Conservative forum

New Urgency Attends Toward Tradition Meeting

In just two weeks, Toward Tradition's 3rd national "Toward National New Alliance" convention will take place in Washington, D.C.

This conference-which will be held at the Washington Hilton & Towers in Washington, D.C., September 10-12-has taken on a new sense of urgency given Al Gore's selection of Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate, "the first time in American history a Jew has been so honored," says Toward Tradition program director Adam Pruzan.

"Unfortunately," Pruzan says, "Sen. Lieberman has already back away from his previous support for school vouchers and private Social Security retirement accounts --and he has consistently opposed efforts to limit abortion." Pruzan says the upcoming convention "will provide an opportunity for Jews and Christian to say, 'We respect Sen: Lieberman, but we can't support the secular liberalism to which he has given his loyalty."'

The convention features speakers such as Don Feder, Rabbi Mayer Schiller, Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, Michael Medved, Elliot Abrams, Stephanie Abrams, Michael Ledeen, Dinesh D'Souza, Clint Bolick, Seth Liebsohn, Robert Bork, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jeff Jacoby, Gary Polland, Harry Stein, Rep. Tom Delay, Jerry Fallwell, Barbara Leen, Grover Norquist and Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

For more information, call 1-800-591-7579.

Guinness to Speak At MFI Banquet

The Massachusetts Family Insite (MFI) has announced that Os Guinnes of Trinity Forum will be the featured speaker at institute's 9th annual fundraising banquet. Guinness is the author of several books, including the Dusk of Death (written while he was an associate of Francis Schaeffer at L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland) and Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype & Spin, recently reviewed in HUMAN EVENTS (June 9, 2000, page 14).

The event will be held Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000, at the Newton Marriott Hotel in Newton, Mass. Seating is $35 per person.

For more information or to make reservations, call MFI at 617-928-0800.

Home Schoolers No. I On College Entrance Test

"Home-schooled students have scored higher than their traditionally educated peers on the ACT [American College Testing assessments], one of the nation's two major college-entrance exams, for the third consecutive year," reports the Washington Times August 22. "While the average ACT assessment score was 21 nationally," says the Times, "home-educated students scored an average of 22.8-yet another academic benchmark that has given the movement increasing credibility and attention."

"This explains why any highly selective colleges are recruiting their complement of home schoolers," says J. Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

In 1998 and 1999, traditionally schooled students scored 21, while home schooled students scored 22.8 in 1998 and 22.7 im 1999. Earlier this year, home schoolers won first, second and third place in the ScrippsHoward Spelling Bee, and a home schooler took second place in the National Geography Bee, which is sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

Lieberman on Vouchers And Education Reform

"The teachers' unions have apparently forgiven Sen. Joseph Lieberman for his past support of school vouchers," writes education policy analyst Nina Shokraii Rees on the Heritage Foundation website. "But his deviation from the National Education Association party line goes much deeper than vouchers-a record that will undoubtedly become clearer as the campaign moves ahead."

How deep? Consider vouchers. Rees says that, while "Lieberman said he was just flirting with" them; there may have been much mope to the relationship. As in supporting "at least seven bills to promote school choice since 1992," including support for "an amendment offered by Senator Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican, authorizing $30 million to help low-income parents send their children to schools of their choice." Lieberman also supported an "amendment offered last summer by Sen. John McCain for a $5.4billion, three-year pilot program offering one million children $2,000 vouchers"

"The true choice here," Rees quotes Lieberman as saying, "is between preserving the status quo at all costs, which is slamming a door in the face of the parents and children who want to do better, and doing what is necessary to put those children first."

Then there's Lieberman's support for the overhaul of the federal role in education. "He used this year's reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to mobilize support among fellow New Democrats for structural changes in the federal role in education. His frustration was understandable," writes Rees. "The law's Title I program has consumed more than $120 billion since its creation in 1965 in a largely failed effort to close the achievement gap between rich and poor students. The law, initially only 32 pages long and focused on five programs, has ballooned to more than 1,000 pages and more than 50 programs."

"Lieberman and another New Democrat, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, introduced a measure that would have streamlined the more than 50 federal programs into five performance-based block grants," reports Rees. "Each would have focused on specific objectives, like improving teacher quality and expanding parents' choice of public schools. The Lieberman-Bayh program also included financial rewards for states that raised student achievement, and sanctions for those that failed."