Vouchers Approved

WASHINGTON POST, Jan. 23 — At least 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia will be able to attend private schools this year thanks to Senate approval of a school-voucher plan Jan. 22.

Each student could receive up to $7,500 in grant money as part of the $14 million five-year, federally funded experimental voucher program, which President Bush is expected to sign into law.

The District's program differs from similar programs in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Colorado, the paper noted, because it is the first to receive federal funding and will be headed by the U.S. Department of Education.

Stopping Abortion

THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE, Jan. 22 — Students at the Santa Paula, Calif., school have helped close a Family Planning Associates abor tion site in Ventura, Calif.

Students have prayed weekly and counseled outside the site for the last six years.

“I am very proud of our students,” said Norbertine Father Michael Perea, college chaplain, in a school press release. “They take a lot of initiative and they are a witness to the power of persistent, ‘knock-on-the-door’ prayer.”

Angela Baird, a student at the college, launched the initiative only a few months before she died in a hiking accident. The press release noted that the closing of the site came on the six-year anniversary of her death.

GOP Students

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 21 — University of Colorado's Republican students have decided to fight what they call liberal indoctrination on their campus.

The school's College Republicans launched a Web site in mid-Januar y to gather complaints about left-leaning faculty members, according to the wire service, saying they want to document discrimination against conservative students.

The group is affiliated with Students for Academic Freedom, a national organization started by author David Horowitz.

Republican lawmakers in Colorado recently introduced a resolution calling for the defense of students’ First Amendment rights, the Associated Press noted, including expression “based solely on viewpoint.”

Pharmacy Program

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, Jan. 21 — Making it the only private college in Texas to offer such a program, the University of the Incarnate Word announced plans Jan. 21 to launch a pharmacy school.

A pre-pharmacy program is scheduled to begin next fall with the pharmacy school to open in 2006.

The Sisters of Charity-run college had been exploring the possibility of opening the school for years but was only recently able to go forward after it received a $600,000 grant from the George W. Brackenridge Foundation.

Helping the Unborn

STEVENS POINT (Wis.) JOURNAL, Jan. 22 — Students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point have founded a new pro-life group on campus.

Colleges Helping Innocent Lives Develop seeks to advocate on behalf of pregnant women and draw attention to the abortion issue.

The paper attributed renewed pro-life vigor in the area to former La Crosse Bishop Raymond Burke, who asked Catholic politicians who vote in favor of abortion to refrain from receiving Communion.

According to one local pro-life leader, the action gave people a greater sense of personal responsibility for getting involved in the debate.