A now infamous provision of the education bill No Child Left Behind required schools to provide private information like student addresses and phone numbers to military recruiters, or lose federal funding. Families could opt out of this provision -- but only if they knew about it. Now comes to light even more ominous and intrusive collection of student data by the Pentagon and its private contractors. Masquerading as test prep web sites or scholarship opportunities, sophisticated marketers stealthily collect data on teens and provide it to recruiters to help them target their recruiting messages.
Is the real purpose of public schools in America education, or is it warehousing same-age potential recruits to deliver them as a conveniently assembled audience for recruiting messages?
An amazing victory for a community in Atlanta that didn't want the military helping to create a public high school for their children. Activists waged a two-month campaign to oppose the establishment of a military-themed high school which the U.S. Marine Corps and the DeKalb County Board of Education had hoped to open on Aug. 10. Relentless watchdogs of their school board, this team of parents, students and community members used media coverage and direct actions to successfully oppose the plan. That's the good news. The bad news is that Obama's new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is known in Chicago for having fostered many such schools during his tenure as superintendent of schools. And plans continue for military-themed high schools in other low-income areas around the country. Who's watching your school board?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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