2 ‘NEWS VIEWPO ~ HEY. No PROBLEM, LIGHT ‘EM vr SIHOKE votR LITTLE BRAINS Ny inning Games : PPLAUSE ali round for the communi- - “ty groups and politicians who helped North Vancouver, sécure the 1996 B. Cc. - Winter Games. ° Government Services and Sport Minister “Robin Blencoe’s announcement last Thursday awarding the eveni to North Vancouver is a cause for much local celebra- tion. But the decision is also cause for much celebration on behalf of Games organizers, because as North Vancouver District Mayor Murray Dykeman pointed out at Thursday’s - annouticement ceremony, North Vancouver ; is the jewel inthe Greater Vancouver crown. Unsuccessful in its past bids for B. Cc. Summer Games eveiits because of the area’s lack | of: good running tracks, North Vancouver hit the Winter Games bull’s-eye on its first. Shot. - . That success is based i in part on the North Shore’s excellent ski facilities. But the area also has a magnificent natural setting, abun- dant focal organizational talent and-a vigor- ous local sporting community. The Games should be a boon to the local economy and a great boost to local pride. An estimated 3,000 athletes, ranging in age from 13 to over 80, will descend upon the. North Shore to compete in the 30 sports that make up the Winter Games. They will bring with them their coaches, friends and fans. The Games will add officials, organizers and the pomp and circumstance of a great athlet- ic celebration. The 1992 Winter Games in Vernon generated an estimated $1.6 million” in that Okanagan city’s local economy. The 1996 version should be a mutually beneficial event: the North Shore will benefit from the Games; the Games will benefit from the North Shore. AIDS affects © eve mybody, Doug , Dear Editor: . ° now. The sad side of all this is that that the disease has spread into the . . Re: Doug Collins’ Feb. 2 col- “umn, -. Get a grip Doug. AIDS existed as:a predominantly heterosexual .. disease in Africa and Southern Europe long before it reached North American society. “AIDS still affects mainly hetero- sexual people in these areas. - > Perhaps if the disease of HIV - had affected mainstream WASP society i¢ would have with some urgency, and Canadians wouldn't be in the problems we are been treated - people like you use their misplaced “morality to judge others. and in . doing so assist in the propagation of more falsehoods and half-truths in order to justify their own anger. fear, hatred and ignorance. The truth is that AIDS is a terri- ble disease and has killed over 180,000 people in Canada and the ‘U.S.A. alone and that between three and six million people are infected. And that number is growing daily. The reality is that not just are gay people getting sick today but straight population also. Children and young adults are being infected and dying and still there is a climate of immortality being spread by the media. This represents the real injustice to the general population because if you have unprotected sex you stand a very good chance of becoming: infected with HIV, and this means everyone — not just the people in your fantasy life! Stephen J. Pringle West Vancouver .Pates Speck jotny Renshaw Managing Edltor loa! Wright Associate Editor Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptroller... .. Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an + independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111. Paragraph 411 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Fnday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we-cannot accept responsivilily for unsolicited .. Material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed . snvelope, Newsroom V7M 2H4 Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions Classified Advertising North Shore Managed 986-1237 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 980-0511 Distribution 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 Administration MEMBER 1139 Conedals ‘Avenue North Vancouver B.C. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) are Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. SHOULD THE public school system — its educational failings under ever-increas- ing fire, while costs soar — be privatized? To more and more educational reformers it looks like an idea whose time has come, How to do it, while maintaining desirable uniform standards, is another matter, For one stimulating but controversial approach meet Edmonton’s Bill Deacon, a former vice-president of the Federation of Catholic Parent-Teacher Associations of Quebec, who is promoting a privatization concept called Direct School Funding (DSF). As described recently by writer Robert Owen in Alberta Report, _ DSF means the province would “* fund all schools (based on a stan- dard amount per enroHed student). But the schools themselves would be independently operated — cach by its principal in collabo- ration with a volunteer parent coun- cil, as with existing independent schools. Where would the money come from? Under his scheme, Mr. Deacon estimates Alberta’s present educational budget could provide a DSF grant of $3,000 per student as a result of major cost-cutting in the education department and three ‘university education faculties. Meanwhile, municipalities would cease to impose a school tax on homeowners. Instead, they would levy local taxes coming to roughly the same total in order to relieve the province of certain of the latter’s current responsibilities, such as provincial transfers for police and fire ser- vices, public housing and trans- portation. ; This tax “swap,” Mr. Deacon calculates, would enadle the ‘Alberta government to raise the stu- dent grant to $4,000 — well above what the existing independent: schools now spend—while saving the provincial treasury $1 billion per year. No omelettes can be made, of course, without breaking eggs — and two other key elements of the Deacen plan would undoubtedly raise a storm of opposition from the. vested interests affected. Local school boards, with their ° costly burcaucracies, would be abolished — in itself a major cost.” saving. And closed-shop unionism would end, with the teaching pro- fession opened to anyone deemed competent by a principal. Once the plan went ahead, the province would confine itself to monitoring core skills in Grades 3 6 and 9, administering Grade 12 exams and keeping tab on the per- student grant. . “We think the answer is to get school control back in the hands of the best parents and the best teach- ers,” says Bill Deacon, whose com- mittee will shortly start lobbying Alberta ministers in earnest. As tempting as this concept is, it , leaves some practical queries still unanswered, “Free enterprise” schools of the same type in the same area would presumably compete with each other for funded pupil enrolments. How far would — or should — such competition be regulated? HITHER AND YON Who appoints the vitally impor- tant principal —- the province or the volunteer parent council? Anyhow, who picks the latter? - Would schools be allowed to select students on merit by means . of entry exams? Would all schools have to accept special-needs and ESL students — or would some schools specialize in such students? And what happens when a less suc- cessful school with declining enrol- ment loses so much funding that it is no longer financially viable? Sure, you have a great idea, Mr. . Deacon. But if the public school: “safety net” is completely removed, ff. please tell us what we do with kids”. whom no independent principal in - his right mind would-welcome! TAILPIECES: Chamber of © <2» ' Commerce Week kicks off Friday, > °~ Feb. 11, with the North’ Van’ oe.) Chamber’s “Celebration 94h Sweetheart Ball” atthe °. : International Plaza /Call 987-4488 fast, urges president John Lakes,°. : for any remaining tickets plus details of next week's valuable > business-oriented seminars and: - workshops ... North Van Reform Party faithful hold their-a.g.m.- tomorrow Thursday, Feb. p.m. in Jaycee House, 1251" Lillooet.Rd, — everyone ‘welcome but enly members may. vote... -:: From the Better. Late’ Dept, many happy retums of Feb;7 to West -Van Kiwanis birthday boy, L Coles ;.. And more birthday’g ings Friday, Feb. 11,:to-North:-Van Kiwanian Doug Horners: WRIGHT OR WRONG: A man with one watch knows what time it is..A man with’ two watches i is’ : never sure. JOHN LAKES tee busy week for Chamber prez.