Inside AFT--Week of October 2, 1995
DC BOARD GIVES PRIVATIZATION A FOOT IN THE DOOR
    The District of Columbia school board approved a new policy last 
month that raises more questions than it answers about public school 
collaboration with private groups, including for-profit firms like 
Education Alternatives Inc.  Although the new policy allows 
for-profits to participate in D.C. schools, it stops well short of a 
blanket invitation. Its likely that some for-profits will read the new 
language as a board declaration of open season for education 
vendors--particularly since schools superintendent Franklin L. Smith 
has been a vocal cheerleader for the industry. But that's clearly not 
the way D.C. school board president Wilma R. Harvey interprets the new 
language. "I voted to make sure there was no profit attached to 
business partnerships with schools,"  Harvey said minutes after the vote.
AFT'S NAT LACOUR ASSAILS BUDGET CUTS AT BLACK CAUCUS
    Proposed cuts in funding for Title I , Head Start, the drug-free 
school program and other federal education programs by the Republican 
leadership in Congress signals a dramatic shift away from the 
bipartisan support that public education has enjoyed in recent years, 
AFT vice president Nat LaCour told those attending a Congressional 
Black Caucus (CBC) discussion of elementary and secondary education 
last week.
    LaCour, president of the United Teachers of New Orleans, said that 
the bipartisan support for public education that followed the 1983 
release of A Nation at Risk appears to have broken down with the 1994 
elections.
    Goals 2000, another program that enjoyed bipartisan support, is 
now scheduled for elimination under the House budget proposal.
    "If we don't lobby Congress to stop the cuts, the African-American 
community will be greatly harmed," said LaCour, who also noted that 
cuts in the Pell Grant program would deny millions of high school 
graduates the financial support they need to attend college.
DON'T CUT OSHA
    The AFT is joining unions throughout the county that are taking a 
stand against the destruction of the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration by opposing to the Cass Ballenger OSHA Reform Bill 
(H.R. 1834), which is currently being debated in the House. The Cass 
Ballenger bill would change OSHAs primary role from enforcer to 
consultant, cut the budget by 30 percent and weaken many worker safety 
regulations, says the Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers 
International Union, which released the poll results on Sept. 18.
    AFT health and safety specialist Darryl Alexander also points out 
that the bill destroys the one agency--the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health--that is dedicated to researching the 
health consequences of exposure to hazards at work. For many of the 
AFTs public employees in states that have no OSHA state plans, NIOSH 
is the only agency they have to investigate serious health and safety 
problems. 
    OSHAs ability to maintain enforcement has already been jeopardized 
with the excessive cuts passed by the House in August, notes 
Alexander.  Those budget cuts should be restored, and the Cass 
Ballenger bill should be defeated. In the area of worker health and 
safety, we need more regulation not less.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* "ATHEISM: A non-prophet organization.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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