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TechnoratiThe No Child Left Behind Act is up for reauthorization this month. There has been much necessary criticism and commentary about its unfunded mandates, forced standardized testing, and takeover threats to struggling public school systems.
But another critical piece of the law is often overlooked.
Section 9528, in about 200 words, requires public high schools to give student information to military recruiters upon request unless the families or students opt out.
The Capital Times story last Friday about opting out at East High School exemplified the type of parental and community action required to level the playing field between military recruitment and options to the military. But much remains to be done, especially in rural communities.
Section 9528 has consistently escaped attention while the other very real and controversial contents of the law preoccupy educators and legislators, distracting them from what is happening daily as uniformed military recruiters patrol the hallways of the 22,000 public high schools in the U.S.
The presence of military recruiters in schools is a tradition that demands more scrutiny of the increased pressure the war in Iraq places on recruiters to meet their quotas, for which they are paid.
Since the law threw open our school doors to new military recruitment opportunities, the responses among the 425 public school districts in Wisconsin have been utterly inconsistent. It is likely that some administrators, guidance counselors, and certainly many teachers in Wisconsin secondary schools never even heard of Section 9528. As a result, the responses have been disorganized, inconsistent, and in some cases totally absent.
There have been cases in which school districts immediately relinquished student information after receiving intimidating letters from a branch of the military, and then backpedaled after angry parents complained.
Some districts have attempted to limit the number of military recruitment visits per year, some have allowed other groups to present optional information to students, some have prepared concise opt-out forms, and some have done nothing.
The growing unpopularity of the war has resulted in reduced standards and greater recruitment pressure on students in rural Wisconsin school districts, where graduation rates are high and kids don't have jobs. As a matter of fact, Wisconsin ranked fourth in the nation in 2006 for producing "high-quality" active duty Army recruits, meaning they graduated from high school and scored in the upper half on the Armed Forces Qualification Test.
There are many reasons to question reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, not least being the imbalance between federal funding of the military in 2008 at $1,228 billion compared to federal education funding at $59 billion. Legitimate concerns are raised over the future of public education in the face of the law's impulse to take over school districts deemed to be unsuccessful.
Section 9528, on its own, is intimidating to school districts.
The extreme punishment that could befall a school district for noncompliance with military recruitment mandates is described by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in Bulletin No. 02.12 dated Dec. 10, 2002, which outlines "enforcement" of Section 9528.
"In addition to the potential loss of funds for failure to comply with (Section) 9528 (a school) that denies a military recruiter access to the requested information on students will be subject to specific interventions." First the noncompliant school would be paid a visit by a senior military officer. Then "the Department of Defense must notify the state governor within 60 days." Unresolved problems would then be reported to Congress.
What next? Waterboarding the high school principal?
Never mind that recruiters repeatedly violate the privacy rights of minor-age students. Never mind that they mislead, obscure and essentially bribe vulnerable teenagers into military service, which is, in truth, based on waging war, learning how to kill, or to accept being killed. It's not a "career choice" the recruiters are selling. It's a lifestyle.
The picture painted by recruiters is one of signing bonuses, veterans' benefits and college tuition.
It would be good for the DPI to step forward with an educational campaign and some statewide standards in order to provide students and their families a fair chance in the face of the $4 billion spent by the military on recruiting each year.
It would be even better if our elected officials removed Section 9528 from the law. Until then, all we citizens can do is work to learn about and reveal the truth about military recruitment taking place today in our public high schools.
David Giffey of Arena is a Vietnam War veteran and a board member of Veterans for Peace in Central Wisconsin.
Copyright ©2007, Capital Newspapers.
26 Comments so far
Show AllKEM, reread what I wrote. I agreed that no way did 8 million Germans die do to Allied Forces killing. What I said was that I know of two and I know of other Germans who suffered life long effects. This is a handful of people I know about. Ofcourse I do not know everybody in Germany but I did live there for nearly forty years. Before you call me wrong be very sure you understand my point. Which brings me to a different point also very true : as long as we bicker we do not win. We need to unite and get the gov cleaned up.
There were problems in all of Europe with both agriculture and manufacturing to be sure, that is precicely why George Marshall presented the one page Marshall plan to Congress and the world.
Yeah BILLB, I'm not sure eight million died from starvation in Germany after the war in Germany either. I would bet very few died of starvation, in fact, England had a bigger problem in that regard than France or Germany did. I do know over eight million poles died at the hands of the German military and a like number of Cheks and Hungarians.
I do know our military began supplying millions of civilians with food, soap, baby needs, and medical supplies within days after Germany surrendered. Generals Patton and Bradley insured it. And I do know the "vast" percentage of their farmlands were not even touched by the war. I also do know we didn't murder eight million German civilians after the war. I do know that we supplied the entire population of the citizens of Berlin during the Berlin airlift, with 100% of their daily needs.
Any who state we purposely 'murdered' German civilians after the war is wrong, either lying or totally ignorant. We have German relatives who were there at that time in history, nothing like what you or the other person have written is correct.
Just more meat for the meat grinder.
Many points here.
1. The deaths of 8 million Germans...So many simply went without food until they died a terrible death. That happened during the war and after. The part during the war was in land taken and controlled by allied forces. The not yet taken land had little to eat, they too starved. If the number ever reached 8 million, I am not sure. But the two I do know about are two too many. I do not mean two million either. I mean two people, both were children. Many other children did not die but suffer life long.
2. The age of military service is not really the point. We need to look at several things such as jobs, tv pressure, conditions at home ( if there was a home), etc. Even if the age were up to 21 would these other factors be better ? Why do so many who are over 30 years old still play war crap ?
3. No Child Left Behind, please never use that term again. Using it gives credit somehow to it, we need to unlearn it. What we need is a positive point of view with leadership where we are going. Plus the funding for real education does not have lock ins for the rich to make more money ( ie the children, in laws, and grandchildren of Hitler's American banker Prescott Bush, yes Dummy's granpa )...
If a term is really needed how about C.A.R.E. (Children Are Respectfully Educated )...or simply school.....
4. Every school parent should visit the school and see the bulletin boards, demand the names never be given out to anybody ( credit cards included ), know what is going on in the school and ear mark the taxes paid.
When the recruiters used to call my son, I used to give them an earfull. This was long before the Iraq war. I would say: "look you, I lived through the Vietnam era. I don't want my son to go off and fight useless wars and come home in a bodybag. You only call here because we are of the lower socioeconomic class. That is what your military is made of these days. We have a poverty draft."
"You are insulting me." He replied. "I didn't join up because of poverty. Besides, they aren't coming home in body bags."
"They will be," I said. "now you quit calling here or I am going to use some choice words."
My son had one better. He would let them talk on and on and then he would say: "But why do I need to join, I am already an army of one. Isn't that what your commercials say, "be an army of one." Why do I need to join. I am one." He said as long as they were tied up talking with him, they couldn't be tricking someone who was uneducated into joining.
Seems like I was right. Yep. They are coming home in body bags or as Shakespeare would say "sans" arms, legs, a whole mind--sans everything. I think the Quakers have programs to help young people keep from being hoodwinked into war, and doing a quick search on google reminds me of why I hate mandatory schooling. The person who posted above that they homeschooled their son has the right idea. This is an old article (2005) but it is so typical of the brainwashing that schools do:
Principal bans 'anti-military,' 'anti-American' materials
By CHRIS JONES
Associated Press
A Cookeville (Tenn.) High School administrator said Veterans for Peace and a Quaker group can't come back into his school with materials considered ''anti-American'' and ''anti-military.''
The groups plan to go before the Putnam County school board tomorrow with claims that they're being denied privileges afforded to other organizations, including military recruiters.
The war veterans, some who also belong to the Quaker group, were allowed into the school during a September fair for organizations. They set up a table with books about U.S. wars and offered photocopied fliers and pamphlets from both organizations about the war in Iraq and military careers and alternatives.
Quaker and veteran Hector Black said several students stopped by the table and asked questions, and a couple of teachers even thanked them for coming.
He said there wasn't any indication of a problem until later that evening, when he got a phone call from Principal Wayne Shank.
Shank told Black that some of the groups' materials may be proper for adults, but he thought they were inappropriate for the students.
''The information was brought to the attention of administrators because of the influence it may have had,'' said Shank, who restricted future visits by the groups. ''I felt, from a principal's viewpoint, that the students were being put into a position that they shouldn't.''
Black said Shank specified some quotes in the literature that he objected to, including one from a 1953 speech by President Eisenhower that said, ''Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed. Those who are cold and are not clothed.''
Another quote from an unknown author said, ''The Army that can defeat terrorism doesn't drive Humvees, or call in airstrikes. ... It undermines military dictatorship and military lobbyists. It subverts sweatshops and special interests.''
County School Director Michael Martin said, ''Parents found the materials to be anti-American, anti-military. That didn't come from us. That came from the parents who saw the materials when their kids brought it home.''
The rest of the article can be found here:
http://tennessean.com/education/archives/05/01/65061319.shtml
Yeah! That's right. Tennessee--the Volunteer State. We Volunteer our children for cannon fodder. We stay happily ignorant and do as we are told.
Seems like they only want to quote presidents when they say such bullcrap as "Mission Accomplished" or "Bring it on!" Can't quote the above from Eisenhower as he was obviously a commie pinko fag.
PASCHN. Would you be so kind as to offer some verification, a credible source, to your incredible comments about our murdering "eight million" German civilians. If you do not, I will state, that you are either a damn liar, or incredibly stupid to post such a comment anyplace.
Lets have it, I won't blieve it until it is substanciated.
I wish the author would have also included the other truth about the worthless "NO Child Left Behind" program. The company who prints the materials which schools are forced to purchase, or lose federal funding, is owned by GWBs mother, uncle and a brother. The Bush cartel makes multi-millions in profits every year from it.
I also will wadger, if any request to have their names taken from the list, that if a draft is initiated, they will be cannon fodder front line infantry and on the top of the shit list.
I was browsing the web yesterday, came across a letter of confession from a man, 18 years old at the time, who guarded Eisenhower's murder camps. France and Britain had 'em too. They murdered ~ 8,000,000 German civilians after the end of the war. Seems there was no shortage of "our boys" even then to torture and kill for the elite. Read the same concerning 'ole Abe Lincoln so it was going on even before the last century. Let the swine approach your spawn. The answer is EDUCATE them! Teach them it isn't "my country right or wrong! Then, if they still wanna play soldier, they pretty much ask for what ever happens to 'em
Kernel October 1st, 2007 12:15 am
"The ones going to war should be the ones that love it so much and are responsible for starting it and keeping it going, especially in a war of choice, like Iraq."
There shouldn't be any wars of choice, period.
Lobo Gris
As a parent of a 13 year old son, our family became concerned when the middle school administration influenced the students by putting up bulletin boards about war, military service, fear and the news. (Like they don't get enough "fear" shoved down their throat each day...) Did you hear... we have a war on terrorism? When the student assemblies and festivals became a dog and pony show for the color guard and ROTC drills we became uncomfortable. Jingoistic speeches about patrotism and the ever present war on terrorism led us to decided to take our son out of public school and home school with him.
This month, my son is visiting London, and Moscow with a friend and is having the time of his life. He is now 16 years old, and though I can't speak for him; but I don't believe he desires to join the military anytime soon, if ever. He says fighting seperates people on too many levels, and leaves psychic scars... though humans will always have the option to choose "fighting" as one of many choices of behaviors to solve problems. The people who choose to fight feel "powerlessness" to do anything else to get their needs met. War is created from a state of "disempowerment" deep inside the parties involved. What else could make a human blow themselves and others up? Despair?
Currently, my son is working toward a high school diploma utilizing a "self-directed" program of an online virtual high school. It is not costly. I recommend Alternative Education for those families looking to escape some of the negative thought structures of our culture. It has worked for us to pursue this path to learning. Stay aware of what your children are really learning. The public schools teach students to be afraid of taking risks, fear of making mistakes, and conditioning them to behave a certain way. (Usually to serve others in some way.) Check out the book titled: If You Want To Be Rich & Happy, Don't Go To School, Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself and Your Children, by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Hal Zina Bennett, Ph.D.
conscience___ Agreed, high schoolers of 18 years of age should not even be thinking about becoming involved with the military.
However, in the last Dem debate, I understood both Kucinich and Gravel to say they thought 18 year old`s were old enough to drink if they were old enough to go to war. That is not the same thing as saying they should not do either one until they are 21, which is what I believe. The ones going to war should be the ones that love it so much and are responsible for starting it and keeping it going, especially in a war of choice, like Iraq. In olden days, the leader was out in front of his soldiers, (Napoleon, Washington),not back in a comfortable mansion living like a king and thinking about his legacy, stock portfolio, and goverenment retirement supplemented by $25,000 speeches to keep up the old bank account.
Great ideal ,hope it catches on. 21 makes a lot of sence.that would remove recruiters from the high schools.
Anything under 21 is much too young to judge what is before one in the Military . . . .
Kucinich has the right idea on this --
and many other issues!!!
Why aren't there any Israeli soldiers, both male and female as in the American military -- in Iraq helping the U.S. forces? Israelis are so gung-ho for war with Iraq and Iran, why aren't they doing their part?
The draft is a confusing issue to me. I think the family of any Administration (all political appointees) and Congresspeople that authorizes and funds combat of any kind who are of military age should be drafted, trained as all of our soldiers are trained and sent to the front lines until the end of combat.
I also think that if people continue to vote in politicians who wage war, the peoples' families should be subject to the draft. Part of the problem on Iraq is that only a miniscule percentage of the population is directly affected.
For every parent who revels that their son/daughter is in combat, there are 99 who would rather have their children somewhere other than combat.
This appears to be in preparation to reinstate the draft. Parents better become informed about what is occuring in their children's schools.
No Child Left Behind is demonically named, yet very aptly. Shades of Hitler Youth, when it was the popular thing for German youth to become part of the Nazi machine, reporting on their parents. No, the military will not leave your children behind, but the schools will be left behind, reduced to tools for military recruiters.
Like Giffey says, "What next? Waterboarding the high school principal?"
And it's so simple, good idea johnwyclif. Wonder which politician we will hear it from first (ha ha)?
johnwyclif, I like your suggestion about raising the military service eligibility age to 21. At least they have a little bit more maturity to think things over a bit before gambling on their lives, limbs, and also having to live with themselves for the rest of their lives regarding the innocent people they killed.
"Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all"
The human cost of war alone makes it self-evident that we must renounce war.
Movement for the Renunciation of War.
I renounce war, and I will never support or sanction another war.
Signed: _____________________
Dated: __________
Children know more than their parents do today.
Parents need to remember how they felt when they first saw their baby son or daughter. Did you think at that moment that this beautiful human being would grow up to be blown to bits in an unjust, preemptive war? PARENTS MUST FIGHT TO SAVE THE LIVES OF THEIR CHILDREN. They must not glorify the military (and I am NOT anti-military.) When I hear parents on CSpan say "my dead son is a hero," I pray that person remain in shock the rest of their life so they never have to deal with the reality of what happened to their precious child.
I caught the tv debate of the candidates for the Democratic Party pres nomination early last week. One of the questions had to do with lowering the drinking age. Several linked drinking age to the age of military service eligibility. Kucinich offered that he would lower the drinking age to that of the age for military service eligibility. What crossed my mind was, why not raise the age of military service eligibility to 21? Then there would be no unfair approaches to high school kids. The recruiters would have to deal with people who have had a bit of a different experience. Those joining up would be doing so with a much wider perspective, with all the advantages to the military that that wider perspective would bring.
Don't credit Marshall for the plan. He was ordered to present the speech that became the Marshall plan, because Truman felt dependent on Marshall for credibility. Little did most of the world know that Marshall had actively and intentionally aided the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a "loyal soldier" obeying the orders of his megalomaniac President in order to bypass the will of the US citizenry.
There is no way we deliberately murdered anything like 8 million Germans after VE day by starvation or other means. Even the news that millions of Holocaust victims (perhaps even a majority) were not Jews (but Slavs, Roms, homosexuals, etc.) is out there, although it tends to be drowned out by the 6 million Jews mantra. However, during the war, the US and UK did carry out mass murders of civilians in Deutchland and Nippon, sometimes killing ~100K or more in a single day.
The recruiters themselves have a raw deal. The job is so stressful you'd think a few more would would considering waking up and consider loyalty to country ahead of loyalty to the military. However, the pressure is so great they have no time to think.
GDE, I beg to differ. Marshall, as the Secretary of State, did indeed by himself formulate the plan, naturally many neo-cons then offered their 'humble' opinions after he first brought it up with Truman. Marshall was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his ideas, determination and skill in getting it voted through.
You know, a lot of people state the Marshall plan was ONLY for the American big business benefit. I ask them, what would you have done that would have been better? If we talk to the Europeans who DID benefit, with no strings attached, they loved and embrassed it and the Marshall Plan did bring them out of despair. Their infastructures were rebuilt and their agriculture brought back to first class status.
Yes, we killed multi-millions with fire bombing and the two atomic bombs, I would remind people that the first fire bombings were conducted by the Germans on London and Japan attempted the same, with their high altitude ballon bombs against the United States. The statemet I referred to, was Americans murdering millions after the war ended. Which is pure horse apples.