DRC 930602 4/5

[Ken Blystone]

*7 COLLEGE COSTS: OUTPACE FAMILY INCOME; LOANS SCARCE
College costs rose at twice the rate of family income in the
1980s. But while the costs have risen, student loan money has
not, according to Dick Wyman, VP of finance at Haverford College
(Dubin, PHILA. INQUIRER, 6/2). As more parents find themselves
unable to pay for higher education, more college freshman are
forced to work to help pay the costs, writes the paper.
In 1991, 48% of all college freshmen were working full or
part time -- more than double the 23% who were working in 1961.
Terrence Eckert, a Temple U student who works 20 hours a week:
"It bothered my parents a lot. They tried to get loans every
way. They even thought of selling the house."
The Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE reports that half a million
students will graduate in debt this spring, and one out of 70,000
will have a debt large enough to be called "unmanageable" by
federal analysts (Pinney, 6/1). A U.S. DoEd survey reports that
the percentage of U.S. college graduates who depend on borrowing
to finance their education rose from 34% in 1987 to 46% in 1990.
Tim Nordaune, a graduate who owes $19,000: "I didn't know
if I was going to get a job to pay off the money. But I stayed
in school and thought I could work my way through it and take the
bad news when it hit."
The STAR-TRIBUNE writes that the student loan business has
left the federal government "stuck" with about $3B a year in
defaults. The "worst offenders," however, are not the big
debtors seeking bachelor's and graduate degrees, but small
borrowers at profit-making trade schools, according to the
newspaper (See DRC 5/15/91). The STAR-TRIBUNE writes that
President Clinton's national service plan would help with some
paybacks, but it would "help relatively few and at a steep price
to the taxpayers."

===== MONEY MATTERS =====

*8 REDISTRIBUTION PLAN: FACES CHALLENGE IN TEXAS
Officials from Texas' poorest school districts yesterday
said they plan to challenge the constitutionality of a school-
finance plan that forces wealthy school districts to redistribute
funds to help them (AP/WASH. POST; 6/2; See DRC 6/1, #6). State
District Judge Scott McCown said he would consider the measure
constitutional until challenges are filed.
At a hearing yesterday, Rick Gray, a lawyer for 60 poor
school districts, called the plan "the best foot forward on the
road to equity that the Legislature has ever passed." But he
added that it does not provide funds to build classrooms and
would allow a $600 gap per student between richer and poorer
districts, among other things.
"One of the biggest complaints about the school finance law
is that it contains too little state money, according to the
DALLAS MORNING NEWS (Stutz, 6/1). School districts next year
will lose an average of $94 per student in funding, because the
Legislature approved several hundred million dollars less than
districts needed for increased enrollment, according to the
paper. The MORNING NEWS writes that property tax increases
likely will close the gap in spending.

===== FOCUS =====

*9 SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN SCHOOLS: STUDY SAYS IT'S RAMPANT
Four in five eight- through eleventh-grade students are
sexually harassed while at school, according to a recent study by
the American Association of University Women Educational
Foundation (multi.). And although boys and girls said they had
been harassed, girls "report greater problems as a result of
sexual harassment," according to the study. Thirty-three percent
of girls who were harassed said they did not want to attend
school, compared with 12% of boys.
The study, "Hostile Hallways," found that 85% of girls and
76% of boys had experienced sexual harassment in school, ranging
from sexual jokes to "being forced to doing something sexual,
other than kissing," writes the study. Other findings include:
the most common forms of harassment, reported by 76% of girls and
56% of boys, were sexual comments, jokes, gestures or looks; and
of those who say they were harassed, 79% say they were targeted
by a peer.
Anne Bryant, the AAUW Foundation's executive director, said
the group decided to use the broadest definition of sexual
harassment "to establish a baseline against which future reports
could be measured," reports the N.Y. TIMES (Barringer). But some
critics say that the survey "misconstrues what is often just
juvenile behavior." (Kelly, USA TODAY)
Jeanne Allen, executive director of Town Hall, an electronic
computer network co-owned by the conservative think tank The
Heritage Foundation: "I think it's extremely misleading. You're
talking about kids who are barely adolescents, who are giddy to
begin with, whose idea of a joke and fun are just beginning [to
be formed]," reports USA TODAY. And a WASH. TIMES editorial
agrees: "... redefining crude teen-age behavior as sexual
harassment can serve no purpose beyond advancing the AAUW's
stated goal of making" harassment a focal point of America's
agenda.
But Kate O'Beirne, vice-president of The Heritage
Foundation, counters: "This is not sticking pigtails in
inkwells." She adds that the survey "paint[s] a picture of
schools that have lost control of student behavior" and that the
results should not come as a shock given the "'abhorrent and
coarse behavior' that is rampant in American society." (WASH.
POST, Jordan).
The survey was conducted last February and March by Louis
Harris and Associates. Approximately 1,600 field surveys were
completed by public school students in grades 8 through 11, from
79 schools across the continental U.S. The margin of error is
plus or minus 4 percentage points (6/2).

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