The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

Intro

ROBERT MacNEIL: Good evening. In the news today, the volcanic gas death toll in Cameroon passed 1,500. Major U.S. banks lowered their prime lending rate to 7.5%. The federal government rejected the merger of Texas Air and Eastern Airlines. We'll have the details of these stories in our news summary coming up. Jim?

JIM LEHRER: After the news summary, a scientist explains what caused the Cameroon disaster. Governor Lamm of Colorado and teachers union president Mary Futrell debate the right of parents to choose their children's school. There's a report from San Francisco on bilingual education. A reporter's perspective on the new rumblings between the United States and Libya. And finally, a look at a war about beer.News Summary

MacNEIL: At least 1,534 people were confirmed dead today in the release of gas from a volcanic lake in the African country Cameroon. The figure from the Cameroon government was independently confirmed by the United Nations and private relief agencies. The UN Disaster Relief Agency said about 20,000 others had been affected to some degree, and some 300 were still in the hospital. Large quantities of carbon dioxide, together with smaller amounts of other poisonous gases, apparently burst from the waters of Lake Nios some 200 miles north of the capital, Yaounde, on Friday night after a landslide or other disturbance in the crater of the volcano. Because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, it apparently flowed down the mountainside, engulfing villages in its path and smothering inhabitants. A Catholic missionary told Agence France Press it was as though a neutron bomb had gone off, destroying nothing, but killing all life. He said, "In the first village, we saw men, women and animals stretched out dead on the ground, sometimes in front of their huts or in their beds, sometimes on the path." Some victims were hurriedly buried in mass graves to prevent disease. The UN agency is sending tents, blankets and food for survivors. Jim?

LEHRER: There were two good news economic stories today. The nation's major banks dropped their prime lending rate from 8 to 7.5%. The decrease followed the Federal Reserve Board's decision to lower its discount rate last week. The discount rate is the interest the fed charges member banks for loans. The prime rate is what banks charge their prime business customers. The other good news came from the Census Bureau. It reported the poverty rate in the United States went down in 1985 for the second year in a row. 14.4% of American families lived below the poverty level in 1984. In 1985 the figure was an even 14%.

MacNEIL: The federal government turned down a merger by Texas Air and Eastern Airlines, saying it would limit competition in the Northeast. The merger would have created the nation's largest airline holding company.Texas Air already owns Continental and New York Air, which competes with Eastern on the busy Washington-New York-Boston corridor. Texas Air had planned to sell enough airport slots to Pan American to run a competitive service, but the Department of Transportation ruled that would not be competition enough. The department said a new application would be considered if it solved the competition problem.

LEHRER: The American Heart Association had some revised word today on what to eat. The association changed its suggested guidelines on fat, cholesterol, sodium and alcoholic beverages, and the changes were all down. Eat or drink less of all of the above. The word was spoken at a Washington news conference. Here's what they said about avoiding saturated fats.

Dr. W. VIRGIL BROWN, American Heart Association: Wherever you find people with low blood cholesterol and low coronary disease, they eat low saturated fat. We don't know how to make hamburgers in this country. Hamburger is number one in terms of saturated fat contribution to our diet. The second thing that is probably -- we should single out are pastries and other food items that contain a great deal of coconut and palm oil.

Dr. JOHN LaROSA, American Heart Association: There are ways of stocking your refrigerator with things that are not the typical high fat diet, and yet are quick. Skim milk yoghurts are very good sources of protein and have almost no animal fat in them. There are -- popcorn, for example, not made with butter, but made with polyunsaturated oil. Celery sticks, carrot sticks. There's a lot of different kinds of things that people can munch on that are not the -- not potato chips.

LEHRER: The heart association said saturated fats should account for no more than 10% of an individual's caloric intake. The guidelines issued today also marked the first time the association put sodium and alcohol restrictions on its suggested diet.

MacNEIL: The Reagan administration is talking tough about Libyan terrorism again, saying there are signs there may be a resurgence and warning the U.S. is ready to strike again. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that the administration had developed a plan to preempt more Libyan-sponsored terrorism by fomenting internal opposition to Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy. White House spokesman Larry Speaks refused to deny that report and said, "We have reason to believe that the Libyan state has not forsaken the desire to create terrorist activities worldwide." Reuters News Agency said diplomats in Libya had noticed a renewed show of militancy after a lull following the U.S. raids on Libya last April. They said revolutionary committees had recently called for a tax on U.S. interests.

LEHRER: And that's it for the news summary tonight. Now it's onto more on the Cameroon disaster, a new education freedom of choice debate, a report on bilingual education, a look at the new Libya-U.S. problems, and a report about a beer war. Cause of Catastrophe

MacNEIL: First tonight, we focus on the strange diaster in Cameroon where 1,534 people are confirmed to have died from gas blown out of a volcanic lake. The scientific consensus is now that the deaths were caused mainly by carbon dioxide; not hydrogen sulfide, as first reported. But experts still aren't sure why the lethal fumes erupted from Lake Nios in the mountainous region of Northwest Cameroon. The United States has offered assistance, and with us tonight is Paul Krumpe, technical adviser to the Foreign Disaster Assistance Office of the Agency for International Development.

Mr. Krumpe, from the information reaching you in Washington, what is the speculation about how this happened?

PAUL KRUMPE, Agency for International Development: Well, there appears to be at least three possible scenarios. As you mentioned, a possible minor earthquake could have occurred, which would have caused a landslide along the side of a crater lake which could have possibly caused a mixing of the sediments at the lake bottom, leading to a series of chemical reactions which would have, in effect, been the shaking of the champagne bottle and the blowing of the cork through the carbon dioxide effervescence, if you will, at the surface causing the blowout or explosion.This would effectively account for the force that was experienced, as well as the release of the heavy carbon dioxide gas.

MacNEIL: The U.S. scientists studied a smiliar but much smaller disaster in another lake in that same mountain chain two years ago. Do we know what happened there?

Mr. KRUMPE: In August, 1984, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assitance sent a technical team, at the request of the government of Cameroon, to Cameroon to do limnological studies and other necessary technical work on Lake Manu. And the technical report that came out as a result of those studies indicate the landslide-earthquake scenario. In that particular case, there was an earthquake a day before the lake erupted.

MacNEIL: I see. Do -- do lakes sitting in volcanic craters commonly have these gases underneath the water? Is that a common thing?

Mr. KRUMPE: Hydrogen sulfide is a common gas. Sometimes methane is present. Also carbonate is present. And yes, it is common. However, the unique aspect of the lakes in Cameroon is that they are very deep, very steep-sided. There's a lot of organic material, because it's in the tropical region. And there's a good deal of putrefaction and release.

MacNEIL: So our volcanoes in North America don't -- active or quiet, quiescent -- don't have that same mix of gases in them?

Mr. KRUMPE: Many of our lakes in the northern part of the United States are glacial lakes, as opposed to volcanic crater lakes -- calderas, if you will. And the crater lakes are deeper than the glacier lakes in the -- say in Michigan. But there's a good deal of organic matter in the Michigan lakes, and there is hydrogen sulfide emissions as a normal process, as well as carbon dioxide.

MacNEIL: I guess what I'm getting at, is this anything that Americans have to fear from the volcanic lakes they live near?

Mr. KRUMPE: Well, I don't really think so, because the unique factor here is that the lakes in the temperate zones -- especially in North America -- turn over routinely on a seasonal basis in the spring and in the fall, whereas in Cameroon in the tropics the lakes are, in effect, static.

MacNEIL: By turn over, you mean the water at the bottom comes up to the top and so on?

Mr. KRUMPE: Onm a seasonal basis, this is normally the case, whereas in Cameroon and in places like Tanzania, the lakes are static, and the bottom sediments remain at the bottom, and tremendous pressure can build up.

MacNEIL: I say today that Japan was sending a team there to advise the Cameroon government on how to put in some kind of early warning to prevent a disaster like this again. Is that technically feasible?

Mr. KRUMPE: It's technically feasible, but I think it's very important first to get at the first cause of the disaster and then design whatever systems or whatever hazards analysis or other approaches are necessary in order to meet they potential threat. Remember that the people that were killed lived essentially in the lake environs -- along the shoreline, etc.And it would be useful, of course, to know what the hazard is, how extensive this hazard is, and then plan accordingly.

MacNEIL: So you're suggesting the people that were killed lived effectively inside the crater of the old volcano, is that it? Not down the mountainside?

Mr. KRUMPE: Well, along the mountainside also. This is an undulating region. It's mountainous. It's agricultural. And one would expect the people to populate this area. Our maps show quite a few settlements in the area, and there's really nothing we can do at this point for those who have died, but certainly those who are threatened by other volcanic lakes in this area could -- we could possibly help the government relocate these people.

MacNEIL: Back to the cause of it for a moment, there were reports that some of the victims -- survivors and dead -- had -- showed signs of burns. And I believe I was told that your office had information that some of their skin had a kind of jellylike consistency. What does that say to you about the -- what touched them?

Mr. KRUMPE: It's hard to say until our pathologists review the cadavers and --

MacNEIL: Carbon dioxide doesn't affect human skin that way.

Mr. KRUMPE: That is true. I personally believe that there are other caustic gases involved which were held at the ground level by the carbon dioxide, which is heavier than air. And asphyxiation may have been one of the mechanisms by which the people were killed, but I would also feel that other poisons were involved.

MacNEIL: What other gases do you have in mind, particularly?

Mr. KRUMPE: Well, of course hydrogen sulfide, and also possibly hydrogen cyanide.

MacNEIL: And do they cause burns to human skin?

Mr. KRUMPE: Yes they do. And hydrogen cyanide causes what is called cyaniderma, which are red blotches on the skin and underneath the skin. And we did witness that in the case in 1984.

MacNEIL: I see. Do the U.S. officials out there expect that the death toll could go even higher?

Mr. KRUMPE: We have already said that the death toll would probably go higher as officials entered the area and identified where the bodies were and the deceased. Also, probably a number of the people who were originally affected that are in hospitals now will succumb.

MacNEIL: I see. Well, Mr. Krumpe, thank you very much for joining us this evening.

Mr. KRUMPE: Thank you.

MacNEIL: Jim?

LEHRER: Still to come tonight, Governor Lamm and Mary Futrell discuss freedom of choice. We have a report on bilingual education, a look at the latest U.S. versus Libya hassle, and some words about a beer war. Choosing Schools

LEHRER: An education story is next. It flows from an education reform proposal endorsed this week at a South Carolina meeting of the nation's governors. They called for the right of parents to choose the public school their children will attend. It represents a potentially radical departure from the current norm, where students are assigned to schools by their school districts, sometimes even by court order. The National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union, has criticized the idea. NEA President Mary Hatwood Futrell is here to tell us why. So is a major supporter of the freedom of choice idea, the Democratic Governor of Colorado, Richard Lamm. He is with us from Denver.

And to you first, Governor. Why is it a good idea for parent to have the right to choose the public school their children will attend?

Gov. RICHARD LAMM (D) Colorado: This was never meant to be unlimited right. What we're talking about is some additional flexibility, some additional choice. You have to start off by saying you can't add to the racial imbalance by choice. You can't use this as an excuse for segregation. But basically the reason is that we are convinced that education is too much of a monopoly. Where you live dictates where your children go to school. And there's no reason why we can't give it some flexibility. In Arizona and California they have really been very good in allowing public school kids to go to other public schools that maybe better meet their needs. In Minnesota they have a way where juniors and seniors in high school can go to the local community colleges and get courses that challenge them more. So we're not talking about unlimited choice, but we are talking about more flexibility.

LEHRER: Now, what's the advantage to that? What is gained by that?

Gov. LAMM: Right. The advantage, by the way, is a number of things. Hopefully we can find schools that can better meet the needs of different students.Different schools might meet the needs of different students better. But one of the things that I think is underlying this is that it would be very good to create a little bit of competition among the public schools. There is sort of the feeling that, on a lot of people, that when they have a monopoly and where they simply don't have to compete in any way that they can become lethargic and not do their very best.So some of that great competition spirit into the public school system, we think, would be a very good reform.

LEHRER: Ms. Futrell, what's wong with that?

MARY HATWOOD FUTRELL, National Education Association: Well, as we look at the plan proposed by the National Governors Association, we would basically urge them to move with great caution, because we have some very real concerns that the proposal could create inequities within the school systems. We already have a great deal of flexibility and a great deal of choice within the schools as currently structured. And when you look at the choice continuum, we have choice as it relates to magnet schools, altnerative schools, schools for gifted and talented, for the handicapped, and as well as choice as it relates to the cirriculm -- what you would like to take in the school as it relates to your future aspirations. And so as we look at the issue of choice as outlined by the governors, we have some real concerns that unless we have clearly defined criteria, and unless the situation is monitored very, very carefully, that we would end up creating inequities within our school system along racial lines, along lines dealing with sex, as well as lines dealing with economics.

LEHRER: How could -- go through those three things. How could it affect race, how could it affect racial things, how could it affect economic lines, whatever.

Ms. FUTRELL: Well basically, the concern that we have is, for instance, in a school district you might have some families who would rather not have their children going to schools with children from minority or different backgrounds, so they would put all of their children -- or put their children in one school and leave the minority children or the poor children in the schools which would be left behind. We also feel very strongly that if there are problems in the schools, this is not the way to address the issue. We need to address the problems we face, as opposed to pulling children out and moving them to another school, and at the same time make sure that we maintain quality and the balance that we need along racial, sex and economic lines.

LEHRER: Governor, what do you think about that?

Gov. LAMM: Well, I think there is reason for caution. But I would really point out that every single public policy can be abused. Teacher incentives, various -- can be always subject to the favoritism of a principle. But I think that's the reason to be cautious; not the reason not to do it. After all, the examples that she gave -- the alternate schools, the magnet schools -- all of those are ways that started out to give public schoolchildren more choice. So I don't disagree with what she's saying. This is not a panacea.There is no reason for caution. But when you really talk about adding to racial inequity, that's something that we deal with every day, by the way. It's a very simple test. I mean, does the policy creat a racial imbalance, or does it help the racial imbalance? And I think that all of the choice programs will be built under that umbrella. So we're really not talking about any way where you could add to the segregation tendencies. But if you do not add to the racial imbalance, why not give this additional choice?

LEHRER: Question. His question.

Ms. FUTRELL: Oh, to respond to his question. Well, we are pleased to hear the governor say that we should do everything possible to try to avoid racial imbalance. We also are very much aware of the fact that we've heard that before, and yet we end up with a great deal of racial imbalance in our schools. And we have to, as I indicated a moment ago, to make sure that the criteria we put in place would set forth very clearly that we are going to have desegregated schools in America and that this will not be used as a back doorway to avoid going to schools with certain racial or cultural groups, and that we will make sure that the school district, the state will monitor very carefully what is going to take place within the choice program.We also have to make sure that the funding is not used to send children to private schools. And I was pleased to see in the governor's report that this is strictly to be within the public school system. But we believe and we're very concerned that some people will use it to try to use this as a way to give public funds to private schools as well.

Gov. LAMM: If I could make one more pass.

LEHRER: Sure.

Gov. LAMM: One of the points, by the way, is that how many minority parents really want this. They really understand that the current public school system is not, in often cases, challenging their children enough. And so this proposal of additional choice isn't any kind of just idea for a few people or egalitarian. It is egalitarian. It comes from a great many people that are -- that have children that are in schools that really feel those schools are failing them, not doing enough for them. And what they really want to do is to come up with some concept that can really enrich the public schools. And I believe that this can be done and absolutely not add to segregation.

LEHRER: You mean that many minority parents might elect to take their children out and move them to another school.

Gov. LAMM: Listen, when you -- take an example about Boston which was given the other day when we were debating this. You'll find that there's an awful lot of minority parents that are simply saying, "We want additional flexibility. Those public school systems are not doing a good enough job by our kids."

LEHRER: Is he wrong about that?

Ms. FUTRELL: Well, I think he raises another point which is very critical, and that is the issue of parental involvement. And what I would say is, we need to have parents involved whether they are attending the assigned public school or attending one of the choice schools.You're going to have to have parents involved all the way.And if the parents are unhappy with the quality of the education being received by their children, they should work within that school district to try to improve the quality of education. That's what they're going to have to do, regardless as to where they go. But let me go to another point that he raised. He raised the point about minority parents wanting these schools. Well, I know for a fact that the Department of Education went into the schools in the District of Columbia and several other communities where they have large minority populations, and they were pushing this issue of choice as described in the Tisch proposal, and the minority parents did not indicate that that's what they wanted. I think what the minority parents are saying is that "We want the schools in our community to be upgraded, so that we have an assurance that our children are getting a good education. If we decide to send them somewhere else, that's one thing. But we really want the schools in this community to be improved, so that not only will our children get a good education, but all the children in the school will receive a good education."

LEHRER: What about -- yeah, go ahead.

Gov. LAMM: Choice is the ultimate parental invovlement. I mean, how are you going to get parents involved if all they are is window dressing in the school system? I mean, you know, they talk about parental involvement, but really unless you have the responsibility in often cases to really get in there and have the power in a way to remove your child to another public school system, then the idea for parental involvement is really almost an abstract concept.

Ms. FUTRELL: Well, I would say, Governor, that the parent has the responsibility from the time the child is born and from the time the child is enrolled in the school. The parent has the responsibility to work with the school district, to work with child, to work with the teachers, to make sure that the child is receiving the kind of education that parent would like for the child. And so, by making a decision to send the child to this school as opposed to the other, it's not going to, in my mind, enhance parental involvement. That has to be something the parent wants todo anyway.

Gov. LAMM: Oh, now, well, but I really disagree. Mary, that's one way where we really disagree. Because you can not tell how many parents are frustrated because they think that the school system is just sitting there and nodding their head and not really listening to them and not really honoring their involvement.

Ms. FUTRELL: I think that the frustration is that they don't know how to utilize or how to deal with the system. And the frustration has to be, "How do I influence this system, whether I have my child in school A or school B? How do I get the school board to respond to my needs? How do I get the superintendent, the teacher? How do I get the curriculum changed?" And I think that, regardless as to what system we use, we're going to have to make the system more open, so that parents can be more involved. And the choice issue, as you said a moment ago, is not going to be panacea.

Gov. LAMM: And when you're dealing with a monopoly -- an educational monopoly -- again, a lot of those administrators and a lot of those teachers, they don't really have to pay as much attention to parents as I think we can if we allow some limited choice.

Ms. FUTRELL: But you're not -- I don't call it a monopoly, but you're not doing away with the system. Basically what you're saying, "You can move your child around in the system." So the "monopoly" that you're describing is still there. I prefer not to say a monopoly, because within school districts I think schools do compete with one another. Within schools, classrooms compete with one another. And so, again, how do you get the parents to understand that they have a responsibility, a right and an obligation to be involved? And I think you do that by opening up the process and encouraging them to come into that school, encouraging them to work with the school system, and saying, "This is your right. This is your responsibility."

LEHRER: Governor, finally, how important an issue is this to you and your fellow governors? Is this something you all are really going to push for?

Gov. LAMM: I think that there's a strong feeling on the part of the governors that there needs to be a second stage of educational reform. We see those statistics where on all international tests, American students are testing in the lower third, that the United Nations statistics have United States, you know, way, way up there in the illiteracy categories. I think that, in fact, there's a strong feeling among governors that we have to continue to revitalize the public education in this country and that we've got a long way to go and that it's a massive challenge. Because the country that is second best educationally today is going to be second best economically tomorrow.

LEHRER: On this choice issue, Ms. Futrell, is your union really going to work to keep this from happening?

Ms. FUTRELL: We will work to make sure that criteria are put in place which will make sure that the children all receive equal educational opportunities and receive the best education possible. And let me just comment on the question you asked the governor, because it was very clearly stated in the document that it was not a consensus document. It was very clearly stated that these are recommendations to governors that they can use back in their states to try to improve the quality of education, and each governor will select those recommendations which will be best for that particular state. I applaud the governors for what they've done. I agree that we need a second wave of reform to move into the states, to move into the school district and into those classrooms. Because we need to improve the quality of education in America. But I don't think that this is the panacea. It is one thing which can be considered and should be considered very cautiously.

LEHRER: Well, Mary Futrell, thank you very much here in Washington. Governor Lamm, thank you for being with us from Denver. Teaching in Two Tongues

MacNEIL: We turn now to another controversy that will be coming back to many schools with the end of summer -- bilingual education. There's a divergence of views on what constitutes bilingual education -- that is, how best to teach children academic subjects when they don't understand English. Education Secretary Bennett is proposing changes that would give local school districts more discretion in administering bilingual education programs. In California, where a multitude of foreign languages are spoken, bilingual education is the subject of growing political debate. We have a report now from Kathy McAnally of public station KQED in San Francisco.

Student: Thank you very much, Kunjai. Very much.

KATHY McANALLY [voice-over]: It's back to school night at Hawthorne Elementary in Oakland. Gatherings like these have taken place for generations of children and parents in schools across the country. At this assembly for parents, principal Alan Young pauses often, so that his words can be translated for his audience. As the parents fan out in search of their child's classroom, a small army of translators takes up positions around the school. This is a fairly typical scene in Oakland these days, where in this school district 64 different languages are spoken. Increasingly, the voices are Asian, for Oakland has become the new home for thousands of refugees from Indochina. Here on the playground of Franklin Elementary, 17 different languages are spoken.

JAY CLECKNER, principal, Franklin School: This is like a little United Nations. If you have ten or more at a grade level, you're required to provide a class -- bilingual class -- for that group. If you have nine languages at a grade level with ten each in them, then it means they should have nine third grades.

McAnally [voice-over]: Bilingual education: the concept is to give help to non-English speaking schoolchildren, preferably from a teacher who can speak and understand the child's own language. It is an idea that is often misunderstood. It is always emotionally and politically charged.

Sen. S. I. HAYAKAWA: Every hour taken away from hearing the English language is an hour taken away from learning the English language. So many children are going to bilingual classes -- so-called.And as a result, they're not learning English in school. And actually, they're being gypped. They're being defrauded of the education they're entitled to with children growing up in America.

McANALLY [voice-over]: In 1976, the California legislature passed a law forcing school districts to provide assistance to language minority children. The law said that if there are ten or more students in an elementary grade level who speak a particular language, they should be provided with a bilingual teacher who speaks their language. It is a theory that school districts often fail to practice. In 1984, a group of frustrated Oakland parents went to court, charging that the district was not providing bilingual programs mandated by law. When the dust settled, Oakland schools were put under court order to bring their programs into legal compliance. Schools like Franklin Elementary were ordered to provide bilingual classrooms for their language minority students. So in a massive reorganization, classes were formed for each language group.

FRAN FERRARI, teacher: It was the most chaotic, heartbreaking thing that's ever happened to me in my teaching career.

McANALLY [voice-over]: Teacher Fran Ferrari was reassigned to a group of children from Ethiopia who spoke Tugrinya.

Ms. FERRARI: I lost my entire class, and I got an entire new class right in the middle of the year.

McANALLY [voice-over]: And, since the district didn't have a credentialed teacher fluent in both Tugrinya and English, Ferrari was asked to sign an agreement, called a waiver, promising to learn Tugrinya over a four year period.

Ms. FERRARI: The form said, "I will take courses in Tugrinya." So I wrote on the form, "I will take courses in Tugrinya if they're ever offered."

McANALLY [voice-over]: One hundred and twenty-six Oakland teachers have signed such agreements, even though many of them will never find classes in the language they have promised to learn. There are classes, however, for languages like Spanish which these teachers attend after school two days a week with no extra pay. Learning Spanish is one thing, but when the expectation is that in four years a teacher will achieve fluency in a language like Cantonese, many say the agreement is a joke.

DEREK McLEOD, teacher: It's not very realistic at all to assume that we can -- or at least that I can -- have any fluency at all such that I could present a lesson to the students in two languages. So that is an unrealistic goal. On the other side of the coin, it lets me understand the problems that my children are up against, not to mention the performance anxiety learning to speak a new language for the first time.

McANALLY$0 [voice-over]: For these children, the possibility of bilingual instruction is extremely remote. They are Lao Mien -- refugees from the mountains of Northern Laos. There are no bilingual teachers for them, and perhaps never will be, since the Mien are a preliterate culture with no written language. This family came to Oakland less than a year ago and has four children in the public schools. This is their first experience with education, reading and writing. Two thousand Mien have now settled in Oakland. When Mien children began pouring into the public schools, they and their parents found a bureaucracy that was not prepared for them. Since the Mien had originally came from Laos, the schools mistakenly assigned them to bilingual classes with Laotian speaking children. They were taught in a language they found incomprehensible and handled tools, like pencils and books, that they'd never seen before.

GEORGE RATHMELL, Westlake Junior High: We weren't used to getting people who were not educated, who couldn't read and write. We'd had immigrants, of course, from many different countries for a long time. But when we talk about hill tribes coming into the city with no preparation, it's a new ball game.

mcNALLY [voice-over]: It wasn't until 1984 -- five years after the first influx of Mien -- that the Oakland schools found out the Mien were not Laotian. Some of the children are now fortunate enough to get help from Mien speaking tutors. Farong Saeturn, one of the few educated Mien, works as an instuctional aide in the Oakland schools.

FARONG SAETURN, instructional aide [subtitles]: They don't know how Enlish words, and when it'sexplained in English, they don't know it. So I have to use my language to tell them, "In my language, it's this, but in English you say it like that."

McANALLY [voice-over]: When Farong's two daughters came to Oakland five years ago, they also found themselves in a culture that was difficult to comprehend.

NYING SAETURN, Mien Immigrant: Everything's new to me and strange. When I got to airport, I said, "Those American people are so tall and with the blond hair." I thought my life has changed a lot.

McANALLY [voice-over]: But Nying and her younger sister, Tut, have adapted. Today Tut is considered an exceptional student. She's enrolled in the gifted English program at Westlake Junior High. Nying is now in the ninth grade, and, while still learning English, she's also fulfilling a school requirement by studying a foreign language, German. Nying and Tut Saeturn are immigrant success stories. Opponents of bilingual education often point to examples like Tut and Nying, who have led special help, but no bilingual teachers, and ask if it is necessary to have bilingual programs for other language groups.

Sen. HAYAKAWA: What's different now from the situation which our grandmothers encountered when they -- we had no special program, no bilingual education for them, is that in our enormous compassion for everybody with any kind of handicap, like the handicap of not knowing English, we try to meet them halfway. What we're doing is building in handicaps instead of helping the handicapped.

McANALLY [voice-over]: Bill Honig, California's superintendent of public instruction, supports bilingual education, but only as a short term tool to help kids move into regular classrooms.

BILL HONIG, superintendent of public instruction: I don't mind cultural maintenance. I think that's, as a byproduct, is something that's useful -- to maintain the language and have it as a resource. But not at the expense of learning English or learning culture or learning history and learning these other subjects.

McANALLY [voice-over]: California's bilingual education law will be up for review this year, and some conservative legislators are hoping to take advantage of criticisms of the law to get it off the books altogether. But supporters of bilingual education fear that if there isn't a law forcing school districts to something, some schools might opt to do nothing at all.

JOHN VASCONCELLOS, California assemblyman: Bilingual was enacted because districts were not attending to these kids' needs. It wasn't like we just invented this thing to have a nice little law on the books. It was because kids' needs weren't being met.

McANALLY [voice-over]: While the babble of political rhetoric over bilingual education continues, more language minority children enroll in our schools every year. And the politicians must decide what to do about non-English speaking kids now and in the future. Educators predict that by 1990, fully half of the children in California classrooms won't be fluent English speakers.

MacNEIL: That report was by Kathy McAnally of KQED, San Francisco. Libya: Warning to Khadafy

LEHRER: There is noise again between the United States and Libya. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported the Reagan administration was preparing to respond militarily to new Libyan terrorism. U.S. Egyptian navel maneuvers began over the weekend off the coast of Libya. Libya's revolutionary committees called for new attacks on U.S. interests around the world. Syrian President Assad came to see Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy and vowed to come to Libya's aid if the U.S. did attack again. There had been mostly quiet between the U.S. and Libya since the original April 15 attack. What is behind this new outbreak is what we want to talk about now with John Walcott, national security correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and one of the writers of his paper's story yesterday.

John, what Libyan activity triggered all this originally -- initially?

JOHN WALCOTT, Wall Street Journal: Well, I think, Jim, there's been a pattern of activity over the last few weeks, beginning with the fact that Colonel Khadafy himself, who had been in isolation almost continuously since the bombing -- he'd been in the desert moving around -- had begun to reappear a little bit more in his capital himself. Now, on top of that, there was an attack on a British base in Cyprus that had some Libyan fingerprints on it, apparently. The intelligence people also think they found Khadafy's fingerprints on a gang of Lebanese terrorists who were rounded up by the West Berlin police apparently cooking up a scheme to hit a movie theatre or a night spot -- the kind of place in West Berlin that is frequented by American servicemen -- very reminiscent of the attack in April which triggered the American bombing of Libya back then. And on top of that, there are some more -- some hazy indications from places as far afield as Togo in West Africa, from Zaire in Africa, that Libyan agents there have gotten busy again. So what's happened is that the traffic is up -- that the Libyans are talking to one another again, that people in Libyan people's bureaus, their equivalent of an embassy, in Libyan businesses, the Libyan-Arab airlines, the Libyan trading companies, have begun hanging around with some very unsavory folks in Western Europe.Some of those folks, apparently, have come forward and said, "Hey, the Libyans offered me money to come and work for them." And the kinds of work that apparently the Libyans were interested in contracting is not entirely on the up and up.So there's a kind of -- the background noise is getting louder. And that, in turn, has got Americans concerned, and I think some of the Western European intelligence people as well, that after this long lull over the summer, that Khadafy is back. That doesn't really surprise anybody.

LEHRER: Yeah. Okay, now what -- your story said that the United States was preparing to take military action if Khadafy does do any of these things -- something that they can definitely find his fingerprints on. What kind of action is being contemplated?

Mr. WALCOTT: Well, there are a whole series of things that could be done, and I think that probably the best way to put that, Jim, is to say that the United States is prepared to take military action if they find either conclusive evidence that Khadafy is about to do something or, obviously, if he does something along the lines of what he did in April.

LEHRER: Something -- the military action, the U.S. military action, would also be along the lines of what we did in April, or something a little bit more?

Mr. WOLCOTT: My expectation, based on the people that we at the Journal talked to in preparing that story, is that it would probably be something a little bit more, and that the more would probably involve or could involve economic targets in Libya.

LEHRER: You mean the oil targets?

Mr. WALCOTT: There are a number of ways you could go at his economy, but the Libyan economy, such as it is, is based almost entirely on oil. That's his great point of vulnerability, even at a time when oil prices are down. So presumably, if you really wanted to hurt them, what you'd do is something that would prevent him from selling that oil.

LEHRER: Now, is there any question in your mind of a connection between the rumblings and the noises that the U.S. has been hearing from Khadafy and Libya and these U.S.-Egyptian naval maneuvers off the coast of Libya?

Mr. WALCOTT: That's -- that is a complicated question to answer, because the navy and the Pentagon can tell you with an absolutely straight face, and they can pass one of the administration's polygraph tests when they do, that, "Oh, no. We've had this scheduled for almost a year." That's true. On the other hand, one of the reasons it was scheduled for this time of year is that it helps Khadafy celebrate the upcoming anniversary of his revolution. And I think that some people at the Pentagon and elsewhere figured that they'd have a little tall ships parade off the Libyan coast to help mark this august event in Libyan history. So the timing is not entirely coincidental. It is not connected to or a response to this latest evidence that we've talked about, but rather part of a continuing plan to keep the Libyans off guard -- on guard, off balance, jittery.

LEHRER: Sure. And is the decision on somebody's part in the administration to tell you and your colleagues on the Wall Street Journal all about it a part of that? Did you have the feeling, in other words, were you "Deep Throating" this story, or did the administration want this out?

Mr. WALCOTT: Well, it's a little hard to tell. I'm more interested in what happened after the story came out, because the one thing that was probably a telltale sign was the report I think that the Associated Press carried that said an official seemed eager to confirm the Wall Street Journal's story.

LEHRER: New York Times had a similar report this morning as well.

Mr. WALCOTT: And even called the Journal story very authoritative. Now, those kind of reviews I'll take any time I can get them. But they do suggest you're onto something.

LEHRER: Yeah. And they're trying to send a message, right? To Khadafy that, "Hey --" what do you -- how would you interpret the message they're sending?

Mr. WALCOTT: I think it's always a little dangerous to speculate on people's motives for telling you anything, because they're usually fairly complicated, and sometimes people don't realize what they've told you. But I think there probably is an intention on the part of the administration, both in some of the people that we talked to, but certainly in the administration's handling of the story after we published it, to tell Khadafy, number one, "We know what you're up to, fellah." And number two, "Bad things are going to happen to you if you go through with any of this."

LEHRER: Is there an additional expectation that he might not in fact go through with them because of this threat?

Mr. WOLCOTT:$0 Well, I think there's a perception by some people that they've got a no lose situation. On the one hand, maybe they can scare him off, and that's fine. On the other hand, maybe the can't scare him off, and they'll have to do something more and drop some more heavy objects on his head. And for those people, well, that's okay too.

LEHRER: Okay.John Wolcott, Wall Street Journal, thank you very much.

Mr. WOLCOTT: Thank you. Brew-Ha-Ha

MacNEIL: Finally tonight, the story of Jim Koch, a fifth generation brewmaster with a consuming desire to make the best glass beer in America. Three years ago, Koch left a lucrative consulting career and began making beer -- Samuel Adams Boston Lager by name. Jim Koch is passionate about brewing beer and sophisticated about selling it. He's yet to turn a profit in this competitive field, but even that doesn't dampen his enthusiasm. Paul Solman of public station WGBH in Boston has our report.

PAUL SOLMAN [voice-over]: July 3, 1986, Boston's Park Plaza Hotel: members of Boston's eating and drinking establishments gather to judge another round in the beer industry's fight of the century. These local bartenders are here to do the scoring. The European heavyweights of the A league division against the American challenger, Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Jim Koch is the founder and marker of Sam Adams, and this is Koch's event. He set it up, picked the beers, and invited the press. He claims the foreigners are frauds, so losing today would be very embarrassing. We'll follow this taste test to the final bell, but first let's take a closer look at the business strategy behind it.

First of all, Koch's Boston beer company brews Samuel Adams Boston Lager here in Pittsburgh -- at least until later this year, when Koch opens a brewery of his own in Boston. Koch started small, renting this facility one day a month. Compared the 5 million barrels Anheuser-Busch produces every month, Koch's 2,000 barrels are a drop in the bucket. At first glance, starting a beer company this small seems crazy, particularly when you consider the history of Koch's family, which had been in the industry for 160 years.

JIM KOCH, Samuel Adams Beer: My father ran four different little breweries, and they all went broke. I mean, they're all gone today.So going into the beer business looked like suicide. And it was something that I always wanted to do, but as I got to be older and realized that it was an impossible kind of dream, began to look at other things. 'Cause starting a brewery, it's like trying to start your own oil company. I mean, you just don't do it.

SOLMAN: And for years, Jim Koch didn't. Instead, he racked up three Harvard degrees, including one at the business school, and went on to become a business strategy consultant. Meanwhile, though, he kept tabs on the beer industry. And he began to notice certain developments that would let him back into the business of his forebears to compete, as he is today, against some of the most prestigious beers in America. Jim Koch's strategy makes for an interesting case study in modern entrepreneur-ship, because, up 'til now, the strategy has actually worked. Koch's strategy was to find a niche -- a distinctive corner of a large market. The first step in finding the niche was to analyze the beer industry's recent history.

[clip from TV commercial]

BURT PIELS, cartoon character: This is Burt "Instant Refreshment" Piels, talking to you from ringside at New York's famous Madison Square Garden.

SOLOMAN [voice-over]: Twenty, thirty years ago, the market was crowded with small, regional breweries. Remember Burt and Harry, the Piels brothers?

[clip from TV commerciqal]

BURT PIELS: Here it is, viewers, instant refreshment from the first taste.

HARRY PIELS, cartoon character: Well, that's because our beer is cool-brewed.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: In the 1950s, most beer ads were regional. And that's because most beer companies were regional. The product claims were pretty much the same, because the products were pretty much the same. But by the 1960s, a few companies got big enough fast enough to brew in huge volume and distribute and advertise nationally.These national brands simply beat their regional rivals to the mass market. They were more heavily advertised, available everywhere, and cheaper to produce.

[clip from TV commercial]

Announcer: Where there's life, there's Bud.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: In 1960, for example, Anheuser-Busch had less than 10% of the market. Today it has almost 40%.

[clip from TV commercial]

Song: This Bud's for you.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: Jim Koch figured he could never compete against efficient giants like this, so he targeted a different, smaller and, he thought, very vulnerable segment of the beer market.

[clip from TV commercial]

Announcer: The word around town is German: Beck's.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: The imports represented a very distinct niche and the only growing segment of the American beer market. The foreigners traded on snob appeal. Koch decided the Europeans had concerned the prestige market long enough.

Mr. KOCH: I wanted to have an American beer with an American name and sell it as an American beer; not pretend to be something coming from Europe. So I wanted that kind of name. And Samuel Adams was the perfect figure. He was a patriot who instigated and nurtured the American Revolution. He was the man who, more than anyone else, threw the foreigners out. And on top of it, he was a brewer.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: Koch figured that this unabashed appeal to American patriotism wouldn't be enough to wean his target customers away from their foreign favorites. So he set out to persuade the public that his beer was, in fact, better than its hallowed competition, which is where the beer tasting comes in. Koch figures that if he could win over bartenders, their customers would follow.

Mr. KOCH: Okay, we're ready to get started. I'm going to ask you, because there's a mirror behind me, so that everything is secret and it's a true test that you all turn around and face away from me while we pour the samples into your glasses.

SOLMAN: A true test? Look, this isn't the wine industry, where experts can agree on just what constitutes a fine wine. There's no consensus on quality in the beer industry. On the other hand, you can make a beer that's noticeably different.

[voice-over] You can see that Sam Adams is much darker than the others. Koch also made sure it had more body, was more bitter and more aromatic -- different in every official way from the foreign competition. Koch's beer may or may not be better, but it is definitely more distinctive.

[on camera] So far so good. Sam Adams looked and tasted different. That was part of the strategy. The next part was to get people to notice the product. But with a tiny advertising and promotion budget, how do you market a new beer? The answer was, with every stunt and gimmick you can think of.

Mr. KOCH: Okay, please turn around. In front of you you have five beers on your napkins that have been numbered. And I would ask you to look at the beers, taste them and smell them. We're looking for aroma, color, and of course taste. And please take your time. Take notes.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: Every bartender in this room has sampled Sam Adams before, and many of them know Koch personally. When Koch began to sell his brew, he hit Boston's top night spots, pitting his beer against the name brands, running taste tests like this, as well as seminars in promotion. He stumped for his beer like a latter day evangelist. Then, last summer, Koch's taste test strategy paid off at a far more impartial event than this one -- the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Barely seven weeks into production, Sam Adams took first place, beating out 93 other entries. On the heels of this success, Koch stepped up his tactics, launching a campaign designed to goad his competitors into a public confrontation.

Mr. KOCH: Do you know what a St. Pauli Girl is? A St. Pauli Girl is a whore. The St. Pauli district is the red light district of Homburg, and a St. Pauli Girl is a prostitute.And the ads get a whole double entendre if you hear them with that knowledge in mind.

[clip from TV commercial]

1st Actor: Friendly

2nd Actor: Fun-loving.

1st Actor: Unforgettable.

3rd Actor: You know, it's like they say. You never forget your first girl.

Song: No, you never forget your first girl.

Mr. KOCH: St. Pauli Girl isn't really sold in Germany. It's a made up brand to sell to Americans. And it's a big joke.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: Koch charged that the imports have been adulterated for the American market with corn, sugar and preservatives.As a result, he claimed, these beers couldn't meet the standards the Germans apply to their own domestic beers. While his competitors were understandably reluctant to play into his hands, they simply couldn't let Koch's charges go unchallenged. Philip Van Munching, importer of Heineken:

PHILIP VAN MUNCHING, Heineken Beer: His contention in his ads that Heineken is outlawed in Germany for using illegal adjuncts certainly sounds dramatic. Well, the truth is rather boring. Heineken is brewed with corn, which is not allowed in Germany. Corn is a matter of taste. And the German law that Jim Koch cites is a trade restriction.They want, and it can be argued that maybe it's a good idea for them, to protect their smaller breweries. Well, that's fine. But to call it a purity law and state somehow that our beer is impure, other beers are impure, is ludicrous.

Mr. KOCH: What I'm doing is obviously ver risky. I'm directly attacking very powerful, entrenched interests -- imported beers and imported brewers; beers that sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of beer here. And I'm pointing the finger directly at them and saying they're a fraud.

Mr. MUNCHING: Like any other attention getting ploy, he's looking for press. And, very obviously, being on a show such as yours or being on the AP wire service, he's getting attention, because he's yelling and screaming. Whether that will translate into sales, I don't know.

SOLMAN: So far Koch's tactics have translated into sales. In just over a year, he's already captured a sizable portion of the A league beer drinking market here in Boston. Jim Koch has found a niche. He's positioned Sam Adams as the highest priced, highest quality American alternative to those foreign beers he's so indignant about. In beer, as in life, no strategy guarantees success. But so far, Koch's strategy has worked. And it's been to develop a loyal, local following of Boston's leading beer opinion makers. Let's see how the strategy's holding up this time.

[voice-over] The judges are on their final round. There's Tommy Leonard of the Elliot Lounge placing his score between two contestants. Koch has orchestrated this little drama very nicely, right down to the requisite representative from an independent accounting firm to make it all official. Koch of course knowsthe barkeeps will have been able to recognize Sam Adams and aren't likely to vote against their host. But still and all, there's a little suspense in the air as the final votes are tallied and the judges' decision is announced.

Accountant: The results: Samuel Adams was number one, St. Pauli was number two, Beck's was number three, and Molsen and Heineken were tied for fourth.

Mr. KOCH: The beer is still on the house, and you are still on the air.

SOLMAN [voice-over]: And Jim Koch's strategy is still on course.

LEHRER: Again, the major story this Tuesday is the mounting death toll in Cameroon, where officials said more than 1,500 people are now dead from volcanic gases. Today Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Fisher visited the scene of the disaster. A short time ago, he described it to Noah Adams of National Public Radio's program, All Things Considered. Here's an excerpt of that interview.

DAN FISHER, Los Angeles Times: There were many people, though, who were awakened either by the noise of the explosion of this gas to the surface or by breathing problems who then got up and ran out of their houses. And that's where many of the bodies were found -- out in the yards or even on the roads.

NOAH ADAMS, National Public Radio: Of the survivors you talked to, what did they say happened to them?

MR. FISHER: They spoke of waking up and having great difficulty breathing, and that was -- and also being hot. One man, particularly, had signs of burns on his back from, apparently, hot gas or perhaps something else, but probably -- or a chemical burn. But it was the difficulty in breathing that awakened them. It was also clear just from -- in talking with them and in talking with the government officials in the area, the fickle nature of this gas cloud and those that it killed and those that it didn't. In some cases, according to one official we talked to, you might have two people standing within five yards of each other. One, for some reason, caught a draft of gas and was killed almost instantly, and the other survived.

LEHRER: In other news today, major banks dropped their prime interest rate to 7.5%. The federal government rejected Texas Air's plans to merge with Eastern Airlines. And the American Heart Association tightened its recommended guidelines on fat, cholesterol, sodium and alcohol consumption. Good night, Robin.

MacNEIL: Good night, Jim. That's our News Hours tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil. Good night.