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CNN Student News

Aired January 31, 2002 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: CNN STUDENT NEWS rolls into Thursday. We top things off with reaction to U.S. President Bush's State of the Union.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: We'll also "Chronicle" the career of an air traffic controller.

MCMANUS: Later, we address the issue of education around the globe.

WALCOTT: Then, are you familiar with magnetic levitation? Stick around for "Science Report" to find out what it is and how it could propel us into the future.

MCMANUS: Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus.

WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott.

The interim leader of Afghanistan visits New York. Wednesday, Hamid Karzai toured the rubble that was once the World Trade Center. He says the Afghan people understand America's pain.

MCMANUS: In his State of the Union Address, President Bush blasted three nations, Iran, Iraq and North Korea for not cooperating in the fight against terrorism. He accused them of being part of what he called an axis of evil that threatens world peace. Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defended those remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I think if I were in Iran or North Korea or Iraq and I heard the president of the United States say what he said last night about weapons of mass destruction and about terrorism and about terrorist networks and about nations that harbor terrorists, I don't think there would be a lot of ambiguity as to the view he holds of those problems and their behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCMANUS: The accusation that Iraq, Iran and North Korea are tied to terrorism is drawing angry responses in those countries.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An axis of evil, that's how President George Bush now labels North Korea, Iraq and Iran, in the harshest language used by any U.S. administration yet.

While Mr. Bush appeared to lay out a casus belli against intercontinental ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction, allies and foes abroad are scrutinizing his speech for clues as to how he will do it. Allies who support the U.S. war on terror are unsettled about how to pursue phase two of that war.

On North Korea, Europeans strongly back negotiations that were broken off at the start of the new Bush administration. Trying to jumpstart the diplomatic track, the EU sent its top foreign policy and security officials to P'yongyang last year. And while Mr. Bush accuses North Korea of -- quote --"arming with missiles," he did not mention that country's moratorium on long-range missile testing.

Since September 11, Europeans, especially Russia and France, have said that they oppose military action in Iraq, preferring containment instead. And even as President Bush was lashing out at Iraq's plot to -- quote -- "develop anthrax, nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade," senior administration officials said the U.S. is only just beginning to figure out how to deal with Iraq with no consensus yet emerging.

Iran has reacted most strongly to President Bush's speech. The Foreign Minister vehemently rejecting charges that Iran supports terrorism and pursues nuclear weapons. The U.S. and Europe have long differed on how best to engage Iran. After September 11, the British Foreign Secretary and later top European Union officials went on high- profile trips to Tehran to discuss the war on terror.

And initially the U.S. welcomed Iran's sympathy and cooperation and its help in forming Afghanistan's post-Taliban government, but the bloom went off the rose recently when the U.S. accused Iran of trying to destabilize the Afghan government and of shipping a boatload of weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

(on camera): Most analysts here agree that if the U.S. plans to pursue military action Iraq would be the likeliest and perhaps the easiest target, while attacking North Korea or Iran would be much more complicated. And while President Bush has now clearly moved on to phase two, governments here will be searching for details on just how he plans to pursue the war on terror.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: As we saw during the State of the Union Address Tuesday night, education reform remains front and center on the president's domestic agenda. Mr. Bush said Republicans and Democrats have worked hard together to pass an education reform bill that leaves no child behind.

CNN's Kathy Slobogin takes a look at how one of the reforms is playing out in Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's one of the first reforms to kick in from President Bush's new education bill. As early as this fall, students attending a failing school can simply leave.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There must be a moment in which parents can say, I've had enough of this school.

SLOBOGIN: School choice will let parents move their children to a better public school. It sounds good...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have your I.D.'s out! Unzip them jackets!

SLOBOGIN: ... unless you're one of the schools left behind.

Paul Robeson High School is a neighborhood school on the south side of Chicago. But two thirds of the neighborhood kids don't go there. Chicago has had school choice for more than 20 years because of a 1980 desegregation consent decree.

Students can go to elite schools like Northside College Prep, or specialty schools like Bronzeville Military Academy, if they meet the entrance criteria. The neighborhood schools get the students who are left.

JAMES BREASHEARS, PRINCIPAL, ROBESON HIGH SCHOOL: Most of the students that we get are not performing at grade level. In fact, many of them are one or two, or even three or four grades below the grade level.

SLOBOGIN: Principal James Breashears says the neighborhood here is tough enough. He goes to several student funerals a year.

But what makes his job tougher is that school choice has left him with an overwhelming concentration of low-achieving students.

(on camera): Neighborhood schools like Robeson have no entrance criteria and can't turn students away. Nearly a third of Robeson's students are in special education. Compare that to some of the elite magnet schools, where only 2 percent are in special ed.

(voice-over): Veteran math teacher Deberah Perkins says such a high concentration pulls down the entire class.

DEBERAH PERKINS, MATH TEACHER: You have to constantly go over a concept, so that means you're holding the regular students behind. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a given classroom, you might have half the students in special ed. It could be behavior disorders, learning disabilities, and that's a really tough job for teachers.

SLOBOGIN: Liz Duffrin, editor of a journal which tracks Chicago public schools, crunched the numbers for city schools, and found that those at the bottom were hemorrhaging students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some schools have as high as 77 percent of the students...

SLOBOGIN: That's more three quarters of the students opting out. Duffrin says school choice has created a brain drain, and made it harder for failing schools to turn around.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's this idea that the choice is going to spur competition. In fact, that can be true if schools are at a pretty even level to begin with, but where they're not, choice can very often just widen that gap.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), OHIO: We can't continue to trap children in schools that won't help them. We've had this great debate in our country now for decades, about whether we should save the system, or whether we should save the children.

SLOBOGIN: Congressman John Boehner guided Bush's education bill through Congress, and believes school choice will spur healthy competition.

BOEHNER: I always believed that competition was a good thing. It brings a better quality to American students.

BREASHEARS: That would be fine if everyone was choosing from the same population. I would say yes, I agree totally. But when you tie one hand behind my back and then tell me to compete, then I think that's a whole different issue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know this word?

SLOBOGIN: What really worries critics is that school choice will only benefit only the best students.

LIZ DUFFRIN, ASSOC. EDITOR CATALYST: For the students that are below average, it's left them in a school with a lot of other below- average students.

SLOBOGIN: Those at the bottom could be left with no choice.

Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: And coming up a little later for you in "Perspectives," education for everyone everywhere. We'll look at what's being done to make sure that happens.

"If a man's education is finished, he is finished," Edward Filene.

MCMANUS: If you've been to the airport recently, you've likely noticed signs of heightened security. Bomb sniffing dogs, added ID checks and random bag searches are just a few. Many changes were made after September 11, but one safety measure was in place long before that day and continues to play a vital role, that of the air traffic controller.

CNN's Deanna Morowski spoke with one veteran controller about the demanding nature of pushing tin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VINCE POLK, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SPECIALIST, ATLANTA HARTSFIELD AIRPORT: My name is Vince Polk. I'm an air traffic control specialist for the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. I've been in air traffic control for 11 years.

In 1989, I went to Oklahoma City to the FAA Academy where I proceeded with two months of training. Once I graduated from training in Oklahoma City, I was assigned to my first field facility in Columbus, Georgia. I was in training for a year and a half with the help of an instructor. And after that, I was released and able to control airplanes on my own.

Air traffic control is a team effort. Air traffic controllers are responsible for designated airspace. When an aircraft enters that air space, we have flight progress strips to keep track of the aircraft. A flight progress strip indicates the aircraft call sign, altitude and route of flight. When that air traffic controller (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that aircraft is not in confliction with any other aircraft within his designated airspace, he will hand that aircraft off to another air traffic controller whose area of jurisdiction is another part of airspace.

Airports have capacity rates, which Atlanta Hartsfield operates at near capacity at all the time. During a VFR day, which is provisual (ph) flight rules where the sky is clear, the weather's nice, we could probably land anywhere from 94 to 104 aircraft in an hour. When the weather's bad, the ceilings are low, we have rain showers on and around the field, our arrival rates are reduced down to about 62 to 68 arrivals per hour.

There are many aspects of air traffic control that I like. Its high paced, the traffic volume keeps your energy levels up, your alertness is maintained. It keeps you very sharp.

In Atlanta Hartsfield, you're psyched before you even get there because you know the volume of aircraft that you're going to be working. If it's a VFR day, you could go in a little more relaxed. If it's bad weather, you know what to expect. Your anxiety level is going to be higher. The weather is a major player on stress. If we have buildups of severe weather in -- within our designated airspace, we lose the availability to maneuver that aircraft.

In Atlanta, for instance, the airspace is sectorized, which it's broken up to where the arrival controllers handling the inbound aircraft to Atlanta have a certain amount of airspace to work within. If there is an area of weather in this arrival corridor that this arrival controller is working with, that aircraft will ask to deviate around a weather buildup. When the aircraft start deviating, that could possibly force that aircraft into another sector which the other sector is not expecting that. So when you deal with situations like that, that's when the whole atmosphere, everybody's tense and it could be stressful.

Air traffic controllers are provided tools to work with. One of the tools is an automated radar terminal system displayed on a radarscope. Within the automated terminal radar system, we have the capability through radar to identify weather intensities. The weather presentation that is broadcast on our radarscope indicates Level one, two, three, all the way to Level six. Level one being the lowest weather, possibly just rain showers, all the way up to Level six is where it could include thunderstorms, tornadoes and possible low level wind shear.

The ultimate responsibility for flying the aircraft and ensuring the safety of an aircraft is the pilot's responsibility. If the pilot does not want to fly through a Level three rain shower that we're depicting on our radarscope, he'll make a request for a deviation. If we have low level wind shears on or about the airport, our responsibility is to advice that pilot of the potential hazards. Then that pilot has to make the decision of whether or not he wants to continue with that route of flight.

My responsibility as an air traffic controller is to remain calm and try and assist that pilot as much as possible. It helps the pilot that is in a very stressful situation to have a calm voice on the other end of the radio. Our responsibility is to offer avenues to help that pilot get the aircraft to a safe landing location. It's very difficult to train yourself to be calm during an extreme situation. It's very difficult to prepare yourself when in all actuality when you go to work a position you're prepared for everything to go right. What causes problems is when things go wrong, and the only way to prepare yourself to deal with high stress situations is to actually deal with them.

The advice I have for aspiring air traffic controllers is to be prepared. It's one of the most challenging jobs that I've ever experienced in my life. Air traffic control demands a lot, but the awareness level, you have to maintain at all times because you're dealing with human lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

WALCOTT: Education goes hand in hand with so many things. During his State of the Union Address, for example, President Bush said that good jobs begin with good schools. Problem is, for many kids around the world, access to good schools is hard to come by.

Our Kathy Nellis looks at what's being done to ensure that boys and girls everywhere get the education they need and deserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United Nations Special Session on Children is more than a report card for the world, it's also the impetus and inspiration to move forward, a call to take up the challenge to ensure freedoms for every child in every country.

CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: My first dream for kids would be that every one of these political leaders who comes to the United Nations would listen to the kids who are here because I think they would hear more honest words than they've heard from their cabinet officials in the last six months.

Secondly, I hope that the first 10 years of the 21st century will be a time when the young people will really begin to understand that they can be a force for change.

And finally, I really have a passionate desire that all girls, as well as all boys, will be able to realize their full potential.

NELLIS: One of the most critical issues involved in reaching that potential, education.

DAVID MORRISON, PRESIDENT, NETAID: There's nothing more important than education for children and that goes equally for children in rich countries as it is or as it does for children in poor countries.

NELLIS: David Morrison is president of NetAid, a community of companies, church groups, school groups and Web users who have come together to fight poverty over the Internet. One of NetAid's primary initiatives is the NetAid World Schoolhouse, a campaign designed to put poor children in school and keep them there.

(on camera): Going to school provides a world of opportunities. Imagine if you never learned to read or write or add, well millions of children around the world never get those opportunities.

(voice-over): According to UNICEF, there are 100 million children who are not in school, most of them girls, yet experts say the education of girls is vital.

MORRISON: Girls' education is a real miracle in terms of development. It's said that when you educate a girl, you educate a family, an entire village and therefore the whole world.

BELLAMY: We know, for example, if a girl just gets a basic education, she's more likely as an adult to grow to adulthood in a healthy way. She's more likely for her children to be raised in a healthy way. She's more likely to be economically more secure, and that came from that very simple understanding, invest early, invest in children.

NELLIS: That's why UNICEF and NetAid puts so much focus on education to help end the cycle of poverty that keeps people from getting an education. NetAid estimates that it would take $7 billion a year to ensure that every child would be able to go to school. That may sound like a lot, but according to NetAid, it's less than Europe spends a year on ice cream, it's less than the United States spends on cosmetics and it's less than India spends in a year on its military.

And if you still think it sounds like a lot of money, consider the alternative, as one sage adage goes, if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Something to think about as world leaders come together to plan for the future and the children who are that future.

Kathy Nellis, CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Time for our "Science Report." But before we get to that, a quick news note. NASA scientists say a 7,000-pound U.S. spacecraft is expected to fall from space this week. A few 100-pound pieces of metal could hit the Earth but are not likely to fall in populated areas.

And as things get ready to fall from space, scientists are looking into whether electromagnets can be used to launch aircraft or even rockets into space. More on mag lev in our "Science Report" where the race is on between engineers in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. They're trying to build the nation's first train system propelled by magnetic levitation.

Here's Fred Katayama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spacecraft burn hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel to reach orbit. Now, NASA researchers are looking into a much cleaner, safer way of launching vehicles -- electromagnetic power. That would make launches a lot cheaper. NASA aims to drive down the cost of launches from $10,000 a pound to $1,000.

KENNETH HOUSE, NASA ROCKET SCIENTIST: Hopefully, we can reduce the weight of the fuel and oxidizer that's needed to be carried on board the vehicle and that will decrease the size of the vehicle. So hopefully we could get more payload into space with less of the fuel.

KATAYAMA: Magnetic levitation, or maglev for short, works like this. It uses opposing magnetic polarities to lift the metal sled carrying the plane off the tracks. For propulsion, the magnetic fields in the sled and in the rails repel each other, pushing the vehicle forward.

Last spring, NASA succeeded in magnetically launching this model plane, which accelerated to 60 miles an hour in less than half a second.

(on camera): NASA researchers have set lofty goals for this project, but they face a big bottleneck -- money. All they have is $30,000 for the next phase of this project.

(voice-over): But NASA can't move onto the next stage immediately, but it welcomes competition.

JOHN COLE, REV. PROPULSION RES. PROJECTS: This is research, so we're interested in anybody somewhere pursuing this.

KATAYAMA: The Navy is. It plans to make its fleet largely electric, catapulting fighters from its carriers with magnetic propulsion instead of steam. Northrop Grumman and General Atomics of San Diego are the development contractors competing on the project.

JOHN RAWLS, V.P., ELECTROMAGNETIC SYSTEMS: A very high power propulsion system is needed to give the energy to launch a large aircraft in the length of a football field. That will be demonstrated in about two years.

KATAYAMA: Rockets are a bigger challenge. NASA's next hurdle, launching a rocket a 150 miles an hour on a track that can carry up to two tons. One of its research partners, George Scelzo of Chicago- based PRT, is more bullish than some NASA scientists, who say maglev launches may be 20 years away.

GEORGE SCELZO, PRT ADVANCED MAGLEV SYSTEMS: Within five years, you'll see aircraft being launched magnetically. Most of the technical challenges have been overcome. We are now in the scaling areas to match the aerodynamics of the launch with the spacecraft and the launcher.

KATAYAMA: But to propel their research onto the next stage, NASA and its partners will need to land millions more in money.

Fred Katayama, CNN Financial News, Huntsville, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: We turn from science back to school. Throughout our program today, we've been emphasizing the importance of education. Do you ever think about what it would be like if you couldn't go to school? Well for some answers, we head to Lebanon, a nation trying to rebuild after a devastating civil war. One of its pressing problems, child labor. Now a program backed by UNICEF offers working children valuable education and training, as you'll learn in our "Student Bureau Report."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

URSULA FADUL, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: Some children complain about having to go to school while many others dream of only having the chance. In Lebanon, a recent government survey of local minors showed that over 35,000 potential students are forced to go to work instead of school. A remnant of the once raging civil war, child labor has intensified in recent years. Fueled by the stagnant economy, this phenomenon is still on the rise in Lebanon and robbing children of education and their futures. UNICEF reports that one-third of all Lebanese working children are illiterate. The Lebanese Ministry of Labor says the lack of education in this portion of the child population is a crippling crisis to society and to the future of children who will grow up largely under-skilled and uneducated.

ALI KANSO, LEBANESE MINISTER OF LABOR (through translator): This is why you want a child to receive free and compulsory education until the age of 13 and not to enter the workplace at the expense of his learning and his physical health.

FADUL: In Lebanon, it's not illegal for children under 18 years to work. But to address the problem the country's experiencing with uneducated working children, the Lebanese government and UNICEF created a program in 1997 under which working children were given vocational training. More than eight institutions, such as Ali Elockmore (ph) Academy, are opening their doors for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) children as young as 13 who want to broaden their education and work experience.

Yan (ph) is a student under the program. At 16, he works in a garage from 8:00 to 1:00 and then takes afternoon technical courses at the academy as well as social sessions in subjects like Arabic and math.

ASSAAD DIAB LEBANESE MINISTER OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS (through translator): It is an ongoing training program at the end of which the student receives a certificate from the Department of Vocational and Technical Training.

FADUL: Armed with this diploma, working children are able to have more confidence in society and great opportunities for higher wages.

TALAL HARFOUCHE (ph), WAREL'S (ph) FATHER (through translator): What matters is that my son learn a profession to secure his future.

FADUL: The problem with this program is that it does not accept minors under age 13 for training.

DIAB (through translator): In 1996, the law raised the legal minimum age to work to 13 years old.

FADUL: However, the Ministry of Labor estimates the number of working children below 13 to be 6,000, many of whom do not get paid.

Since they are under 13, these kids can't receive valuable training. Education is not completely free in Lebanon, and due to their poverty, they can't even pay the basic fees for attending school. There is little hope for them.

DIAB (through translator): There is a law regarding free and compulsory education, but it requires sufficient financial capabilities and (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

FADUL: Until that plan materializes, advocates against child labor say much more has to be done to alleviate the plight of these children or else we'll be heading towards a Lebanon where a child's answer to this question, do you have a dream?

YAN: No

FADUL: No.

Ursula Fadul, CNN Student Bureau, Beirut, Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World?" Life expectancy at birth about 71 years; Mediterranean weather: wet winters, hot and dry summers; natural hazards: dust and sand storms. Can you name this country? Lebanon.

WALCOTT: A couple of things to check out on the Web today, our discussion with an air traffic controller continues with additional information on CNNstudentnews.com.

MCMANUS: Also Wednesday, it's the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. If you don't know about this tragedy, find out all about it as well as some history behind the Northern Ireland conflict. And, Shelley, another place with a long history of religious conflict there.

WALCOTT: That's right. So be sure to check it out on the Web.

But for now, I'm Shelley Walcott.

MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus. We'll see you tomorrow.

WALCOTT: Bye-bye.

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