Milwaukee: Blow to recruiters
By
Bryan G. Pfeifer
Published Sep 5, 2005 7:12 PM
On Aug. 25 the Milwaukee School Board voted
to increase awareness in the school district and provide more information to
parents about the “opt-out” provision in the “No Child Left
Behind” act. The admin istration also pledged to review military
recruiters’ activities. (www.jsonline.com)
The act dictates that the
Pentagon automatically receives student information inclu d ing names,
addresses, telephone num bers and emails—unless parents, or a student 18
or older, submits an opt-out form.
As the vote took place, Riverside
students and those from Wauwatosa and Shorewood high schools, which are not part
of the Milwaukee district, hoisted “Edu cation not Militarism”
signs. These students and their allies are fed up with military preying
techniques and the U.S. war on Iraq.
Forty-four soldiers from Wisconsin,
most between 18 and 30 and largely from formerly unionized industrial
manufacturing areas, have died in Iraq.
The Milwaukee struggle takes place
amid growing counter-recruitment activity across the country. In fact, this is
fast becoming a central pillar of the anti-war movement.
Although the
final board resolution was a watered-down version of one originally submitted by
progressive board member Peter Blewett, it is a victory nonetheless. At the very
least it’s a move toward educating the wider public about the law’s
opt-out provision and about actual recruiting techniques.
Blewett’s
resolution would have limited recruiters to three days of visits per school
year.
“One of our fundamental obligations is to protect the privacy
of students and their families,” said Blewett. He voted in favor of the
final resolution along with the eight other board members present.
The
final resolution directs the district leadership to make available to parents
the opt-out information, and to outline all “cost-effective” means
of providing this to parents. The school board estimates that currently less
than 1 percent of students or parents in Milwaukee exercise their opt-out right,
largely because they don’t know they can.
Before the Aug. 25 vote,
over 60 people attended the Aug. 23 Milwaukee School Board’s Rules and
Policy Committee and 18 testified in favor of restrictions on recruiters. No
military recruiters or their supporters attended.
Students from the
working-class and majority students-of-color Riverside High School testified
about the recruiters’ sexist behavior, and their aggressiveness and focus
on recruiting African American and Latin@ students.
Because of the
students’ and their allies’ actions, School Superintendent William
Andrekopoulos said at the meeting that he would “investigate” the
recruiters’ activities in city schools.
It will now be up to the
counter-recruitment movement to hold the board accoun table and see to it that
real action is taken.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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