New Hampshire Daily; New Hampshire Daily Episode from 12/18/89

Past the result of that means of financing public education are becoming increasingly clear. Property tax payers are being pushed to the economic limit and are rebelling. The overall quality of education is suffering and the disparity between the quality of education in affluent communities and the quality of education in poor communities is growing wider every year. Last year only one school in the entire state was able to comply with minimum standards established by the State Department of Education. The legislature following the lead of Gov. Greg seems content to ignore that problem even exacerbating it as they did last year by transferring money intended for education into other programs therefore increasing the burden on property tax payers. This can't continue. Property taxes are already too high and we are headed for a lawsuit similar to that that we have seen in other states challenging the use of property taxes to fund public education. A lawsuit likely to be successful if we fail to act soon to provide greater state support for public education. We will be forced to do so by the courts and that will be a much more

painful process. Wayne There you go again. You fall into the trap of the education lobby's favorite statistic. Yes New Hampshire does make the smallest state contribution to education but the overall combined state federal and local expenditure per pupil is a respectable 24th among the 50 states. And unless you've been on a desert island for the last few years you know that New Hampshire ranks number one and scores so we must be doing something right. Critics of the current system of school finance constantly harp about the input side of education. They focus on numbers like expenditure per pupil teacher salary and student teacher ratios. In fact the jury's still out on whether these factors are reliable predictors of success in college or in the workplace. The output side of education student performance whether it's measured in test scores or graduation rates seems to be related more to parental and community expectations than to the amount of money that's spent. I believe that because schools in New Hampshire of finance for the most part locally that is out of the property tax that there's a lot more interest in direct involvement by parents in establishing educational priorities.

And I believe that this is a big element in our success. Sure the current system may need some fine tuning to correct the inequities between property rich and property poor districts. But before we make fundamental changes in a winning formula we should be sure that taking more money from the tax payers state pocket versus his local pocket will result in better student performance. Like I'd like you to tell the people who are paying 20 percent of their gross income for property taxes in a town like Lisbon New Hampshire that this is a winning formula. This is not a winning formula unless you live in a wealthy town in the state of New Hampshire and it's not a fair system. If you want to talk about the output of the system instead of just the input I'm glad to do that we're twenty fifth in the nation and dropouts in the United States S.A.T. scores our scores on tests that are taken by college bound students. So they do not reflect how well we are doing with our educational system with all of the rest of the students which is a very large percentage of our students. So to use the S.A.T. score as a means of determining how well we're doing in education

is not a fair way of measuring that. But let's talk about the issue of the 50 50th in the nation. There's no question that I don't believe that we are 50th in the nation in terms of the quality of our education. But the problem is when the state only puts a small percentage of the funds into public education and yet is so heavily mandated in terms of what it requires of local communities it requires huge amounts of spending on the local level based on the property tax and that has nothing to do with the ability of individuals to pay and it's an unfair system. If the problem is the state mandates maybe that's where we ought to look rather than to look at the symptom of the problem which is the property tax maybe we ought to re-examine what the state mandates are. See whether they're all entirely necessary we know that there are a lot of complaints about them and the fact that only one school is currently able to meet them indicates that maybe they're more stringent than they need to be. Again looking at the output side we seem to do pretty well. Our spending pattern in New Hampshire is disproportionately local. But I'm not persuaded that we

should make a fundamental change. You know I had to increase the state's share of education from its current 7 percent to 20 percent would cost us one hundred and twenty million dollars. You know we don't have that kind of money at the state level this year. Well it may be a desirable goal to increase the state's share of aid to education I think it's unlikely that we'd be able to do so this year. I think we have to look to the New Hampshire way of doing things looking at local control and relying on school district meetings to go through those budgets and make sure that every penny that spent for education gets a return in terms of student performance. Don if you think the citizens of New Hampshire think that this is a reasonable way to finance public education I invite you to spend town meeting day with me in my district next year where you will see people screaming about this and particularly when the schools when the school meeting takes place you will hear people talking about how they just can't stand to have this anymore. Now I agree with you on the mandate issue and you and I are

co-sponsoring a bill in the legislature to take a look at those mandates. But there's a lot of mandates that are important in terms of the quality of education that we provide to students in the state of New Hampshire. But the state has got to be willing to help more on those issues. And if they are not. Then we're going to be in big trouble down the road. Wayne if you're going to suggest that we need more state aid to education. I hope that you would suggest a funding source for this you know what's not possible in our current revenue stream to substantially increase the amount of state aid to education. I'm willing to have any suggestions about what might be acceptable to the voters as a new source of revenue for about one hundred twenty million dollars of additional funding that would be needed. Representative Donna scientific and State Senator Wayne King debate issues of concern to the state legislature Monday. There are approximately 200 Christmas tree growers in New Hampshire

with an inventory of about three million Christmas trees. That's according to Ted Howard associate professor of forest resources at the University of New Hampshire at Durham. Howard has studied the Christmas tree industry in New Hampshire Maine and Vermont and tells Leslie Bennett that things have gotten tougher in the natural Christmas tree business. A couple of changes have happened. The first is that there's been a significant change in the relationship between the number of trees planted and the number of trees harvested. For years the ratio of trees planted to harvest it was about two to one. Two trees into the ground for everyone coming out. We began to see in the early 80s and carried through the mid 80s a tremendous thing. Free so that they were now being four or more trees planted for each tree harvested. That translates to increasing supplies down the line as those trees become mature. We also found that there were significant numbers of new people moving into the Christmas tree business. At the

time of our survey in the mid 80s 80s about 29 percent of the people that we interviewed we interview almost 400 people. Twenty nine percent of those people had yet to harvest a single one of the trees they had planted. These are all new growers. Ever presents all new trees coming to the market sometime in the early 1990s. What accounts for those people that started in the industry a few years ago and that are new they have yet to harvest their first batch of Christmas trees they're still sort of waiting for them to reach a certain height. Why were there so many Any ideas. I think a lot of it ever has to sources I think the first source is that a lot of the growers here in New England particularly here in New Hampshire are retired and it's a way to supplement their income and a way to keep busy and outdoors it's a good hobby activity for them. At the same time I think a lot of people also

looked at the rather large prices that Christmas tree sellers were getting in their retail lots and figured Gee if the price of the Christmas tree. Is that why there must be some money into growing this tree. Answer A lot of people got into the business. I think a lot of them did not at that time recognize that the growing and culturing of a Christmas tree for today's market is an expensive and time consuming job. So it seems like a lot of people might have gotten interested in the industry with a bit of dismay after realizing that number one it takes a long time to become successful. You don't you don't have a harvest for a number of years and doesn't seem like a part time job it seems more like a full time job when you talk about being active in the spring and summer with your acres of Christmas trees. It can be very demanding depending upon how many acres of Christmas trees you have to cultivate. But the windows of activity that you have to operate in are fairly narrow and you have to deal with the shearing the shaping the fertilizing the pest

control the grass control. It's quite an extensive operation and people should not embark on that job without their own eyes being right open to all the demands that will be made upon them not to even mention the difficulties that they're going to run into when they have to turn around and market these trees. Right at Christmas time when they're trying to get. Your family's ready for the holidays. Any idea about what's down the line say in the as we approach are our next few years what to look forward to in terms of trends more and more people aren't aren't using live Christmas trees. It's interesting that the live Christmas tree market has responded primarily to the forces of the artificial tree the artificial tree is symmetrically shaped and has all kinds of features that make it look make it look good. So the natural Christmas tree the live Christmas tree business has gone to

great lengths to culture a tree that looks like an artificial tree. It seems like a strange contradiction to say that live Christmas trees are looking like artificial trees because they have too is it's one of those life imitates art art imitates life where does the cycle begin and end. That's exactly the situation. I see one thing that has changed is a growing to use the so called choose and cut operations where families can come out to a Christmas tree operation and select and harvest their own tree. And in that case one is selling more than just that. The tree here can hear competing are a little different plain than simply the artificial tree in the box versus the tree that you get from the woods. You've also got that social experience of bringing the kids out to the woods tromping around in the snow or maybe getting a hay ride and a cup of cocoa to go with it. And I think that's one

thing that a lot of the growers have gone to throughout New England and even other parts of the country. That's Ted Howard associate professor of forest resources at the University of New Hampshire talking to Leslie Bennett about the state's natural Christmas tree industry. It's always something. That's how the old saying goes. And today language commentator

Richard a letter begins a series of reports on life's frustrations. Have you ever notice that the piece you pick out of a box of mixed chocolates is inevitably the kind that you don't like or can't eat that the farther from the aisle is a seat in a theatre or concert hall. The later its occupant arrives and that the first pull of the cord will always send the drapes the wrong way. Well freelance writer Paul Dickson has noticed that in 1976 he founded the Murphy Center for the codification of human and organizational law. The center is named for the great Murphy who enunciated Murphy's Law if anything can go wrong it will. Well Paul Dickson's the new official rules maxims for muddling through the 21st century and that's Addison Wesley has just been released. To help us survive the vagaries of life on the fast track and more often on the slow track among my favorite gems of folk wisdom and we your organizational law in the book

are these I'd like to share them with you when in fact I'm going to. Almost anything is easier to get into than out of self sealing on the lobes don't except when you have accidentally left the letter out. The only way to prevent food to prevent getting food on your necktie is to put it in the refrigerator. Giving away baby clothes and furniture is a major cause of pregnancy. Favors granted always become defined as rights. The more popular something is the more likely it is that a religious personage will object to it. If the check is truly in the mail it is surely made out to someone else. Salary is inversely proportional to the amount of time spent serving the public. Just ask your friendly we vote people about that one expressways aren't freeways aren't

the shortest distance between two points is under construction. The first pull. I'm sorry anything sor will be bumped more often. Here's a two parter. Any liquid accidentally spilt automatically doubles in volume and to a spilled drink flows in the direction of the most expensive object. Another two parter at banquets the microphone is always too short for tall people and too tall for short people. Also the microphone whistles and hums louder the closer it is to the time for the main speaker to address the audience. If you accidently put the carbon paper in backwards you will type a perfect letter. Corollary when writing a personal letter as soon as you begin a new sheet of paper you will run out of things to say. One

all staplers are empty to any stapler that isn't empty is broken. Three staple supplies may be found only when one is looking for scissors. During Christmas all worthwhile social events will occur on the same evening. You're about to find that out gulf sex and child rearing prove that practice those not make perfect. No2 hotel or motel shower faucets work the same way. The soup there's your is always cream of broccoli. Cat hair is attracted to and will it hear to anything except the cat trees always drop more leaves than they bear calories are delicious. More coming in the next two weeks. This is Richard Lederer. And if you have a question or a comment on language write to Richard letter in care of WEO twenty six Pleasant Street Concord New Hampshire zip code 0 3 3

0 1. Business news is next the New Hampshire daily. Good evening this is Steven McRae reporting from the offices of PaineWebber in Concord. Nervousness about the problems facing real estate lenders sent stock prices tumbling and one of the steepest sell off since the market plunged in mid October. Buying interest in blue chip oil stocks permitted the Dow Jones Industrial Average to narrowly avoided worst decline since plunging one hundred ninety point six points October 13th. The Dow industrials went down 42 points just shy of us 47 points set back on Nov. 6 to close at two thousand six ninety seven around one thousand two hundred eighty issues declined in price on the New York Stock Exchange while only about three hundred fifty advanced

big board volume which had surged to 240 million shares on Friday due to the expiration of December stock index futures totaled one hundred eighty seven million shares in the latest session. Looking at stocks of local interest digital eighty two and a quarter up three quarters GTA sixty eight and seven eights down one in seven eights James River twenty seven and seven eight down one half and fleet North Star 24 to quarter down five eights and summary the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 2006 98 down forty two points on a volume of one hundred eighty seven million shares. This is Steven McRae reporting from PaineWebber in Concord. Have a nice evening. In business notes the Securities and Exchange Commission is creating a post to coordinate enforcement cooperation with foreign stock regulators and a Washington news conference FCC chairman Richard Breeden said the new office will be responsible for negotiating formal cooperation agreements. Last week Britain signed

cooperation agreements with Dutch and French security regulators that will allow the exchange of information to help stamp out market abuses like insider trading. He's hoping to sign a similar agreement with Japan early next year. Mattel was down five eights at sixteen and seven eighths after announcing an agreement to acquire a British toymaker Mattel expects its purchase of corgi toys which makes die cast model cars to be completed before the end of the year. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Now for a look at whether this report is made possible in part by a grant from Johnson and Dick's fuel Corp. suppliers of petroleum products throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. Are sunny but cold weather continues throughout the state some mountain areas have had flurries today high temperatures ranged in the mid teens in the north to the mid Nupur 20s on the coast. High pressure over centered over Ohio this afternoon will continue to build East over the area tonight and early Tuesday then move off the New England coast late Tuesday

fast moving most pressure system will across southern Canada and pass through northern New England on Wednesday. Low pressure is expected to form over the mid-Atlantic Seitz States rather and move off the Carolina coast on Wednesday. The system should move well to the south and east of our area. The bad news is that even colder air is expected to move into the area Thursday and continue through the weekend. So our forecast is mostly clear tonight lows from 10 below 10 below zero in the north to 10 above at the coast. Tomorrow Tuesday sunshine and increasing clouds in the late afternoon highs in the teens to upper 20s. Tuesday night cloudy with a chance of snow in the northern mountains and occasional light snow elsewhere on Tuesday night lows tomorrow from zero in the north to 15 at the coast. Occasional light snow Wednesday highs in the teens the mid 20s in sports the Celtics hit the road tomorrow night they face the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center. The teams have split their two games this season with each winning on the home court. Boston hopes to bounce back from

a 119 to 110 loss to the Lakers at the Garden on Friday night. The Hartford Whalers in the Boston Bruins are each off tonight. That's New Hampshire daily for Monday the 18th of December 1989. I'm Martin Murray the engineer is Paul Jimerson and programming on New Hampshire Public Radio is made possible in part by a grant from Smith Batchelder and rather Certified Public Accountants and management consultants offering accounting expertise in strategic business consulting services with offices in New Hampshire and Vermont by Granite State telephone with over a century of telecommunications experience providing a digital and fiber optic network to residents of south central New Hampshire. All things considered is coming up next the time is now five twenty nine. You're a double TVO. We're joining the holiday spirit by giving away fabulous prizes worth over $5000 in our 12 Days of Christmas drawing. From December 26 through

January 6th. We'll announce a lucky winner at 9:00 10:00 every morning. You could win beautiful handcrafted furniture or jewelry a ski vacation or shopping spree entry coupons are available at stores honoring the WTO member card or by calling 6 0 3 2 2 8 8 9 1 0. Enjoy the holidays. All things considered is funded by WEO and other NPR member stations and by contributors to the NPR news and information fund including NRDC the Natural Resource Defense Council law and science for the environment. Kiplinger books publisher of America in the global 90s. Jennifer and Ted Stanley. And where the power is on for telecommunications lighting and precision materials. They do now for All Things Considered. It's 5:30. Infant mortality in the nation's capital. In this half hour of All Things Considered. Washington D.C.'s rate of infant deaths is the highest in the country double the national rate. The

chief cause is crack. Women addicted to cocaine giving birth to babies who are addicts a capital city is struggling with a problem but budget cuts are hindering the effort. I think that it is a tragedy that we allow. Our fellow countrymen and women. To die at the rates that they die. And certainly the babies to die at the rates today die in a country with all the resources both labor and technological society and also some thoughts of the new president of Howard University. Those stories in this half hour of All Things Considered after this news update from National Public Radio News in Washington man Taylor. There was another shooting incident today in Panama involving a U.S. soldier. A Pentagon official in Washington says that a U.S. Army officer shot and wounded a military transit police officer in Panama City when the policeman pulled a gun on him. Officials say the policeman was hit either in the arm or leg but the U.S. officer was not injured. Over the weekend a U.S. serviceman was killed in Panama as he was

trying to flee a crowd after being stopped at a roadblock. The president has called the killing an outrage. A probable bomb was found at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals building in Atlanta today two days after a member of the same court was killed after opening a package bomb sent to his home in Birmingham. Ed Hula has more on the story. The band was discovered while mail was being sorted at the Court of Appeals building in downtown Atlanta. Employees of the building were evacuated and streets around the building were cleared. Around noon Eastern Time the package containing the bomb was removed by the Atlanta Police bomb squad and carried away. Atlanta police manger WW Halley says the device appeared to be a pipe. But wouldn't comment on whether it was addressed to a particular judge in Alabama. The FBI agent heading up the investigation of Saturday's bombing the director Robert Mann says there could be increased significantly between. That attack and today's bomb scare in Atlanta because of the similarity of me to fight for National Public

Radio decided to have a plan. Two U.S. F-16 fighter bombers collided over West Germany today in one of the pilots was killed. Police say that no one on the ground was injured as an engine and ammunition fell through the roof of a vegetable market. The fighters were on a training mission when they collided over the southern part of West Germany. Andres Sakharov was buried today in Moscow as both officials and ordinary Soviet citizens pay their last respects. NPR's Anne Garrels reports. Early this morning Soviet leader Gorbachev stood for a few minutes in the freezing rain but I saw could also open cough and later tens of thousands gathered at a Moscow sports complex for a last public farewell speaker after speaker recalled that socket also refused to compromise despite threats. Speaker after speaker at the human rights champions to forgive all those who were too frightened to speak up in his defense accompanied by a Soviet Army band family and friends later made their way at dusk to a forested cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow as

his widow kissed him one last time. Coffin was placed in the grave and flowers heaped on top. I-Man Garrels in Moscow. On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrials closed down forty two points to close at twenty six hundred ninety seven point fifty three on volume of some one hundred eighty four million shares. Trading was active. This is NPR News. The White House says that national security adviser Brant Scowcroft made a secret visit to China in July just a month after a government crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in that country. A White House spokesman said the trip was made to impress on the Chinese government how serious the crackdown was seen in the United States. Another trip by Scowcroft to China earlier this month caused a storm of criticism on Capitol Hill. The state radio of Hungary is reporting the government of Romania has sealed off its western borders and sent troops and helicopters to the country's fourth largest city. As Pierre Vicary reports though it's difficult to

learn about the dead and wounded. The West Romanian town of chemistry for example insists face to face today following Saturday's violent demonstrations against the communist. Thought it is a nice unit on street corners. Tanks and armored personnel carriers on patrol. Oh and helicopters flying overhead. All traffic in and out of the city. A subject to an army search down and smashed shop windows visible reminder of just how violent the demonstration was some reports claim that as many as 400 demonstrators were killed. But this is impossible to confirm. Eyewitnesses talk of seeing dead bodies lying in the street for National Public Radio News. This is PFC Corey. Not as officials opposed the launch of the space shuttle Columbia until Jan. 8 in order to have more time to prepare the launch pad and let workers go home for the holidays. The main problem appears to be work that is behind schedule at a launch pad that has not

been used for nearly four years. Columbia's five astronauts are to spend 10 days in space during which time they will deploy a U.S. Navy communications satellite. Taylor National Public Radio News in Washington. It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED I'm Noah Adams And I'm Robert Siegel. Last year Washington D.C. became the country's murder capital. This year the nation's capital took the lead in infant mortality as well. The number of infants who die at birth are within their first year is more than double the national rate the highest in the country. Here in the District of Columbia the number of infant deaths more closely resembles the third world than it does a big American city. And as with the murder rate crack is the reason for the sharp increase in infant deaths. NPR's Patricia name and has this report in the United States as a whole 10 out of every thousand babies die before their first birthdays. But in the District of

Columbia 23 out of every thousand babies die more than double the national rate so far this year. One hundred seventy eight babies have died more than one every two days. But health officials say those deaths are only a part of the problem. Every day they say women who are addicted to crack give birth to babies who survive. And as those infants grow it becomes clear that they have suffered damage. See how he did. What are you going to stay with us. Midwife Peggy gallant comforts a tiny baby girl who weighs only about seven pounds. That's the weight of many newborns but this baby is not a newborn. She's almost three months old. Her mother used crack and the baby weighed less than three pounds at birth. She spent the first months of her life in intensive care. And still she suffers the effects of her mother's addiction. To see if I do this to her which I shouldn't do because just being mean to her but

she needs to be covered in swaddled. But if you move her up and down that's when you get that response the agitation of a hint of this agitation. The baby's nervous system has been damaged every time the mother smoke the baby got a double dose because the drug permeates the amniotic fluid it flows through the baby's system for three or four more days. Experts say about half of these babies will develop problems like speech or hearing deficiencies inadequate motor coordination difficulty concentrating. But a significant number will show signs of even more serious problems cerebral palsy or mental retardation. Crack also brings on early labor which causes premature birth prematurity is the number one cause of infant death and disability. Obstetrician John Niles says that crack causes early labor because it increases the mother's heart rate blood pressure and constrict blood vessels. The cocaine. Irritates the uterus is though you get a charlie horse or cramp in your leg so

it causes a uterus to start contracting. So it makes start contracting say when you are about 20 to 24 weeks Niall says that babies born this early can survive only with the help of expensive and elaborate life support systems. Hospital nurseries in the city are already filled to capacity with premature cocaine exposed babies. What makes the district stories so tragic says Niles is that until recently DC had made good progress in fighting infant mortality. The southeast section of Washington D.C. is only a few miles from the Capitol and the White House. But it's a world apart. It's the poorest area in the city of patchwork of unkempt apartment projects with boarded up windows an area where factories and jobs have left leaving an economically cut off from the rest of the city. Unemployment especially among men is very high here. Adding to a cycle of chronic poverty where generations of young people grow up

believing there is no future for them now the crack epidemic has made the situation even worse. It's easy to buy crack here and the drug has drawn more young women into addiction than any other street drug. Literally imprisoning them in so-called crack houses where sex is traded for one more hit of crack as a result pregnancies especially among teenagers are up. Typically the fathers are not involved in relationships with these teenage mothers and obstetricians Niles says because of their addiction many of these young women are simply well.