Eldred questions candidates on women's and education issues
MIKE CONNOLLY
News Writer
When College president Marilou Eldred asked local candidates how the government could promote women's college and women's education, she hoped she would receive an enthusiastic endorsement of women's education. Instead the five candidates in Tuesday night's political panel at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in South Bend seemed confused by the question and offered vague answers about the government's role in educating women.
"I certainly believe women should be well educated and have every opportunity that men have," said Mike Dvorak the incumbent state representative from the 8th District. Dvorak also said, however, that because both the women's colleges in Indiana (Saint Mary' College and Saint Mary's of the Woods in Terre Haute) are private institutions, he said the state government wouldn't give extra programs or funding to the women's colleges.
Eldred said she wasn't looking for promises of funding but instead public support for women's colleges.
"I guess I would have hoped there would have been more enthusiastic support for college for women because that is my passion," she said. "It's more a matter of a public statement about the value of women's colleges. We don't need more programs, we just need our officials to speak out in favor of women's colleges more often."
Eldred was one of three members of the Notre Dame and Saint Mary's communities involved with the panel discussion. Lou Nanni, the executive assistant to the president at Notre Dame, moderated the two-hour discussion while Notre Dame sociology professor Father Leonard Chorbot asked questions of the candidates along with Eldred and Fred Everett, who works in the office of family life for the diocese of South Bend/Fort Wayne.
James Ehrhard, a candidate for the state legislature in the 6th District, was the only other candidate to respond to Eldred's question. But rather than talk about women's colleges, the 1999 Notre Dame Law School graduate focused on improving high school education and encouraging more students to go to college.
"If we don't educate our children in high school and give them the opportunity to gain the knowledge necessary for college, they won't want to go to college," the 25-year-old republican said. "Kids shouldn't just try to pass I-Step (a standardized testing program in Indiana) and graduate, they should try to lean as much as possible and try to get into the best colleges possible."
The other three candidates, Tony Zirkle, running against Dvorak for his seat from the 8th District, John Broden, a state senate candidate from the 10th District and Chris Chocola, a House of Representatives candidate from the third district, declined to answer Eldred's question.
Other education issues, however, did spark a discussion among the candidates. Republicans Ehrhard and Chocola both supported school vouchers as a way to offer parents a choice in schools for their children.
"It's not about rich people sending their children to private schools," Chocola said. "They already do that. It's their choice. We need to give everyone that choice."
Dvorak, however, said that vouchers would only undermine the public school system.
He said that the voucher program was originally created as a "union busting measure" and that the government shouldn't "undermine the foundation of public education."
Each of the five candidates praised the construction of Ivy Tech in South Bend to give vocational education to citizens that cannot attend college.
The candidates also agreed, however, that more work needed to be done to improve the lives of the people in their districts.
"Many people in this room have had the benefit of a college education but that isn't for everyone," Dvorak said. "Unskilled jobs are gone. We need to create job training programs to give everyone the skills they need."
Chocola said keeping the economy strong will help all Americans. He disputed the idea that the gap is widening between the rich and the poor and instead said both rich and the poor are gaining wealth at the same rate.
"Everyone is pushed up a little bit thanks to the hard work of the American people," he said.
Broden and Zirkle both said that the government should raise the minimum wage. Zirkle, who works in the prosecutor's office, also said that the high crime rate in South Bend is preventing the area from flourishing economically. He promised to fight crime if he was elected.
With Chocola's, Broden's and Ehrhard's opponents absent from the discussion, there were few attacks and the debate mostly stuck to the issues. Zirkle, however, occasionally attacked Dvorak's voting record while Dvorak defended it saying that Zirkle did not have all his facts straight.
Chocola took the opportunity to point out his opponent's absence at the discussion. Representative Tim Roemer was unable to attend the discussion because he was voting on several bills in Congress, Tuesday.
Chocola, however, said Roemer is rarely in Indiana regardless of whether or not Congress is in session.
"The only reason to stay in Washington [when Congress isn't in session] is to talk to Washington lobbyists," Chocola said. "I think the lobbyists should come here if they want to talk to the representative."
Chocola promised to live in Indiana and commute to Washington when Congress was in session if he were elected.
All News Stories for Wednesday, October 25, 2000
