Monday, April 22, 1996
Divide and conquer campaign won’t lure voters for electionsBy
Darrin Hurwitz
It is ironic, considering the Republican Party’s record on
education these past two years, that state party Executive Director
John Peschong would even consider organizing any sort of youth or
college campaign this fall ("Taking California by storm of ideas,"
April 18).
If Peschong thinks that Republicans can earn students’ votes by
dividing and conquering via the "California Civil Rights
Initiative," he is dead wrong. Students know better than to simply
gloss over, as he does, the Republicans’ assault on our
education.
I challenge Peschong, or any other Republican leader, to explain
to UCLA students why the Republicans, in this year’s budget,
attempted to deny 380,000 deserving students Pell Grant college
scholarships; why they tried to cut education and training programs
by more than $30 billion over seven years; and why they would like
to raise costs for student loans by $10 billion in the same
period.
Peschong could do all of us a great service by telling us why
our siblings and friends should not be able to participate in
President Clinton’s Americorps service program; why the world-class
education standards established by the "Goals 2000" program should
be gutted; why poor children should be denied the opportunity to
obtain early education with Head Start; and why the government
shouldn’t provide children who can not afford it the enrichment of
a school lunch.
The fact of the matter is that the California Republican Party
and the Dole campaign have no business asking students for their
votes. Certainly not when we already have a president whose
commitment to education is deep and sincere. President Clinton has
amassed a bold record of accomplishments in his first term,
establishing direct lending to make college more affordable for
more than 2 million students, creating a landmark National Service
program, proposing to make tuition tax-deductible and attempting to
expand work study to let 1 million students work their way through
college. These are among just a few of the accomplishments of a
true "Education President" who believes in keeping the doors of
educational opportunity open.
The Daily Bruin’s Q&A with CRP Executive Director John
Peschong foreshadows the type of deliberately misleading,
simple-minded campaign which Republicans will attempt to run. This
fall the Republicans will try to succeed in the same way that they
did in 1994 Â by appealing to people’s prejudices and fears on
a single issue (last time: Prop 187, this time: CCRI) rather than
on their broad hopes and dreams. Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric;
the Republican campaign will do almost anything to distract
attention from the party’s two year mission to destroy educational
quality and access, as well as from its organized attempts to
overturn sensible gun control laws and reproductive rights as well
as gut environmental regulations and Medicare.
As UCLA students, we can recognize the value of a higher
education in our own lives, and we understand the great potential
that education can have in improving the lives of all Americans
from all walks of life. Let’s start demanding that Peschong and
other Republican leaders take full responsibility for their party’s
actions, particularly since we will bear the financial and societal
burdens of their short-sighted policies.
Most of all, we would all do well to send a strong message in
November that we will not tolerate the Republicans’ extreme
right-wing, anti-student agenda nor their divisive campaign scare
tactics.
Hurwitz is a third-year political science student and external
vice president of the Bruin Democrats.