corrente

Local columnists have way more punch than the nationally-syndicated folks do. Wendy Thomas in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal is terrific. And this gal from the north woods, Kim Ode, seems to have run across an item I haven't heard anywhere else.

I'm taking out a couple of lines but still skirting the edge of "fair use" under copyright law here. You really should go read the whole thing because it needs to be spread to a wider audience.

(via Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

It's not that I object to our kids being made aware that military service is an option once they graduate from high school -- they've known this ever since they played G.I. Joe.

What I object to is our schools being strong-armed to serve as vast databases to provide military recruiters with our kids' names, addresses and phone numbers, or risk losing federal funding.

And what I object to is where this new wrinkle in recruiting is found: deep within the No Child Left Behind act.

[snip]
The No Child Left Behind Act became effective in January 2002, but little was said about this amendment, given the greater controversies over testing and funding. Now, though, some folks have unearthed this provision from page 559 of the 670-page act, not to repeal it -- fat chance -- but to alert parents that there is an "opt-out" policy.

Here's what the act says: "A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address and telephone listing ... not be released without prior written parental consent." The act also says that schools "shall notify parents of the option."

[snip]
Schools already have quite enough to do without getting letters from parents asking that they delete their kids from the database. But that's how the government, which seems to get bigger and more meddlesome by the week, set it up.

Charles Kyte, the executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, said he hasn't heard much about the provision since the act was passed, but then again, that was before the war.

When the provision was discussed, "a few of us kind of raised our eyebrows a bit," he said. In the past, most schools gave access to recruiters, but the act forces all schools to comply.

"Now with everything that's transpired, all of a sudden you have a higher concern on the part of parents that the military is a more dangerous option today than it was four years ago," he said.

[snip]
Kyte said he expects the issue to heat up, especially as students grow more convinced that the draft will be revived.

[snip]
Our country deserves the best of defenders, and smart, talented men and women will always enlist. So will those who see few alternatives. But there aren't enough enlistees, which sends recruiters to their phones and into our schools. The government says the improving economy is tempting young adults into civilian jobs. Maybe. But I think it's also because the flip side of service -- the trust that our defenders will not be used unwisely -- has been betrayed.

For American soldiers in Iraq, it's become achingly clear that we sent them into harm's way without a good enough reason, and without a good enough plan. For American teenagers here, they shouldn't have to be ambushed by their own side.