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BUSH TO ARAFAT: SHAPE UP!

The White House is warning Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat that his freedom from a month-long confinement within his Ramallah headquarters was a chance to prove his leadership and gain the trust of the Bush administration and the international community.

"Yasser Arafat is now free to leave his compound (and ) ... free to travel. And with that freedom comes a responsibility to show the world ... that he meant what he said about renouncing terrorism and ending violence as a way of settling political disputes," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters Thursday. "Freedom means freedom to prove that he can lead and that he will take responsible actions to help bring peace to the region. The president is watching."

Speaking in the White House East Room together with Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar and European Commission President Romano Prodi, Bush was strongly critical of Arafat, who he said had "just been disappointing." Spain has the rotating presidency of the European Union, with Prodi as the organization's chief executive.

Bush said the United States and the European Union shared a desire to see "Palestine and Israel living side by side, in peace and security." But he said Arafat had to play his part in resuming peace efforts. "(Arafat) had a chance to grab peace and hasn't done so in the past, and therefore he's let the Palestinian people down. Now's his chance to show he can lead," Bush said.

European sources said Aznar and Prodi had told Bush during their meeting that the European Union favored convening an international conference on the Middle East as soon as possible. Prodi later told UPI he believed an international conference was "necessary."

Fleischer, during his briefing, called the conference "an interesting idea that remains at the idea stage." Later Thursday, however, Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the United States, together with the United Nations, Russia and the European Union -- a grouping known as the Quartet -- intended to host a comprehensive Middle East Peace Conference sometime this summer.

But Arafat emerged from his month-long confinement shaking, angry and still defiant. Visiting a makeshift mass grave outside Ramallah Hospital, he vowed that the fight for independence would continue. "We will continue to the end of the road toward Jerusalem, the capital of the independent Palestinian state," Arafat said.

-- Will Arafat do the right thing? Why or why not?

NATIONAL DRIVER'S LICENSES

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge for the first time disclosed Thursday the Bush administration is studying ways to set national standards for driver's licenses that would assist in preventing fraudulent identification and expose aliens who overstayed their visas.

In a briefing for senators and the public arranged by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Ridge said the Office of Homeland Security is studying proposals by the National Governor's Association and other state groups to establish national standards for operator's permits.

Ridge said the White House would consider legislation that would do that. "It may be helpful and appropriate at some time," he said. He said drivers' license expirations should also be linked to visa expirations.

Ridge spokesman Gordon Johndroe told UPI the Bush administration opposes a national identification card, but is working with several national associations -- including the governors and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators -- on ideas to make vehicle operators permits more standard.

One idea, he said, would be to issue resident aliens driver's permits linked to their visas. If an alien had a visa to visit the United States for six months, he or she would not be able to obtain a driver's permit that exceeded six months, Johndroe said. This would require, he said, a way for state departments of motor vehicles to be linked up with the Immigration and Naturalization Service or for states to call up INS records. He said that Homeland Security is also studying proposals to help state motor vehicle agencies link up.

On Tuesday at a Brookings Institution discussion of counter-terrorism actions, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said she thinks the United States needs what she called "smart card technology."

"I think we need increased use of biometrics so that we're sure a person using some form of identification is in fact the person on the identification. Obviously to get there and to rely on it, you need to know the person who is applying for the piece of identification is in fact who she says she is," said Harman, a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence and an acknowledged expert on counter-terrorism.

-- Would you support a national driver's license or some sort of national identification card? Why or why not?

COLLEGE EDUCATION

A college education has become less affordable for all but the wealthiest Americans in the past two decades, a report entitled "Losing Ground" showed Thursday.

The study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education said university and college tuition requires an increasing share of the income of American families. And it said the problem becomes worse during recessions and economic downturns, including the one that began last year.

The new study focuses on the nation's two- and four-year public colleges and universities that enroll more than 80 percent of college students in the country. It found that in 1980, tuition at public four-year colleges and universities took 13 percent of a low-income family's income, but by 2000 that figure jumped to 25 percent. At two-year colleges, tuition increased from 6 percent to 12 percent.

From 1992 through 2001, tuition at four-year schools rose faster than family income in 41 states.

The study also showed financial aid for needy students has not kept pace with tuition. The average federal Pell Grant award at a public four-year university covered 98 percent of tuition in 1986 but only 57 percent in 1999. State grant awards paid 75 percent of tuition in 1986 but only 64 percent in 1999.

David Breneman, education dean at the University of Virginia and one of the authors of the study, said there was a virtual explosion of financial aid programs in the 1990s, but it targeted upper and middle income families with tax credits, merit scholarships and tax deferred savings plans.

"Those policies in the 1990s were really a break from the longer tradition of focusing the money on lower-income kids," he said. "We still have a sizeable group in this country that have a problem going to college without substantial financial aid."

Breneman said another problem is that states tend to set their tuition based on their national ranking or on what neighboring states pay. "We're saying tuition should be based on income rather than another state's tuition," he said.

-- How did you pay for college? Did you parents foot the bill? Scholarship? Student loan? How are you planning to pay for your children's college education?