RUST COMMENTARY: GOVERNOR PLROPOSES TAX BREAK FOR COLLEGE TUITION

Gov. Mel Carnahan has submitted a proposal to give tax credits of up to $1,500 per year to help cover the cost of a college education. Members of the 14-member Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (such as St. Louis University, Central Methodist College, Washington University) support this proposal.

When asked whether this program would violate the Missouri Constitution's prohibition against state aid to private schools, Carnahan said, "We have looked into it and are quite satisfied of its legality" (according to Post-Dispatch Jeff City Bureau Chief Terry Ganey). Ganey also reported that the governor acknowledged that the plan might lead to more debate over similar tax-credit programs for private elementary and secondary school students (school choice or charter school issue).

What was news to me is that the president of this group stated that the state's 26 independent colleges educate about 30 percent of the state's college students and account for 40 percent of the DEGREES that are granted.

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Legislative and judicial pay raises were initially defeated in the House. However, because of the wording of the constitutional amendment voted by Missourians who thought they were taking the responsibility of pay increases out of politics (excuse me, but we said earlier and repeat now: It won't) the Senate and House must reject the commission report with the same exact language, or the commission report becomes effective.

The 22-member commission included 12 members to be appointed by the governor, who last week announced his lukewarm opposition to the proposal.

Let the Senate reject the plan and bite the bullet and pass legislation to raise appropriate per diem and salary increases if they think they're justified.

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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case to decide whether public school teachers will be allowed to teach remedial courses at parochial schools.

According to The Associated Press, "the Court's ruling will likely focus only on the issue at hand but could have an impact on other church-state disputes, such as prayer in public schools and tax breaks for parents who send their children to church-run schools".

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In a Sunday Post-Dispatch article, it was reported that "throughout the years, St. Louis has had the highest number per capita nationwide of students in Catholic schools. That breaks down to about 1 in 5."

St. Louis also boasts of being a trendsetter when it comes to single-sex (all girl or all boy) high schools. It has 10 girls' schools (5,105 students) and seven boys' schools (5,551 students). And 4,531 students attend co-ed Catholic high schools. Few cities have more.

More than 90 percent of the Catholic-school graduates attend four-year colleges, and most schools report all-time high in enrollment. In February, eighth grade students learned if they were accepted by the school of their choice.

I believe there's a message in the above information.

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The will to win is not nearly important as the will to prepare to win. -- Anonymous.

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The United Nations budget grew from $20 million and 5,000 employees in 1945 to $10 BILLION and 50,000 employees today. U.S. taxpayers annually are assessed $4 billion. The U.N. "peacekeeping" was $700 million in 1990 and $3.5 billion in 1996, of which 32 percent was assessed to the United States, 8.5 percent to Russia, 6.3 percent to Britain and 7.3 percent to France.

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Many a man's tongue broke his nose. -- Seamus MacManus.

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In the Missouri Senate as in both houses of Congress in Washington, D.C., the minority party makes its own selection of members for committee assignments.

In the Missouri House, the Democrats AGAIN rejected the same procedure. The Democrats, who hold the majority, voted to give the speaker veto power over all appointments except the newly created bi-partisan ethics committee. This means the speaker can punish those Republicans he wants to and reward others who vote with him.

This means he can weaken the minorities on the committees and assign key republicans to ineffective committees. ... This is WRONG ... and has been for over 30 years.

If DICK GEPHART can assign his own committee members under NEWT GINGRICH ... then MARK RICHARDSON (House minority leader) should be able to assign his own members under STEVE GAW (speaker of the House).

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Wisdom is knowing what to do next; Virtue is doing it. -- David Starr Jordan.

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Confession

New documents made available last week now show that Vice President Al Gore knew that the event at a Buddhist temple in California where he gave a speech was a political fund-raising event. Briefing papers sent to Gore's office by the Democratic National Committee before the event clearly described its purpose. Gore had claimed the event was "community outreach," but it brought in $140,000 for the Clinton/Gore 1996 campaign. Clinton and Gore have repeatedly criticized the involvement of churches in politics. The liberal establishment frequently raises constitutional questions about evangelical and Catholic involvement in public policy. Yet no one saw any problem with the Buddhist temple event. Imagine the public outcry there would be if Bob Dole had spoken at an evangelical church, attacked Clinton/Gore, and walked out with $140,000! -- Washington Update.

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Wacky Washington

I am sure America saw a wonderful, traditional inauguration on TV. What the average citizen didn't see were some of the unique events that were scheduled like the "Women's Inaugural Gala." Don't be fooled by the name. The gala is sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, the National Lesbian and Gay Health Association, the National Lesbian Political Committee, People for the American Way and Planet Hollywood. It is co-chaired by Roberta Achtenberg, an avowed lesbian whom Clinton appointed to a high position in the Department of Housing. This type of event has never taken place at past inaugurations because the lesbian movement has never felt as welcome as it does now with Clinton as president. In fact, there are nine gay events officially sanctioned by the Clinton White House. -- Washington Update.

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I can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. It's all how you look at it. -- J. Kenfield Morley.

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Loser Pays?

House Ethics chairman Nancy Johnson said the proposed $300,000 penalty for Newt Gingrich was "tough and unprecedented compared to past cases." The speaker's offense, as Committee Counsel James Cole put the accusation, was that he "ran a lot of very yellow lights." The payment is being described as a "cost assessment" to reimburse the ethics committee for its trouble.

Fine by us, provided of course that David Bonior and other Democrats also pay the costs of investigating the 66 other complaints that were dismissed. And once the speaker and Mr. Bonior pony up, we could go ahead and apply the loser-pays rule to the rest of the U.S. justice system. -- The Wall Street Journal.

~Gary Rust is the president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.