UWM UPWARD BOUND DIRECTOR FIGHTS CHANGE

He Lobbies Lawmakers On Proposed Study

Washington - Lobbyists are not always slick, smooth-talkers who try to
sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

Sometimes they are simply academics looking after their
students.

Donald Singleton, director of the Upward Bound program at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was in that role when he headed to
Washington last spring.

His intent: to discuss with the Wisconsin congressional delegation a
potentially flawed study proposed as part of the Upward Bound
application process.

In Wisconsin, 15 colleges receive U.S. Department of Education funding
for Upward Bound, including UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University and the
Milwaukee School of Engineering.

The colleges use the funds to recruit low-income high school students.
The students get academic tutoring, financial workshops and mentoring
sessions on campus and go off-campus for cultural field trips and
college visits.

Under the proposed provision, colleges would have to deliberately
recruit twice as many students to Upward Bound as could actually
participate. Half the recruits would be assigned to a control group
and not allowed to reapply to the program.

This control group would be evaluated for its academic failures, in
comparison with the presumed success of Upward Bound
participants.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) considered the study both flawed and
unethical, according to her chief of staff, Win Boerckel.

Singleton said he heard echoes of the Tuskegee Study, the notorious
experiment in which African-American men were knowingly denied
treatment for syphilis while the spread of their disease was studied.

Moore inserted an amendment to repeal funding for the study in last
July's House education appropriations bill. The amendment was included
in the omnibus labor, health and human services and education spending
bill passed last week by the House and Senate. The bill is expected to
be signed soon by President Bush.

War on drugs: Riding the coattails of momentum generated by the U.S.
Sentencing Commission's decision Dec. 11 to allow individuals serving
time on crack cocaine convictions to seek sentence reductions, Moore
has signed on to the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin
Trafficking Act.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) introduced the legislation last week
to urge Congress to eliminate both sentencing disparities between
powder and crack cocaine and the mandatory minimum sentencing
requirement for first-time offenders and those possessing the drug in
small quantities.

Jasmine Tyler of the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance said law
enforcement officials should be going after major drug dealers.

"This isn't a war on drugs; it's a war on black and brown people,"
Tyler said.

"We should be looking for educational opportunities instead of
trailing 'em, nailing 'em and jailing 'em," Moore said.

In recent years, she said, Milwaukee has had the notorious distinction
of having the highest incarceration rate for blacks in big cities.

Lee hopes the House will look favorably on the bill, while adding,
"We're not going to sit back on accusations that we're soft on crime."

Relaxing at home: The Wisconsin delegation reports plans to stay close
to home over the holidays:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and his wife, Cheryl, will visit her mother
in Sturgeon Bay on Christmas Day.

Rep. Tom Petri will see his parents-in-law in Indianapolis. While
there, he'll check out the 285-foot-tall "tree" in the city center,
actually tree-shaped decorations on the state Soldiers and Sailors
Monument, a 44-year-old city tradition.

Reps. Paul Ryan and Ron Kind will spend time with their kids. Ryan
plans to go sledding and build a snowman with his children outside
their home in Janesville. He also plans to go hunting with his
father-in-law. Kind plans to take his two boys squirrel and rabbit
hunting on their property in Jackson County and watch the boys perform
the Christmas story at church.

Sen. Herb Kohl traditionally takes a few of the Bucks players on
rounds at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa.

Sen. Russ Feingold is going to watch Brett Favre lead the Packers
into the playoffs.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin will settle down with a couple of books. She'll
finish colleague Dave Obey's memoir and Thomas E. Ricks' book "Fiasco:
The American Military Adventure in Iraq." Then, she'll loosen up with
cross-country skiing. Early January will find Baldwin back in political
mode, stumping for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa.

New Year's Eve will find Gwen Moore at home in Milwaukee cooking up
gumbo soup with jumbo shrimp, crab and lobster for a family feast.
Very likely, she says, she'll be the one doing the dishes at 4 a.m.