Keeping the Government Outta Schools Has It's Benefits

...such as avoiding this:

HIGH SCHOOL NON-CONFIDENTIAL

By Lisa Sorg 09/04/2003

Schools must allow military recruiters to mine student information lists - or risk losing federal funding

In a speech delivered last January, President George W. Bush declared that the No Child Left Behind Act, which became federal law in 2002, is "the most meaningful education reform, probably ever," adding, "I believe in local control of schools."

Yet Bush failed to mention an overlooked, but crucial section in the act that wrests control from U.S. school districts and thrusts it into the hands of the feds. A provision in the The No Child Left Behind Act mandates that schools receiving federal funding allow military recruiters to access junior and seniors' personal information - name, address, and phone number - primarily through student directory lists. Parents and students can "opt-out," or ask that the school not release the information to recruiters, but the exemption is not automatic, and many don't understand the significance of the choice.

The Bush administration added an incentive for schools to comply with this portion of the act: Public or private (but not religious) schools that refuse to comply risk losing their federal funding. That is a chance few schools can take: Locally, that would mean an $80 million penalty in the San Antonio Independent School District alone.

One of the central problems with government-subsidized education is the nature of the education's funding. It comes from the state, meaning it is directed in part by politicians and in part by the public. For the most part, however, politicians and regulatory agents are the ones with the most control. This opens the funding system to political manipulations such as this. Another, lesser evil example not related to funding but certainly related to control would be Senator Jeff Wentworth's SB 83 requiring a minute of silence as well as Texas and American flag pledges.

Since public schools rarely get the funding they would like or need from the independent politicial district they reside in, so they turn to the state. Since the state's contribution often doesn't meet their goals, they then turn to the federal government to take up some of the slack. It's casting a progressively wider net, trolling for money, and taxing it from people who will never interact with the school. We end up paying, in small part, a bit of a huge portion of the country's education. I won't even get into the federal college grant and scholarship programs.

All of this conspires to create a system primed for corruption, influence-peddling, distortion, and waste. And then we get someone like Bush (and Wentworth, etc.) who sees an opportunity to accomplish some goal through the threat of withdrawing government funds. The way the feds make transportation funds available to states and localities is the same thing. It's money these smaller governments have gotten used to and need to at least maintain a sense of status quo. In current case, few issues are likely to raise voices and elevate tempers than the chance someone's public education is threatened. Parents are doggedly reliable in this regard and will storm and protest and bitch when they hear their children aren't getting a proper learnin'.

Usually (and unfortunately), parents and the media equate the amount spent on an education with it's quality.

SEPTEMBER 23 IS NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY

Organizers throughout the United States have designated September 23 as National Opt-Out Day. Parents, guardians, and students are encouraged to send letters to their respective school district offices and high schools denying permission for the military to access personal information through directory lists.

The letter should contain the name of the student, and state that no information should be released to the military according to federal provisions detailed in the No Child Left Behind Act.

Go for it, folks. And once you do, take a few minutes to understand how the systems you've demanded be in place are slowly screwing you and everyone else.

Posted by Drizzten at September 05, 2003 06:15 PM