20 years ago

Saying he has heard the business community’s concerns about federal spending, President George W. Bush described his $2.57 trillion budget for 2006 as “the most disciplined proposal since Ronald Reagan was in office.” That discipline is posing a threat to Even Start, a $225 million literacy program that the president has targeted for elimination. Even Start began in 1988, and, according to the U.S. Department of Education, was designed to improve the academic achievement of young children and parents of the nation’s low-income families, particularly in the area of reading. Even Start offers promise for helping break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and low literacy in the nation by addressing four components of family literacy: early childhood education; adult literacy; parenting education; and interactive literacy activities between parents and their children.

— From the issue of March 3, 2005

30 years ago

If your head aches, you feel feverish and have begun to cough, you may have just a cold, or you may have been hit by the same virus that has decimated attendance at Homer-area schools during the past few weeks. On Monday, almost one in five of the students at Paul Banks Elementary School were out sick. At the junior high school, almost one in four stayed home on the worst day of the flu, while at McNeil Canyon Elementary one in four did stay home. It was even worse at Chapman Elementary School in Anchor Point — 27 percent. It hasn’t been limited to the young. More than half the teachers at the junior high were out one day, said the school’s secretary, Vicki Searle.

— From the issue of March 2, 1995