Banner Graphic, Volume 22, Number 126, Greencastle, Putnam County, 30 January 1992 — Page 2

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC January 30,1992

The president’s tax package Sell an investment, buy a home, take a bus, adopt a child

WASHINGTON (AP) To reap maximum benefit from President Bush’s new tax plan you’d do well to sell some of your investments, buy a home, take mass transit to work and adopt a child. But there are catches: Your investments would have to be profitable. That home would have to be your first in three years. Your employer would have to pay a limited portion of your commuting expenses. AND NOT JUST any child would qualify you for that $3,000 deduction for adoption expenses. The child would have to have “special needs,” such as a medical problem, or be a different race than the parents, or be older than most prospective parents want Nothing the president proposed in his 1993 budget on Wednesday would affect every taxpayer. There

AV

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Banner Graphic (USPS 142-020) Con*olkl»tion of Th* Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Dally Graphic Establishedlßß3 . Telephone 653-5151 Published dally except Sunday and Holidays by Banner Graphic, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle, 1N.46135. Second-class postage paid at Greencastle, IN. POSTMASTER: Send addreas changes to the Banner Graphic, P. O. Box 509, Greencastle IN 46135. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier $1.40 Per Week, by motor route *1.45 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. IN Rest of Rest of Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 Mouths *21.00 *23.00 *25.00 6 Months $40.00 *45.00 $50.00 1 Year $76.00 $86.00 $95.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance ... not accepted in town and where motor route service is available. Member ol the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper. Steve Hendershot _. General Manager/ Marketing Director Eric Bernsee ..._ Editor Wilbur C. Kendall Production Manager Gib Farmer Business Manager June Leer -.... Circulation Manager

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is, for example, no reduction in tax rates or across-the-board increase in the personal exemption. There is a plan to increase the exemption for a dependent child, parent or other relative, starting Oct. 1, which could mean a noticeable tax reduction for many lowerand middle-income families. THE EXEMPTION on 1992 income is $2,300 for a taxpayer and each dependent (If you are working on your 1991 tax return you’ll notice the exemption was $2,150; it is increased automatically each year to offset inflation). On Oct. 1, the exemption would increase to $2,425 for each dependent, and another $375 would go into effect Jan. 1 in addition to next year’s inflation adjustment. Thus, a couple with two young children and a dependent parent whose income puts them in the 28 percent bracket would save $lO5 on this year’s taxes and $420 on next year’s if Bush’s proposal becomes law. If they are in the 15 percent bracket income after subtracting deductions and exemptions the saving would be $56.25 this year and $225 in 1993. FAR MORE workers perhaps 89 million would be affected by Bush’s order reducing tax withholding from paychecks, effec-

Indiana joins network for education reform

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - ndiana schools will join a national network of schools working together to develop and implement locally initiated education reforms, state officials announced. Gov. Evan Bayh, Superintendent of Public Instruction H. Dean Evans and other officials said Wednesday that 47 Hoosier schools plan to participate in the program called “Re:Leaming,” a cooperative effort of the Education Commission of the States and the Coalition of Essential Skills. “OUR PARTICIPATION in Re.Leaming means that educators in these schools will have access to

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tive no later than March 1. This step, which does not require congressional approval, is designed to boost consumer spending by as much as $2 billion a month. But many of the 84 million couples and individuals who otherwise might expect refunds when they file their returns next year will find a smaller refund or none at all. Some probably will have to send the government a check. The Internal Revenue Service says a married worker will find take-home pay up by as much as $28.75 a month (more if he or she has two jobs) while a single person will see a change of up to $14.33 a week. A WORKER WHO wants to keep getting a full-size refund will have to file a new Form W-4 with the employer. Those who want withholding reduced need do nothing the IRS already has set the process in motion. Examples: • A single worker earning $615 a week and claiming no allowances that is, all his wages are subject to withholding now has sll2 withheld each week. That will drop to SIOB. If he claimed allowances for his deductible mortgage interest and for his dependent mother, his current SB7 withholding would

the latest and best thinking in the nation,” said Bayh, the chairmanelect of the Education Commission of the States. ‘‘ln turn, policy makers will benefit from learning how best to support educators where it matters most in the schools.” Officials said the program is designed to encourage teachers, administrators and students to take a hard look at the way classrooms and schools are run and try innovative new techniques to challenge teachers and students to do better. While the program outlines broad strategies a school might follow, each school will have the independence to tailor its own reform plan, officials said. “RE: LEARNING IS not a program to plug in,” said Theodore Sizer, chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools. ‘‘lt is a way to look at schools, to assess the particular strengths of a faculty, a town.” Ron Smith, an astronomy and world history teacher at Bellmont High School, said the program “is a tool we can use to bring about meaningful change that’s different for everybody.” Asked to give examples of how a school might change, officials offered few specifics. However, Evans said one example might be to allow students to become more active in the classroom lessons

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drop to SB3. • A couple with two children, a big mortgage, considerable medical expenses and one earner with weekly wages of SBOO will see their withholding drop from the current S7O to $64. THE WITHHOLDING change does not affect single workers whose wages subject to withholding are more than $53,200 or married workers above $90,200. Here is how some other Bush proposals would affect taxpayers: • IRAs: All but the wealthiest taxpayers would be allowed to set aside up to $2,500 a year in a new kind of IRA. The contributions would not be deductible but if the account is held for seven years or longer, the interest would never be taxed. ® HOME BUYING: If you have not owned a home in three years or more, you could buy one this year after Feb. 1 and get a tax cut of up to $5,000 split evenly between 1992 and 1993 for 10 percent of the price. If the credit in either year exceeded your tax liability, you would have to use the excess over the following five years. • CREDIT UNIONS: Bush wants these institutions subject for the first time to income taxes. That could mean lower interest on your savings.

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GOV. EVAN BAYH Tapping the latest thinking

rather than passively sitting and listening to a lecturing teacher. ONCE LOCAL programs are in place, they might be used as examples to help fashion better state policy on education, officials said. State funding for the program will come from the appropriation for the new Indiana 2000-Dis-covery Schools, a similar initiative that waives some state regulations for schools that want to try innovative teaching techniques. No specific cost figures for Re:Leaming were announced. Indiana joins Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in the project. When a state enrolls, it makes a five-year commitment to the program.

Bus hijacker killed after leading police on 320-mile chase

COLTON, Calif. (AP) A Greyhound bus hijacker with “religious hallucinations” was shot and killed Thursday morning after taking eight passengers on a wild, 320-mile ride across two states, authorities said. FBI agent Ron Heller said the man who commandeered the bus in Phoenix was shot when he became trapped on a residential street at 3:45 a.m. in this community 50 miles east of Los Angeles. A Colton police officer killed the hijacker, said police Capt. Bernie Lunsford. NONE OF THE eight passengers was hurt during the fourhour odyssey, said Sgt Terry Dunne of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The terror ride ended when the hijacker turned off Interstate 10 and headed into a residential area. “He just got into an area too small for him. It was a dead end and he was trying to back up and couldn’t do it,” said Dunn. “The good guys and the bad guys came together.” AT LEAST ONE shot was fired, but “everybody’s out and

Gifted students drift in cash-strapped schools

By the Associated Press America’s most gifted students are drifting through schools unable to provide them with much more than basic education at a time of budget cuts and classroom overcrowding, experts say. “These kids are spending the majority of their time doing work they already know,” said Sally M. Reis, a professor of education at the University of Connecticut. “We’re abandoning a generation of our brightest youngsters.” A YEARLONG study issued Monday by the Connecticut-based National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented found that up to 70 percent of the curriculum is old news to bright students; and that 84 percent of teachers give identical instruction to students of differing abilities. In one case, a student who could read at the 12thgrade level was assigned a fourthgrade textbook. “Most teachers take a look around the classroom and say, ‘Who needs me most?”’ said Reis. “So we cater to the lowest common denominator.” In fact, the curriculum has grown less challenging as many public schools are called upon to educate new students who have vastly different levels of proficiency, experts contend. Children from singleparent families, or from homes where both parents work or where English is not the primary language, may be less prepared. “WE DO HAVE classes where you have four or five different reading levels,” said Evelyn Hiatt, director of gifted and talented education for the state of Texas and president of the Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted. “The natural inclination on the part of educators is to help the people at the bottom who need the most help.” The problem has been worsening in many states where class size is ballooning and where gifted programs are among the early casualties of budget- cutting. In Massachusetts, the state education department’s office for gifted and talented programs closed in 1990. In Connecticut, 78 percent of programs for the gifted have

Jury seated for opening statements in Tyson trial

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) A mostly white, mostly male jury was seated to hear opening arguments today in the rape case that could put Mike Tyson the youngest heavyweight champ in boxing history behind bars for up to 63 years. The 25-year-old black fighter is accused of raping a Miss Black America contestant in his hotel room July 19. Tyson has said the 18-year-old woman consented to sex. AFTER THE LAST of the 12 regular jurors was selected Wednesday, they were sequestered and spent the night at a hotel. The jurors range in age from 21 to 55, with

Law enforcement officers chased the bus as it passed over several sets of spikes designed to puncture the vehicles’ tires without effect. A fifth attempt to halt the vehicle was made near Banning, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, but failed. THE DRIVER was apparently unarmed, said Sgt. Rick Knight, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Five men, two women and an 18-month-old baby were aboard, Knight said. “Apparently the person has some type of religious hallucinations,” Knight said. The hijacking began at 11:45 p.m. when the man apparently climbed into the driver’s seat while the bus was stopped in a downtown Phoenix terminal and the driver was in an office, said Phoenix police Sgt. Ron Gaillard. “FROM WHAT they say there was no weapon seen,’ Gaillard said. “Just some goofball got on it and drove off.” The original destination of the bus was St Louis.

been cut back or eliminated in the last two years. Maine postponed the deadline for a new requirement that schools there offer programs for the gifted. Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont also report cuts. SOME STATES have expanded programs for the gifted. North Carolina and Texas have opened residential high schools for talented math and science students. Texas plans a public boarding school for students skilled in the humanities. But educators said that without programs for the gifted in the lower grades, there will be no one to attend those heralded academies. “They have the showcase institution, and that could be all there is,” Hiatt said. The problems aren’t just economic. Some parents and a few educators believe that separating smarter students may be harmful to the classmates left behind. EDUCATORS SAY that may explain why more people turn out to oppose cuts in athletics, for example, than in programs for the gifted. “Historically, there has been a perception that programs for the gifted are elitist,” said Valerie Seaberg, director of such programs for the state of Maine. Minorities also are beginning to make inroads in gifted programs after years of being excluded from them. But “just when they’re finding that these kids are gifted, we’re cutting them out,” Hiatt said. Cuts in gifted programs have profound effects, educators said. THE NATIONAL Research Center for the Gifted and Talented studied one Connecticut community where such classes were eliminated. Seventy-nine percent of parents said their gifted children had become frustrated, angry or bored away from what researchers called their “intellectual peers.” The Connecticut research center’s first-of-its-kind study involved 7,000 third- and fourth-grade teachers during the 1990-91 school year. It advocated putting smarter students into mainstream classrooms and allowing them to study at a faster pace.

most in their 30s. Four are women; three are black. Most are married. During jury selection, lawyers explored potential jurors’ attitudes about sex, race and celebrity; whether they could separate the brute in the ring from the man in the courtroom; whether some people “ask for it” with their actions; and whether a woman can say yes to sex without explicitly saying so. THE DEFENSE was expected to seize on the fact that the woman went to Tyson’s hotel room after midnight and removed a panty liner in the bathroom, the New York Daily News reported, quoting a lawyer it did not identify.