New Centenary Dean Hits State Education Ills

              Cites Hospital Needs Too
New Centenary Dean
Hits State Education Ills
By LYNN STEWART
Times Education Writer
There is something wrong
with a state that spends $161
million for a superdome while
one of its major hospitals faces
ioss of its license for lack of a
generator, Centenary College
Dean Theodore Kauss said yes-terday.
The new dean from Wisconsin
also criticized career education
programs which force all child-ren
into vocational-technical
programs while basic offerings
and advanced courses in Eng-lish
and math are dropped.
Addressing students and fac-ulty
during the annual Presi-dent's
Convocation in Brown
Memorial Chapel at Centenary
Kauss said he felt compelled to
touch upon some of the educa-tional
ills of the state and the
home remedies offered by feder-al
and state educational and
legislative leaders.
He said his criticism was
made in the true spirit of the
liberal arts and based on "a
deep and sincre concern for my
adopted state."
"What has happened to the
priorities of our state," Kauss
asked. He termed the super-dome
"an elegant playpen for
35-year-old musclemen who pout
and sulk because they earn only
$40,000, $50,000 or $100,000 a
year."
In an obvious reference _to
Confederate Memorial Medical
Center. Kauss said. "Meanwhile
a major hospital_faced_the
threat of losing its license
because it needed an auxiliary
generator."
He said the hospital also
needs better facilities, more
equipment and additional staff,
"but so what, as long as the
Super dud . . . has adequate
space for parkin? trailers and
campers and has giant TV
screens."
The term "Super dud," Kauss
said was not a Freudian slip
since "the terms Super dud and
Superdome are interchange-able."
"Did those responsible for the
huge costs of the Superdud think
that we would prove that we in
Louisiana have something that
is bigger and better than the
Texas? Well, I have some
news for these irresponsible
leaders, wei are not proving that
we are bigger and better at
anything. We're proving that we
are dumber," he said.
The dean said he was not
against career education per se,
but was opposed to any pro-gram
which requires all public
school children to be forced into
vocational-technical programs
while basic o f f e r i n g s are
dropped. "This is a career
education cop-out," he said.
Kauss said the danger of
vocational-technioai training is
that "people are trained for
years for jobs which could soon
become obsolete."
He listed statistics which
showed Louisiana ranking at the
bottom in some areas of educa-tional
attainment.
"So what are we doing about
if," he said. "Well, instead of
hiring more teachers and teach-er
aides to improve the oppor-tunities
for children to learn
reading, writing and basic
mathematics skills, our leaders
. . . have decided to cop-out."
The thinking of state leaders
seems to indicate that they have
given utp the struggle to produce
literate and articulate citizens
tor Louisiaina, Kauss said, add-ing
that employers want em-ployes
who can read, write,
speak and perform basic math
functions.
The educator also listed some
other examples of what he
called "indictments against our
state's scrambled priorities."
"Hospitals and colleges must
delay needed improvements un-til
receipts are available from
the new Bossier area race
track. State teachers can't get
salary increases unless addition-al
revenues are raised by a
statewide lottery," he said.
Although C e n t e n a r y also
needs money for improvements
too, Kauss said, "Nevertheless,
we taike real pride in knowing
that at least in this section of
Louisiana, Centenary does stand
alone. We're not dependent upon
funds raised by race tracks,
lotteries or increased taxes.
More importantly, we don't and
won't owe allegiance to politi-cians,
bureaucrats or gam-blers,"
he said.