http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/education/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Fri, 01 Feb 2002 14:39:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1409/test_unrest/ Remember spring fever? The slow time at school, when sleepy students looked out the window after lunch, waiting for the bell? Spring has become a more serious season these days. As warm weather arrives in California classrooms, schools have gone test-crazy as students prepare for the state-mandated STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) exam. Teachers begin “teaching the test,” as they call it, although many do so with great trepidation. When the results finally come in, every school in California gets rated and ranked. Then the state begins handing out cash awards to teachers and school personnel based on the test scores. In October, California gave financial bonuses to teachers at 304 schools. Some received $5,000 apiece, a smaller number $10,000,… education Fred Weir Fri, 06 Dec 2002 15:40:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/431/no_child_left_unrecruited/ In another sign of the U.S. military’s increasing encroachment into civilian life, all high schools are now obligated to provide the Pentagon with the names, addresses and phone numbers of their juniors and seniors. Any school that refuses to comply with these provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act and this year’s National Defense Authorization Act stands to loose all federal funding. The U.S. military is a growing force in public education. In middle schools, students are being targeted with programs such as the Young Marines and the Navy’s Starbase-Atlantis. In high schools, the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) is spreading across the country. Currently about 500,000 students in more than 3,000 high schools participate in the program,… education government: military Fred Weir Fri, 20 Dec 2002 19:18:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/420/pee_first_ask_questions_later/ In the past decade, a veritable Kindergulag has been erected around schoolchildren, making them subject to arbitrary curfews, physical searches, psychological profiling schemes and--in the latest institutionalized indignity--random, suspicion-less, warrant-less drug testing for just about any kid who wants to pursue extracurricular interests. Last summer, the Supreme Court gave carte blanche to school districts that want to impose drug testing on kids who’ve cast suspicion upon themselves by volunteering for extracurricular activities. The 5-to-4 decision on June 27 upheld a drug-testing program in a Tecumseh County, Oklahoma, school district that requires students engaged in any “competitive” extracurricular activities to submit to random drug testing. This isn’t just about keeping jocks from enjoying a post-practice beer or joint. The decision approves… civil liberties education government: judiciary Fred Weir Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:45:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/412/rove_sweet_rove/ On a quiet Sunday afternoon in late March, more than a dozen yellow school buses crept up the street of a high-end Washington, D.C. neighborhood and parked in front of the home of Karl “Bush’s Brain” Rove, senior policy advisor to President Bush. Members of National People’s Action (NPA), a national coalition of community organizations, poured onto Rove’s lawn demanding that the White House support the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The activists surrounded Rove’s home chanting, blowing whistles and carrying posters with the message, “Rove: Don’t steal the dream!” If passed, the DREAM Act would grant in-state college tuition for children of immigrants who have graduated from high school and who have lived in the… activism education government: administration race social justice Fred Weir Thu, 22 Jul 2004 10:30:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/863/educate_all_children/ The right to a free, public education is enshrined in the constitutions of all 50 states. That right is under attack by the Bush administration and its allies. Using the club of its shamelessly misnamed No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Bush agenda punishes and sets up public schools for failure while promoting privatization schemes that funnel dollars to for-profit and religiously based programs. At stake is not just the future of public education, but the very concept of a public sector that serves the common good. If public schools—in particular, urban schools—are decimated, can any other public institution survive the conservative privatization mania? Because the Democrats share blame for the disastrous policies of NCLB, electing John Kerry will… education politics election 2004 Fred Weir Thu, 04 Nov 2004 07:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1392/cornel_west_public_intellectual/ Cornel West may be America’s best-known public intellectual. He’s a professor of religion at Princeton University, where he has taught since a very public exit from Harvard in 2002. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Democracy Matters, his most recent, which is a sequel to his 1993 Race Matters, which won the American Book Award. It’s not likely that West’s book would change the mind of anyone already committed to the reelection of President George W. Bush. But its appearance at this time provides yet another indictment of the administration’s foreign and domestic policies. West argues that American democracy is being distorted in the Bush era by three dominating dogmas: free-market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism and escalating… education politics Fred Weir Mon, 28 Mar 2005 06:59:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2038/the_dead_hand_of_disney/ It’s a strange thing when a letter from the school principal arrives on lime green and aqua stationery. Stranger still when the postmark is Burbank, California, and the return address reads “Imagineer That!” But it was real. The communique trumpeted “Disney Channel is coming to our school to help spark our creativity”—in a pre-packaged 90-minute assembly. “Imagineer That! The Creativity Adventure” is designed to “help empower students to unleash their creative powers.” It folds “an imagination skills building workshop” and a sighting of Disney Channel star Ricky Ullman into the middle-school day, and follows up with a celebratory evening “wrap party.” Full participation is guaranteed by a chance to win a family vacation to (where else?) Walt Disney World. The… corporations education Fred Weir Fri, 03 Jun 2005 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2136/the_children_crusade/ Tarsha Moore stands as tall as her 4-foot 8-inch frame will allow. Staring straight ahead, she yells out an order to a squad of peers lined up in three perfect columns next to her. Having been in the military program for six years, Tarsha has earned the rank of captain and is in charge of the 28 boys and girls in her squad. This is Lavizzo Elementary School. Tarsha is 14. The Middle School Cadet Corps (MSCC) program at the K-8 school is part of a growing trend to militarize middle schools. Students at Lavizzo are among the more than 850 Chicago students who have enlisted in one of the city's 26 MSCC programs. At Madero Middle School, the MSCC… education government: military Fred Weir Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2161/battling_big_cola/ Over the past several years, public school districts have made deals with the likes of Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola to keep their school cafeterias operating in the black and to give school principals some extra cash to pay for things like band uniforms. But as one scientific report after another reveals the growing health risks of obesity--especially among children--parents, doctors and nutrition advocates across the nation are marching on their state capitols to demand change. They've come to kick out the cola. Pepsi and Coke are not taking the challenge lying down. Using a page from Big Tobacco's playbook, Big Cola is pulling out all the stops in a desperate fight to halt state legislatures from enacting tough new nutrition standards… corporations education Fred Weir Wed, 06 Jul 2005 10:02:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2204/freedom_of_repression/ For almost five years, the Innovator newspaper at Governors State University has been absent from the suburban Chicago campus, banished by the administration's demands for prior approval of its content. After a June 20 decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Innovator may never be seen again--and many other campus newspapers may join it on the list of publications censored or eliminated for questioning the status quo. The decision in Hosty v. Carter demonstrates the threat that right-wing judges pose to freedom of expression in America. The majority opinion, written by conservative judge Frank Easterbrook and supported by other conservative justices such as Richard Posner, is a classic example of judicial activism. Easterbrook's convoluted opinion abandons well-established… education government: judiciary media Fred Weir Mon, 03 Oct 2005 06:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2336/all_for_one_none_for_all/ Portland, Ore.--On any given weekday here, the residential streets are clogged with parents driving their kids away from neighborhood schools. Harboring visions of creative and challenging academics, upwardly mobile mothers and fathers head for one of the district's 20 special focus and language immersion schools, or other schools deemed superior by virtue of test scores or socio-economic enrollment patterns. As of two years ago, hundreds of Portland kids have also left their neighborhood school under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the national education law under which schools that earn a "failing" designation must give students priority transfer to another district school. Under the district's open enrollment policy, over 35 percent of the Portland public school population now attends a school… education Fred Weir Thu, 18 May 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2619/hey_millennials_debt_becomes_you/ The children of baby boomers are the new debtor class. Buckling under a heavy weight of debt, new workers step into an economy of low-wage and contingent work, a combination that makes the basics of adulthood increasingly unattainable. "We grew up in the Regan era where everything was fake, voodoo economics, and we're not seeing the connections," says Anya Kamenetz, author of Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time to be Young. "I don't think we can continue treating people as disposable, not providing them with health care or the means to save." Educational debt is the most visible--but not the only--barrier to the well-being of the "millennial generation," roughly defined as Americans born after 1978. Every gate on… Economy Education Labor Fred Weir Wed, 21 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2688/curriculum_wars/ California State Sen. Sheila Kuehl knows the pitfalls of being young and gay firsthand. At 17, she was a television star, playing the role of Zelda Gilroy, in the weekly television sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. She was good enough that CBS filmed four episodes of a spin-off titled Zelda, only to be shelved when network executives began to suspect that their lead actress might be lesbian. She was also expelled from her sorority at UCLA after some of her sisters discovered a letter from her girlfriend. Sheila took her indignation to Harvard Law School, then into a successful law career and finally to the state house. She was the first openly gay member of the California legislature… Education LGBTQ Fred Weir Fri, 25 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2796/sds_new_and_improved/ Over the first weekend of August, more squirrels were scampering through the Quads at the University of Chicago than students or professors. But from Aug. 4 to 7, students adorned with political pins and T-shirts transformed the drab front hall of Cobb Hall into a scene reminiscent of a political rally. For the first time in 37 years, the newly re-formed Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) exchanged ideas and strategies at a national convention, one that contained both contention and hope for the modern student left. Beginning in 1960 and lasting through the next nine years, SDS pioneered the teach-in as a means to examine and protest the Vietnam War and organized an estimated 100,000 students. The sectarian downfall… education activism politics Fred Weir Mon, 09 Oct 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2848/is_diversity_enough/ The University of Illinois at Chicago, a struggling but ambitious public university in the heart of the city, celebrates its ethnically diverse student body as a great achievement. But Walter Benn Michaels, chairman of the university's English department, is unimpressed. The commitment of universities, corporations and other institutions to such diversity is "at best a distraction and at worst an essentially reactionary position," he argues in his new book, The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality. Right-wing academics and pundits have built careers taking potshots at affirmative action, multiculturalism and identity politics--pursuits that some postmodern leftists see as the heart of radical politics. Michaels criticizes diversity politics from the left. His argument represents a… books race education activism Fred Weir Mon, 27 Nov 2006 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2897/what_we_learn_when_we_learn_economics/ There's a case to be made that the single most intellectually and politically influential neighborhood in the United States is Chicago's Hyde Park. Integrated, affluent and quiet, the 1.6 square-mile enclave on the city's south side is like a tiny company town, where the company happens to be the august, gothic, eminently serious University of Chicago. Students at the U. of C. sell T-shirts that read "Where Fun Goes To Die," and the same could be said of the neighborhood, which until very recently had a bookstore-to-bar ratio of 5:2. But the university is probably best known for the school of economic thought it has produced. When the Chicago School first emerged in the '50s, its zealous support of free… Economy Education Fred Weir Mon, 25 Dec 2006 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2968/children_of_the_brand/ As I sat in the café of a Borders bookstore in Chicago huddled over my laptop and struggling to write about children and commercialism, I was interrupted by an annoying clamor of loud talk, screams and laughter. I looked over and to my horror discovered it was a group of ... kids! How dare children disrupt my ruminations on childhood! Accepting my fate, I behaved like a social researcher: I observed the scene. "Welcome to Borders Explorers," exclaimed their hostess in a voice intended for seven-year-olds. "We are excited to have you here. We have a lot of fun things planned for your stay with us." On each table stood a cardboard cutout of the "Border Explorer"--a goofy-looking cartoon character… corporations education Fred Weir Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3025/education_reform_pass_or_fail/ The Cerveny Middle School in Northwest Detroit looks like any other aging public school in a depressed urban area. The ominous brick structure is checkered with Cold War-era bomb shelter signs, the linoleum tile floors are scuffed from years of foot traffic and a busted clock rests on a hallway wall in dire need of a paint job. But one classroom on the second floor is markedly different. A Malcolm X quotation--"I never felt free until I began to read"--lines the outer wall, and Gary Paulsen's teenage classic Hatchet leans against the chalkboard alongside a biography of Che Guevara. When the bell rings, a seventh grade language arts class enters the room and begins an orderly, active and sophisticated discussion… education administration Fred Weir Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3134/gi_bill_fails_vets/ With his boyish face and soft tangle of curls, Matt Howard looks like he should have carried a fishing rod though a Norman Rockwell summer. Instead, the 26-year-old Vermonter lugged a gun through two tours in Iraq. Now, what the former Marine really wants is a college diploma. But he and other returning veterans are finding it hard to collect the college benefits they expected when they enlisted in the military. That expectation was fueled by promises from military recruiters and the soldiers' own financial commitment. All new recruits are given a one-time, use-it-or-lose-it opportunity to buy into benefits eligibility by paying $100 a month for their first year of service. Any benefits unused 10 years after they leave the… education military Fred Weir Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:35:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3218/when_college_ends_so_does_activism/ Jaime Nelson could make anyone feel lazy. Over the past four years, Nelson, an undergraduate activist at the University of Michigan, has led writing workshops with Michigan's incarcerated, organized voter registration drives to battle the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative in 2006, and united local immigrant rights and labor organizations through the Restaurant Workplace Project, a coalition that sought to expose the dangerous working conditions faced by undocumented employees of Ann Arbor's dining establishments. She did this on top of a work schedule--divorced from her political work--that would make Horatio Alger squirm. As a supervisor at the university library, Nelson checked out books five nights a week until 2 a.m. Two summers ago, she took a job as one of only… activism education Fred Weir