It does educate--Lee Todd, who took office as president of the University of Kentucky last summer, was slated to be formally inaugurated February 15. A $100,000 bash is being funded by private donors.

Further education--Since 1990, tuition and other fees jumped 80 percent at community (two-year) colleges in New York State. A student research project reported that next year the tuition hike could be even greater.

A sturdy lot?--In England, a study indicated, the average student is $6,300 in debt and 40 percent need to take part-time jobs. Assertively, they spend $30 a week on alcohol. How they attend classes, study, hold a part-time job, and drink that much, was not explained.

Just breathe shallow--California has a fleet of 24,190 school buses, half of them more than 10 years old. Each of these, in a year, spew out more noxious particulates than 170 cars. The air resources board says not to worry--they're going to start "improving" or replacing them.

Grr, burp--Cops in South Bend, Indiana, are very angry and one detective declared he was sick to his stomach. A lawyer was slated to give a library talk on the rights of those being arrested. The cop with the bellyache assessed the legal rights discussion as antipolice.

Try canceling the debts--A New York-area collection agency has run into a crisis of overexpansion. Its dossier of bad debts has tripled in the past three years and it's now suffering a shortage of collection heavies.

Shades of Plato--For two years, Enron ran a sports media ad:

"Sometimes it's the things you don't see that have the biggest impact." The ad has since been iced.

Welfare 'reform'--Since a Montana drive to force families off welfare opened five years ago, only one family in 10 of those affected have become self-sufficient, even though seven family heads in 10 have jobs. Their average wage is under $7 an hour and most have no medical insurance. Again, they're forced to turn to welfare.

Defining 'nothing'--In the immediate post–World War II period, ex-GIs listened as politicians declaimed, "Nothing is too good for our boys." Today "nothing" is still the key word. For instance, at the veterans' medical center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a vet with a routine illness will wait months for an appointment. Meanwhile, case-loads have outpaced budget increases nearly five times.  
 
 
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