a proposal “written in English,” rather than the legal language of Congress, to Capitol Hill. Bush will complete the week with a planned swearing-in of Rod Paige, former Houston school’s chief, as his education secretary on Wednesday. He’ll round out the week with a look at the Head Start program and more congressional meetings Thursday, and on Friday hold a bipartisan session with new members of Congress. The meetings in Bush’s first week as president would signify “the importance of working together to get it done,” Fleischer said Friday. The law that governs most federal education programs expires this year. Several members of the Senate and House plan to release their own plans this week. At a White House ceremony Tuesday, Bush will announce a slate of plans to increase student testing and to hold schools responsible for how much pupils leant. Bush has promised he would require more student testing, punish and reward states depending on pupil performance, expand public charter schools, spend $5 billion to boost literacy over fiye years and spend $8 billion over 10 years for more college scholarships and grants. He would require that schools receiving federal funds because they serve poor children would have to give up some of that federal money — about $1,500 per student — if they fail to meet standards for three straight years. Students could then use the money for transportation to another public school, private-school vouchers or tutoring. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said Sunday that vouchers, strongly opposed by Democratic lawmakers, “won’t be a top priority of this administration.” But Card, appearing on CNN’s Late Edition, and other presidential aides said vouchers would be a part of the package Bush sends to Congress. “They may be a tool that is used to help educate a child who is not getting an education in his school.” Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota called it “good news” that Bush was taking up education as his first issue. But a voucher program was “not something that we will agree with.” Under the Bush plan, Fleischer said, students in schools that do not meet standards within three years will earn a right to a share of federal money that was going to that school. “The parents could use that money to attend another public school as they see fit and have their transportation needs paid for, or the parent could use that funding to send their child to a private school or parochial school of their choice,” he said Bush spent most of his campaign touting these ideas, but in recent weeks has kept the details within a close circle of education advisers, saving specifics for public forums. Paige, speaking on ABC’s This Week, emphasized that while the broad framework of Bush’s ideas will be presented to Congress, the White House was prepared to listen to other views. “You are going to see in the end a uniting of all the people who are interested in this issue.” School groups, from teachers’ unions to school boards, have weighed in on the course Bush should pursue. “As a father who sent his daughters to stellar public schools... Bush is in a unique position to champion excellent public education for all,” said Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, a 2.5-million-teacher union that opposes public spending on private educations. Bush and Paige, who have touted their cooperation with Democrats in the Texas legislature and Houston school board have said they want to do the same with a closely divided Congress. Israelis, Palestinians head into peace talks n v/ T i ii n , n /-v n i n n Associated Press TABA, Egypt — With Israeli and Palestinian teams set to make a major push for a peace breakthrough at this Egyptian resort, both sides gave off signals Sunday that dampened the already slim hopes for success. In Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Barak set lines he pledged never to cross, and senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Israeli stance meant the “Mure of these negotiations before they begin.”' Nearly four months of Israeli Palestinian violence have left both sides embittered, and more trouble broke out Sunday. A 14-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed in the Gaza Strip, and three more Palestinians were wounded in the same confrontation with the Israeli army near the Kami crossing between Gaza and Israel, said Shifa I hospital in Gaza. A small bomb went off Sunday evening in an Arab area of Jerusalem’s walled Old City, close to a Jewish neighborhood. There were no injuries, police said. Still, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators said they were ready for intensive talks that could last for up to 10 days. For the embattled Barak, the negotiations may be a last chance to revive his flagging re-election campaign. Barak trails in the polls by about 20 percentage points heading into a Feb. 6 election for prime minister, and many analysts believe a peace agreement is his only real hope of catching his rival, the hawkish Ariel Sharon. “I promise... to end the occupation and the rule over another people,” Barak said on army radio. Sharon said he didn’t view the Taba talks as legitimate and said he would only accept a peace accord that is approved by Israel’s parliament, where Barak has just minority support, according to spokeswoman Odelia Lazar-Carmon. Even within Barak’s camp, there was criticism of the timing of the negotiations. “I do not think that holding talks two weeks before the elections is proper,” said veteran lawmaker Uzi Baram of Barak’s Labor Party. The talks “are good for Israel, and everything that’s good for Israel must be done,” countered Israeli negotiator Yossi Sarid, head of the Merets party. Barak said he was holding firm on key issues that led to breakdowns in previous peace talks—sovereignty over Jerusalem’s most contested religious site and the fate of some 4 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants. “Israel will not accept under any circumstances the right of return of (Palestinian) refugees to Israel,” Barak said, rejecting a fundamental Palestinian demand. “As prime minister, I will not sign any document which hands over sovereignty on the Temple Mount to the Palestinians.” The Temple Mount, which the Palestinians call the Haram as-Sharif, is revered by both Jews and Muslims. Israel claims sovereignty over the shrine inside Jerusalem’s walled Old City. The Muslims have effective day-to-day control, but are seeking full sovereignty. Also, the Israeli government said it will insist 80 percent of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip be allowed to remain under Israeli sovereignty. That would cover about 160,000 of the nearly 200,000 settlers in those areas. Erekat said those Israeli ; positions offered no real prospect for progress, let alone a deal. Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath i was not quite so pessimistic about the I ■■ m talks, but he stressed that the Palestinians would not feel pressured by Israel’s looming election. “We are going to discuss all issues with the hope of reaching an agreement,” Shaath said. Still, he added, “we are not going to make an agreement just because time is running out.” Shaath said the Palestinians were seeking “a full framework for the permanent settlement, and this framework has to be really quite clear.” He cited the refugee issue as the one where the largest gaps remained. Israel, which has 6 million citizens, says it will never allow millions of Palestinian refugees and their families to return to former homes in its territory. Such a return, Israelis fear, would destroy the country’s Jewish character. Neither Barak nor Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was expected in Egypt during the initial days of the negotiations. The talks are expected to focus on recent proposals by former President Clinton, who left office Saturday. The Clinton proposals call for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, 95 percent of the West Bank and Arab areas of east Jerusalem. Israel and the Palestinians have accepted Clinton’s plan in principle, but both have added significant reservations. In particular, the Palestinians have been reluctant to abandon the demand for the refugees’ right of return, and Israel has shafed at transferring control of the Jerusalem holy site. President Geoige W. Bush is likely ;o keep his distance from the peace trocess. Palestinian negotiators have ippealed to Bush to get actively involved, ind his aide Karl Rove, speaking on Fox rv, said the president was paying ‘careful attention” to the talks and egarded Middle East peace moves as lis high priority. Death ot Kabila causes Congo more turmoil BY 1 I M SULLIVAN Associated Press KINSHASA, Congo —The riches of Congo are staggering: 65 percent of the world’s cobalt, the planet’s second-largest reserves of industrial diamonds, vast copper deposits. Blanketed with rainforests and endless savannahs, its tourism potential alone is worth millions of dollars a year. Not that you could tell by looking around. The sprawling Central African nation is a disaster — wrung out by corrupt rulers, carved up by warring armies and filled with people just a few meals short of starvation. Rebel factions control nearly half the country, many of the nation’s roads are completely impassable, and telephone, electricity and postal service haven’t been seen in much of the interior for decades. Instead of bringing wealth, Congo’s resources have brought it misery. “Congo is like the most beautiful women in Africa — everyone wants a part of her,” said opposition leader Joseph Olenghankoy. “It is the riches of Congo that are at the root of everything, ” nourishing rebellions and civil wars and drawing in neighboring nations, foreign mercenaries and European and American profiteers. Only the country’s elite live well, isolated in walled mansions in Kinshasa, the capital, and apartments in Brussels and Paris. But with the assassination of President Laurent Kabila last week and the abrupt ascension to power of his son Joseph, the question of who will remain in that elite has become an unsettling issue. In a country where politics and profits are intermeshed— the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko is said to have looted the nation formerly called Zaire of more than $4 billion — the jockeying for power is believed to be intense and deeply volatile. Few observers believe Joseph Kabila, a man with minimal military training or political experience and who is thought to be in his early 30s, is truly in command of this vast nation 77 times the size of Belgium, its former colonial ruler. He is deeply unpopular in the streets of Kinshasa, where most people believe — falsely, the government says — that his mother was a Tutsi, the ruling ethnic group in neighboring Rwanda which is hated by many for backing Congolese rebels. Even top officials admit Joseph’s selection was, in large part, a move to stave off trouble after a bodyguard gunned down his father. The cause of the shooting — whether an attempted coup, an offshoot of the country’s bitter civil war, or just one angry employee — remains unclear. “This city was on the verge of calamity, of chaos,” Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo said Saturday, reacting to criticism that the nation’s inner circle picked the younger Kabila as president with no legal basis. “There are people who say there must be elections, but you have to be realistic.” It is unclear who is really in control — perhaps no one, for now, as the government prepares for Tuesday’s burial of Laurent Kabila. There are already signs of internal division. U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lt. Col. Eddy Kapend, a close aide to the late president who made the first public announcement of his shooting, now has command of Kinshasa’s key tank units. Jackson says ne s ready to return to public lire by Sonya Ross Associated Press WASHINGTON —The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday he will return to the civil rights stage next week, reversing plans to leave public life to reconcile with his family, which is devastated by . his extramarital affair that resulted in the birth of a daughter. “The ground is no place for a champion, ” Jack son said. “The ground is no place that I will wallow on.” In an interview with The Associated Press — his first since news about his affair broke last week — Jackson said he has spent the past few days at home in Chicago with his family, doing “lots of thinking, lots of praying, reflecting” about his predicament. Much of the time, he has done this reflection alone, he said, but a lot of it has been with his wife of 38 years, Jackie, and their five children, focusing on “what we must do to continue to serve.” It has helped to strengthen their family bond, he said, and made him feel empowered enough to resume his work. “While my family has wrestled with our options and challenges, we have a rhythm of the family reconciling process, which is way down the road, two years for us,” Jackson said “We will not sacrifice our agenda for social justice and inclusion. ... I’ll develop a rhythm that allows me to focus on family and... the (civil rights) battlefield.” Jackson said he and his family will worship together at Salem Baptist Church in Chicago on Sunday, and on Monday he will attend a luncheon in Chicago in his honor. But he doesn’t plan to speak publicly until midweek, at an annual economic conference that his organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, hosts in New York. Sounding both determined and fatigued, Jackson would not talk about his youngest child, now 20 months old, or her mother, former aide Karin Stanford, 39. “I will not discuss that any further, any more,” he said. But Jackson did question whether news reports about the matter were timed to thwart him from his varied civil rights causes, such as leading the opposition against the nomination of John Ashcroft for attorney general. To illustrate his point, Jackson noted that Martin Luther King Jr. received a note threatening to reveal King’s affairs during the same week that King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. And, he said, President Bush “called it strange and suspicious” when news reports surfaced about an old drunk-driving charge at a crucial time in Bush’s presidential campaign. “A two-year-old story was made public,” Jackson said. “So one can sense that there may be some motivation. But ... I accept my responsibility. What we must do here is put our focus not on my pain, but the people’s agenda. “Sometimes, leaders have to play with pain. I’m feeling well. My family is well,” Jackson said. During his three days of seclusion, Jackson said he received several calls from fellow activists, politicians and some unexpected public figures, such as ti»c Rev. Jerry Falwell. The most consistent message he received, he said, was “do not let your voice be stilled. ” Jackson said one of the earliest calls came from former President Clinton, to whose side Jackson rushed when Clinton’s own extramarital affair threatened to topple his presidency. Jackson said Clinton encouraged him to determine what best helps him cope and to engage in that activity to heal himself. “His point was, when he was in the depth of his crisis, he had to work out the contrition with his family.” Jackson said. “As a fighter, I’m deter mined I’d rather wear out than rust out. Not only are the people calling upon me to serve, I desire to serve. I find fulfillment in service. I find healing in service.” ‘The ground is no place for a champion. The ground is no place that I will wallow on.’ The Rev. Jesse Jackson civil rights leader World Briefs ■ Forty-six injured when Greyhound bus overturns LAKEWOOD, NJ. (AP) - Forty six people aboard a Greyhound bus en route to New York from Atlantic City were injured early Sunday when the bus overturned. The injuries were mostly minor, with some broken bones, state police said. Five people were treated at the scene and 41 were sent to area hospitals. The bus slid in snow on the Garden State Parkway near Lakewood, spun out and hit a guardrail before overturning, police said. On Saturday, 40 people were injured when a bus en route to Scranton, Pa., from New York overturned and caught fire in Allamuchy in northwest New Jersey. One woman injured in that accident remained in critical condition Sunday. ■ Reagan continues physical therapy sessions at home LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former President Reagan returned home Saturday, a week after hip surgery, and will continue physical therapy sessions in his Bel-Air home, his chief of staff said. Reagan, 89, was released from Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica at about 2:30 p.m. and was taken for the 10-minute trip home by private ambulance with wife Nancy Reagan at his side, Joanne Drake said Saturday. “All of his doctors agreed this morning that his condition had improved to the point where he would be more comfortable at home, so preparations were quickly made to transport him there,” Drake said. ■ Clinton pardons brother, former Cabinet members WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton ended his tenure Saturday by pardoning 140 Americans, erasing the criminal records of his brother Roger, Whitewater business partner Susan McDougal and 1970s kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst in a mix of personal and historical acts of clemency. The orders Clinton signed two hours before leaving office also spared one man from execution and cleared the cloud of scandal from two former Cabinet confidants — ex-CIA director John Deutch and ex-housing chief Henry Cisneros. Former Arizona governor Fife Symington, embroiled in charges of fraud, also received a pardon that effectively ends prosecutors’ efforts to restore criminal charges against him. ■ rroiesi crowas largest since Nixon’s inauguration WASHINGTON (AP) — In the largest inaugural demonstrations since Richard Nixon, thousands of protesters on Saturday hurled insults, bottles and an egg to mock George W. Bush’s election. The tensions forced the new president’s motorcade to lurch along the parade route. Protesters clashed briefly with police clad in riot gear while Bush remained inside his armored stretch car for most of the parade. “Hail to the Thief,” read one sign along the parade route. Though protesters had many causes, most said they were motivated by the Florida election controversy. ■ New president of Philippines seeks to soothe nation MANILA, Phiuppines (AP) — The Philippines’ new president sought to repair the country’s deep divisions after her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, was swept from office Saturday when thousands of protesters marched on his palace. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will likely face a short honeymoon period following the sudden transfer of power, which mirrored the 1986 uprising that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Macapagal-Arroyo, daughter of a former president, takes over the rest of Estrada’s term, due to last until elections in May 2004.