The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 11

Shf pjrltmjton JmJris Jjj Deaths 2B Court News 4B Legislature 5B Wednesday, January 21, 1981 Board Will Seek Reins on Church Schools a By MARILYN ADAMS Free Press Capitol Bureau MONTPELIER The Board of Education voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to seek the power to regulate Christian schools. The board will back proposed legislation giving the state the right to inspect church schools to ensure their programs meet public school standards. Under current law, the state can require only that such schools apply for approval. Education Commissioner Robert Withey said the department will seek a sponsor for the bill from the House and Senate Education schools," said press aide Michael Sinclair. "But the department has to tell us what an 'on-site review' is." Under the proposal, a church school would be subject to an on-site review to determine whether it meets state standards.

The proposal would require church schools to offer at least as many hours of teaching time each year as public schools do. They also would have to provide teachers and materials in six general subject areas reading, writing and mathematics; history and government; physical education and health; literature; and the natural sciences. About 20 ministers who packed the meeting room greeted the board's action with anger and promises of stiff resistance. "The main goal of the Board of Education is control," the Rev. Paul Weaver, president of the Christian Schools of Vermont group, fumed as he left.

"The bill they've presented is constitutionally indefensible." The ministers met after the vote to plan their strategy. "We will be on a mission to destroy," Weaver told the board. "If you take the regulation route you will immediately provoke a constitutional challenge." Weaver, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Williston, said the min and member Viola Luginbuhl opposed regulation. Other members said the state must ensure all students receive an education at least as good as public schools offer. "I think we're making a very serious mistake by not indicating to all kids we see this responsibility," Lynn Wood said.

A spokesman for Snelling said the governor supports the idea so long as the department does not judge teaching methods or specific offerings. "The position of the administration is that church schools should be regulated to the extent they meet the same standards as public Wilson said recipients have not reached a standard of living "I'd call comfortable" and cited national statistics showing Vermont to be one of the lowest per capita income states. Vermont pays a welfare family of four $531 a month in benefits, or about 73 percent of what state welfare officials figure it takes for that family to get by. Wilson disputed DaPrato's claim that the state had become a haven for welfare recipients, saying most of the state's recipients were born in Vermont. Rep.

Norman Wright, R-West-minster, committee chairman, sat silently through the hearing. He House Money Panel Roasts Welfare Chief By SCOTT MACKAY, Free Press Capitol Bureau' MONTPELIER DaPrato, D-Swanton, Rep. Frank called Ver- mont a "haven" for welfare recipients. Working people who earn $5 an hour are worse off than those on welfare, Rep. Donald Moore, R-Shrewsbury, said.

A third House Ap propriations Committee member, WILSON Rep. Harry isters will appeal to Gov. Richard Snelling and their legislators to block the proposal. The ministers will mount a telegram campaign and may hold a rally on the Statehouse steps, he said. The ministers who have hired a Harrisburg, lawyer active in church school cases in other states have vowed to take the state to court if the bill passes.

"We believe the bill will be knocked off in the Legislature," Weaver said. The ministers represent more than 20 church schools afiliated with fundamental Christian, congregations. Board Chairman Allen Martin state budget statistics, said welfare costs have grown almost 60 percent in the past five years. Wilson said welfare benefits have not kept up with the national inflation rate and said Medicaid costs have increased faster than funds for recipients. An increase in the caseload is a "normal byproduct of recession," said Wilson.

Asking for the extra $2.6 million is the most "pragmatic approach to a very immediate problem," he said. "At what point and where are they (welfare costs) going to level off?" asked Moore. "Welfare recipients are getting too much in relation to what the working person is." Free Press Special Photo by DAVE GOSKA Philbrook to Be Given Testimony on Police Ashe, R-Williamstown, compared the state's welfare budget to a "snowball that keeps rolling downhill." That was the reception given David Wilson, state social welfare commissioner, when.he went before the House money panel to ask for $2.6 million in additional funds to cover an increased welfare caseload. The problem, said Wilson, is that the welfare department predicted last year about 25,000 Vermonters would be on welfare. The average monthly caseload has grown to about 27,500, which will require the extra funds, Wilson said.

Rep. John Hise, R-Bristol, citing act has prompted the people to act," Jeanette Magnussen said in a prepared statement when she presented the petition to selectmen. Selectmen Chairman Carroll E. Towne said Tuesday that the town attorney has ruled the petition is legal and the issue has to go before the voters. Towne, Alan M.

Rouse and Willie Morris had voted against accep ST.J( Vermont Roundup Donations From Special Interests Exceed $400,000 The Associated Press MONTPELIER Special interest groups in Vermont contributed more than $400,000 to candidates for federal office during the past four years, according to the Federal Elections Committee. A report released by the group shows" that the number of political action committees operating in Vermont has more than doubled since 1976. The report also says there is a national trend for special interest groups to favor incumbents over challengers. In Vermont, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy raised more than $446,000 for his re-election campaign last year and about 45 percent of the money came from special interest groups.

Leahy's challenger, Republican Stewart Ledbetter, spent more than $530,000 dur-. ing the race. The report shows Ledbetter received $138,224, or 26 percent of his contributions, from political action committees. The report, which covers the period from the 1976 election until the middle of last summer, shows that nationally political action committees' contributed more than $42.2 million to candidates for federal office. Mayor Challenged To Debate Series Independent mayoral candidate Bernard Sanders challenged Mayor Gordon Pa-quette Tuesday to a series of debates in all neighborhoods of Burlington, but the mayor said he did not know if he would accept.

"The mayor has been in office for 10 years," Sanders said, "He has a clear record to defend." The mayor said he may be too busy "selling issues" on the city ballot and campaigning to sit through debates. He also criticized Sanders for not sticking to Burlington issues, but discussing "the Rockefellers, Cambodia and Vietnam." In a related matter, WEZF-TV news director Mai Boright said his station is planning to ask the candidates to debate, but has not worked out details. "We'd love to have something," Boright said. Richard J. Bove, who lost the Democratic nomination for mayor Monday, said he also plans to be an independent candidate.

City Republicans have yet to choose a mayoral candidate. Bennington Is Most Expensive College in U.S. BENNINGTON Bennington College is the most expensive college in the country, costing $10,560 to attend in 1981-82, according to Presi- C. Tuition and room and board have increased percent in the last two years. The tuition fee is room fees, and board, $1,280.

The ratio of 8.5-to-l ratio between students and faculty will continue and the college will offer more than $1 million of its funds for student financial aid. About 40 percent of the college's 600 students receive financial aid from the college this year and the figure probably will be the same next year. The cost of educating each student is about $12,000. The difference is made up by the college's annual fund, which has a goal of $500,000, and by the endowment fund, which is about $2.5 million. Bennington offers private music lessons, studio and laboratory space and facilities, a psychological counseling service and extracurricular activities at no extra cost.

Salvaging Records said in an interview later that Wilson probably would get what he wants in the $2.6 million additional funds. "But wait until we get to 1982," said Wright, referring to the welfare department's request for funds next year, which will be released Thursday. "Are you asking is my job going to be harder this year?" Jack Wesley, lobbyist for the Vermont Low-Income Advocacy Council, asked a reporter. "Yes" it will be, the lobbyist responded. Most of the state's recipients are single-parent families with children, Wesley said.

"Less than 10 percent involve two-parent families with able-bodied parents." Special Legislation Three state senators moved Tuesday to set up a special prosecutor for the state police as proposed Monday by the Vermont State's Attorneys Association Page 3B inquest is available only to the prosecutors, who are prevented by law from releasing it. The subpoena also gives Philbrook access to 160 pages of a 200-page report prepared by David Putter, former assistant attorney After reading the report, Easton concluded Ryan failed to respond properly to allegations against state troopers in 1979 and hindered future investigations. Easton said the commissioner has asked him to serve as prosecutor in the event Philbrook decides to bring charges against Ryan. "At this point, I have not made a decision on that," Easton said. Philbrook, Ryan's boss and the only man who can initiate disciplinary charges against him, said Turn to PHILBROOK, Page 2B actual question may be whether to retain Duff, who also has been a manager in Middlebury and Barre.

Retention of Duff is expected to be a campaign issue in the contests for seats on the Board of Selectmen, according to officials. Morris has said he will not seek re-election, but Rouse and Pfeiffer are expected to run Turn to MILTON, Page 2B take in on-site emergencies. The team's complete findings are to be contained in an upcoming report. Raymond said he has been briefed about some of the recommendations to be published. Noting he did not participate in the inspection, he declined to detail them.

He said team members found no other serious deficiencies at the plant. Yankee meanwhile is working on a mammoth emergency procedures plan which must be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency by March 1. That plan is supposed to dovetail with the state's own yet-to-be approved plan, as well as with similar evacuation plans being developed by New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Raymond said he is uncertain whether public hearings will be held on Yankee's plan. The decision for setting up such a forum rests with officials in Washington, he said.

State Buildings Director Irving Bates, second salvageable but several records from the attorney from right, Tuesday looks through Vermont veter- general's Medicaid fraud unit have been deans' records salvaged from Montpelier's Cody stroyed. The record retrieval will continue all Block building, which burned last month. Bates week, he said, said most of the veterans' records appear to be By DAVID KARVELAS Free Press Capitol Bureau MONTPELIER Public Safety Commissioner Paul Philbrook won court permission Tuesday to review secret testimony concerning misconduct charges against the Vermont State Police director. District Court Judge John Con-narn issued a subpoena ordering the state attorney general's office to provide Philbrook with the confidential material. The action allows Philbrook to view information that led Attoney General John Easton to call for the firing of Maj.

James Ryan, state police director. Easton said he will give Philbrook the material in "a day or two," after he has copied several thousand pages of transcripts involved. Philbrook said he would have someone outside the department analyze the information to maintain an "objective" posture. The secret material includes testimony taken during a December inquest, which was called for by Easton's predecessor, M. Jerome Any information turned up at an registered voters, more than needed to place the issue before the March 3 town meeting.

Cushing said more sheets with additional names may be presented today. Attempts to reach Duff Tuesday evening were unsuccessful. Towne said he, Morris and Rouse favor the town manager form of government and that Pfeiffer has said he supports it. Towne said the improve the way in which two separate plans one for "transient" situations noticed by reactor control room personnel, the other for a range of on-site emergencies dovetailed. The plans spell out, respectively, procedures control room operators should adopt when faced with a variety of operating symptoms and what steps plant managers should Milton Residents Ask for Vote on Manager tance of the petition when it was presented Monday night.

Selectmen Donald Turner and John Pfeiffer voted to accept it. Towne said Tuesday he had understood the petition was designed initially to dismiss Duff, but changed later to eliminate the manager form of government. Town Clerk John P. Cushing said the petitions had 172 signatures of complished late last month. Yankee did meet the emergency plan standards introduced in the wake of the nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania in 1979, said William Raymond, senior Nuclear Regulatory Commission resident inspector at Yankee.

He said the review team specifically wanted Yankee officials to By MIKE DONOGHUE Free Press Staff Writer Apparent failure of Milton selectmen to take action against Town Manager Thomas E. Duff after placing him on 30-day probation in November has caused a citizens group to seek a vote on whether the town manager form of government should be retained. 'The inability of the selectmen to Plant Told By JOE MAHONEY Free Press Staff Writer VERNON Government health and physics experts who inspected the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant last fall found a lack of coordination in emergency plans. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission regional office has issued an "emergency action" letter to plant officials telling them to upgrade to Upgrade 'Emergency Action Plan their plans. Yankee also was directed to conduct retraining sessions for plant workers who may need to deal with emergencies to make sure they understood the required changes.

Inadequacies discovered in the emergency plans were' deemed significant enough to order Yankee to correct them before putting the plant back on line, which was ac Doctor Urges Marijuana Use as Treatment child cancer patients. He said legalizing the prescription of marijuana for cancer patients also would allow adult patients to use the drug in the form most convenient to them. "There's no way to legally use the marijuana leaf for anything," he said. Dickerman said the use of marijuana also stimulates the appetite and produces euphoria, both of which he says are desirable side effects in his young cancer patients. Turn to DOCTOR, Page 2B "We've been very impressed with it," he said.

The drug is available in gelatin tablets from the federal government, but Dickerman said small children have trouble swallowing the tablets, and they take up to seven hours to have any effect in halting nausea. Marijuana, he said, takes effect almost immediately and can be administered in a number of ways. Dickerman said THC is used to treat his patients only when conventional anti-nausea drugs have proved ineffective. He has about 75 The Associated Press MONTPELIER A Burlington doctor Tuesday urged passage of a law to allow cancer and glaucoma patients to use marijuana. Dr.

Joseph Dickerman, who teaches pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and specializes in treating children who have cancer, testified before the House Health and Welfare Committee. Dickerman said the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, has been used successfully to combat nausea in patients who are having chemotherapy..