Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Section: Metro Matters
Author: Joyce Purnick

LISTENING TO A CHANGE IN THE SILENCE

Some issues get the silent treatment in politics. Others elicit 
cliches. There are reasons, of course. Get past the self-censorship and 
the platitudes and you're likely to find the most interesting near-
debates around.  

Example One: drug policy. Federal statistics show that about two 
million Americans are behind bars right now, a quarter of them for drug 
offenses. The cost is more than $9 billion a year. Hispanics and 
African-Americans make up most of those imprisoned.   

You would learn none of this from our candidates.  

They didn't talk about it at the national conventions. Might as well 
not exist, that drug war of ours, with its federal price tag of nearly 
$20 billion.  

But it surely does exist, and has gotten some attention -- on the side, 
at the "shadow conventions" staged by Arianna Huffington, the 
columnist.  

For New Yorkers, the most intriguing comments about drug policy came 
from Representative Charles B. Rangel, once a great supporter of the 
drug war. Still is, he said yesterday. And he's still against 
decriminalization or legalization.  

But his tone has changed, from leading champion to a critic now 
supporting alternatives to incarceration for first-time drug offenders. 

The "so-called war against drugs," Mr. Rangel said at the shadow 
convention, "has been a war against people. It has warehoused our 
young. It has denied us the opportunity to educate."  

In 1988, Mr. Rangel called for "a total commitment of resources" in the 
drug war, including "the deployment of military personnel and 
equipment." In an interview yesterday, he said that if he had a choice 
between committing more than $1 billion to Colombia's military to fight 
drugs, and more than $1 billion to education, he'd pick education. As 
for the military approach to fighting drugs, he said, "As long as you 
have demand, it will never work."  

Mr. Rangel's words could mean a great deal. Combined with the Rev. 
Jesse Jackson's recent denunciation of the "jail-industrial complex," 
and the growing criticism of drug policies from other African-American 
political leaders -- some of whom called needle exchange programs 
"genocide" in the late 1980's -- it could lead to a real debate.  Even 
the silence on the issue at the political conventions could signal a 
change, an understanding that while most politicians still figure they 
risk being called soft on crime if they question standard drug 
policies, they also seem to realize there's no political gain any more 
in the standard anti-crime demagogery.    

In four years or so, the country may witness a genuine debate.  

Example Two: education. One morning during the Democratic convention in 
Los Angeles, a few governors and educators got together to talk about 
how to improve education.  

Nothing groundbreaking or surprising came out their discussion, 
sponsored by the Governors Association, the Democratic Leadership 
Council and the Creative Artists Agency. But it was, thanks to C-Span, 
quite the reminder of how complex the problems are, and of how little 
we hear about them from candidates.  

Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, said he was taken aback to 
learn that only 2 percent of federal government spending, by his 
accounting, is related to education. "It is not a priority," said Mr. 
Bayh, who's backing a bill to provide more national education aid to 
the states and demand more accountability.  

Eli Broad, president of the Broad Foundation, predicted that despite 
the current fixation on charter schools and vouchers, 80 to 90 percent 
of the country's students will still be educated in public schools a 
decade from now.  

Absolutely. Charter schools cannot possibly expand rapidly enough to 
accommodate most students. Nor can vouchers do it: annual tuition at an 
elementary school ranges from $2,000 at a parochial school in an inner 
city neighborhood to $25,000 for an elite private school. The value of 
vouchers ranges widely, from about $1,500 a year for a privately 
financed voucher to up to $5,000 for a publicly financed one.  

A former teacher said no one seemed to understand that teachers have to 
be social workers and police officers, that they have to help children 
whose parents cannot read.  

Gary Ross, director and screenwriter, asked, "What can we possibly do 
to encourage teachers to go into low-income areas?" Pay them more, 
answered Ronnie Musgrove, governor of Mississippi: "You have to make 
sure you invest monetarily."  

See, no surprises. Just a few truths, the kind you don't get from 
teleprompted podiums.  
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MAP posted-by: John Chase