Comic Books For Schools?

LANSING - Comic books may soon be appearing in some of the new school paperback libraries. In fact, local control and informality I will be the key factors in operation of the new programs and if school committees I decide they want comic books, they probably can have them, promises a State I Department of Education official. A committee composed of parents, students and teachers will be formed in leach school building involved to select I which paperbacks will be used, said Robert Trezise, the department's communicatión skills coördinator. f i f y ■ is ' er- - r The legislatare has appropriated $1 million for use by public and nonpublic schools this school year to establish the informal paperback libraries. The hope is that students who aren't good readers or shy away from formal textbooks and regular libraries, will enjoy reading paperbacks for their own enjoyment and information. Application forms that the schools must submit to qualify for, a share of the funds will be sent out within a few days and should be returned by Nov. 28, Trezise told a meeting of the State Board of Education's Educational Legislative Advisory Council. Trezise also told the council that the attorney general has decided that paperback libraries may be located in parochial schools, rather than simply being available at public schools to nonpublic school pupils. The exact locations, though, will be up to local public school boards to decide, Trezise said. The .attorney general also ruled, Trezise said, that public school districts , don't have to include parochial 1 sters in the head counts used to 1 mine exactly how much a district would I receive from the state funds. Parochial schools can qualify for som e I of the paperback library funds because I the legislature said that the programs I will be considered part of the "auxiliary I services act," which provides certain I nonsecular services to nonpublic school I children. The question of who selects the 1 backs for a particular school aróse when I some council members said they hoped I Michigan wouldn't have the type of 1 putes as have occurred in West Virginia and South Dakota over whether some I books used in schools were vulgar or obscene. It is possible, Trezise said, that comic I s --r t ff vs r 'f i_ rs books might be used in some of the paperback libraries if selection committees approve. It's not clear, though, whether paperback Bibles would be -allowed, said Richard T. Cole, the department's legislation and school law director. Some council members were still quietly grumbling over the speed with which the ?l-million allocation slipped through the legislatura without floor debate or even the knowlege of many lawmakers who voted for it as part of the over-all school aid bill. "There wasn't even a survey to show the needs and justification for the program," said David M. Ruhala, assistant executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards. Trezise said that legislators apparently did assume that regular school libraries are failing to reach many youngsters. "It seems to me this is a sad indictment of school libraries, if that's the case," Trezise said.