Remember the No Child Left Behind legislation? Well let's review.Here's how the official website describes it: No Child Left Behind is the historic, bipartisan education reform effort that President Bush proposed his first week in office and that Congress passed into law on January 8, 2002. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) -- the main federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school. NCLB is built on four principles: accountability for results, more choices for parents, greater local control and flexibility, and an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research.
Did you know that this legislation also requires that the participating schools must allow military recruiters into their schools or risk losing funding?! The schools are also required to give the students home telephone numbers and addresses to the military. Parents can write a letter to the school stating that they don't want their child's information given to the military and only then can it be kept private.Here's the thing. What if the parents don't know that they have that right. Studies show that in more affluent neighborhoods 90 percent of the parents write the letter. However in more rural and lower income neighborhoods only 2 percent of parents write the letter.
This past week the Washington Post singled out the small town of Martinsville, Va as the city that supplies the military with the greatest number of enlistees in proportion to it's youth population. I was born and raised in Martinsville. I have several relatives in the military. My cousin Marniquis who is like a little brother to me is in downtown Baghdad as I type this. He called me right after he signed up in tears. "I had no other option", he said quietly into the phone, "I didn't know what else to do."
The military is full of young men and women like my cousin. Kids from small towns and low income families that have been told the military is their only option. I see the "Support Our Troops" stickers on some very nice cars and I read a lot of blogs that say things like "sometimes war is necessary" and "we have to sacrifice for freedom". Those people driving those really nice cars and writing those blogs are the same ones that write the letter not allowing their child's information to be given to the military. It's the poor families who are sacrificing their lives for a war most of them don't even agree with. It's the kids in the small towns that just want to get out and see the world and are being told from an early age by these recruiters that the only way to do that is to join the military.We've been bamboozled, hoodwinked, led astray, run amuck. George Bush and other crooked politicians passed this legislation with the guise of it designed to help children who usually slip through the cracks. Instead those same kids who, if they received the help could go on to college or trade school, end up in some foreign country being shot at by some other poor and brainwashed kid.
So please save all your comments about how we should support our troops and not talk bad about the war so that their morale stays high. My family is their so I support them more than you could ever know and I don't need a yellow ribbon stuck on my car to do it. Being a realist I
also know that the kid that went to join the army to have a way out is not going to be the same person that comes back home. He'll have seen some very harsh things and perhaps participating in some acts that you nor I could ever imagine. He'll still be my favorite cousin and I'll still love and support him. But don't tell me no child is being left behind when hundreds of kids have lost their parents since this war has started. No, don't tell me no child is left behind when the rich and powerful ensure that their kids are left behind when the poor and powerless are shipped off to war. My young cousin, a child, was left behind when he stepped off of a plane into the desert and was handed a gun.
34 comments:
Very powerful.
"I had no other choice," is something I've heard time and time again (though there are many young men and women who really WANT to enlist). I know lots of young men who felt that going to college was not a possiblity and their families needed money desperately...many of them enlisted as a way out...others sold drugs.
Have you ever seen that episode of MTV's True Life about being broke. One young man in particular broke my heart. His family lived in poverty that seems unimaginable in our society. After a few brushes with the law and seeing the condition his family was in, he felt his only option was the military. Looking at his situation, I wanted the army to take him as much as he did.
When you think about it, this is most likely why blacks are overrepresented in the military in relation to the population.
well said.
i remember reading about a school in washington state that was trying to get rid of the military recruiters on campus and they were told the same thing about the "no child left behind" act. they started a petition to get rid of the recruiters, but i'm not sure how successful it was given the fact they'd probably lose federal funding in the process.
how convenient to stipulate exposure to the used car salesmen tactics taken on by military recruiters in order to be eligible for money from the government in order to improve the school. to say it's unfair doesn't even begin to touch on just how racist and classist it is.
i will be praying for the safe return of your cousin. here's to hoping that more people will educate themselves about the "no child left behind" act and will take steps to find a way to alleviate the socioeconomic inequality that has led to so many black and poor folk signing up for another man's war.
brownsoul, you correct. The reasons that black people join the army is mainly to escape what they feel are insurmountable odds at success in the civilian workforce. The same is true for a lot of rural white people. The army knows this and they recruit in a way to sell the dream to them. In fact, it is the reason I joined the military. I did my four years and got ghost as fast as possible.
Im not even gonna go there, what u mea if the parents dont know, its their responsibility to find out, and hell I'd ather have my kid in the military the left behind!
The poor kids always do the fighting, while the rich either stay home or become officers. The good thing is that the military does offer college assistance, so if they join and survive a couple of years they can go to college, earn a degree, and become yet another drone in the corporate beehive where they can spend the rest of their lives sitting in a cubicle missing the good old days when their biggest problem was people shooting at them. I myself spent four years in the U.S. Army Infantry and I came out fine, completely normal in every conceivable way.
I think you all are a little off-base with this. What's wrong with recruiters coming to high-school campuses and recruiting kids? I think that's a GOOD thing. It's another way for us to utilizie the system (GI BILL, FREE COLLEGE) to our advantage and to our benefit.
I mean being in the military isn't that bad of a thing. I'm from a military town, actually population wise the biggest military town/base in the world, Ft. Bragg(Fayetteville, NC) and I mean it's really not that bad.
The benefits are off the chain, the salary isn't BAD (isn't great but isn't bad) you can come in on the GI Bill -- serve your years and get a free education, stability, learn discipline and gain valuable training that could help you should you decided to come out.
I mean i understand what yall are saying that telling kids it's their ONLY option is wrong -- but maybe so is telling kids that without an education their nothing (not saying that you did that all).
I just think we need to understand that the military isn't a bad thing. It's positive and having a dad who served 21-years in the Army, followed by another 17 (still going) in the Military as a civilian it is a good thing.
I understand the post -- but frankly i disagree. Still good writing as always, Ddot.
I hope everybody understood the post. If a person chooses to serve after realistically weighing their options then I see nothing wrong with it.
But to start RECRUITING kids in elemantary school is wrong. Yeah yeah the military pays for school but thousands of kids receive scholarships each year to pay for all or some of their schooling. Some kids work 2 jobs to pay for it. The military pay is "ok" but in comparison to what?
Everybody should be presented with options.
DDot, I get your point too but what organization doesn't start recruiting in elementary school? Pretty much everybody does, one way or another market towards getting the next key demographic (future 18-40).
Also, I mean lets remember this is THE military -- if we want the freedoms we enjoy we have to have someone to defend them and in a sense maintain them, so I really don't see anything wrong with granting them a little more access.
Maybe its because I was raised military, but the only problem I see here is telling kids that the military is the ONLY way.
Everything else seems fine to me.
Oh and Danielle studies have shown that the poorer schools who need the funding most have just turned over all the info to the military without letting the parents know that it was even a requirement. Most people had no idea that it was even a part of the bill. Yes parents have a responsibility to their kids but every parent isn't responsible. They prey on the uninformed.
Rell yeah we all want the freedoms so why is it that the poor and powerless are the only ones fighting for it? Why aren't the Bush daughters over there looking for Osama or in Iraq fighting the insurgents? Because GWB doesn't want them to have to go through that. That's what blacks and hispanics and poor white people are for right? Nobody should be recruiting a elementary school kid to do anything. They should be learning. It's a shame and a disgrace.
rell, let's not act as though the government doesn't have a propensity for seeking out young, black, and poor men for its military. the fact that they actually had a recruiting shortage as a result of blacks not enlisting in numbers that are larger than our actual percentage of the american population gives credence to the statement.
with that in mind, having military recruiters on the campuses of schools where there are probably few if any college recruiters to enlighten the students to the fact they have a choice, gives an overpowerful amount of influence to the military in persuading those students.
in essence, it's kinda like target marketing. they know who they want and with the help of the government holding back funds, can ensure not only that they continue to have people "eligible" for the military, but also guarantees they won't see they have a choice to not join.
Bingo Nikki!! Bing-freaking o!
I disagree, but I have class at four and can't reall elaborate why for a little bit.
we'll continue this discussion...
I'm sorry Nikki and Ddot but I totally disagree as I said earlier.
The propensity for seeking young, black males often comes from the fact that, we (myself included) as young black males don't do anything, aren't upwardly mobile and end up in prison moreso, proportionally then any other race. We're targeted because often times THERE ISN'T a better solution for us.
Not to make this personal, but I can name at least 30 friends and relatives that, had they listened to a recruiter and gone in the military, they're life wouldn't be so effed up right now. But they decided they were "gonna do their own thing" and continue to waddle in mediocrity, low self-worth and pitty.
The military provides a viable, respected, decent paying, upwardly mobile position for young black males who aren't doing "ish" else with their life.
How we find a way to make it look bad and turn into another means of control is beyond me.
Agree to disagree...
i can agree to disagree but i've gotta respond to what you said first.
while i can see that there plenty of brothas not doing ish in america, most of the time that is not a reflection on their personal lack of ability to do something more than what they're doing. much of it (if not most of it) has to do with both the lack of options and the perceived lack of options afforded brothas in america.
let's look at the facts:
black folks comprise 12 percent of the american population yet we comprise 24 percent of the 12 percent of people living below below poverty level. the poverty level is defined as such: family's total income vs. family threshold (government definition of what family needs). meanwhile, the government has determined the threshold for a two person household is $11,746 FOR THE YEAR. with that in mind, i'm sure you understand the actual number of black folks who are impoverished in the real sense of the word is much larger.
so now that we've established that a disproportionate number of black folks are living hand to mouth, let's look at the number of black folks affected by poor education brought on by lack of funding:
considering the fact that school funding on the state level is determined by the taxes paid by the citizens of the area closest to the school in question, and given that those taxes are comprised of money from sales and property, it would not be inaccurate to assume that the more the citizens of a community makes in income, the more the the schools will receive. the more the citizens pay in property taxes (for property owned, based on how much the property is worth), the more funding for the schools. given the fact that there are few businesses set up in impoverished areas, thereby lessening the amount of money those schools would receive from sales taxes, and property in impoverished areas are assessed at low value, thereby meaning little money towards the school in the form of property taxes, these schools have to look to the federal government EVEN MORE SO than the average school for the funds necessary to compensate for the lack of funds they receive on the local level.
in other words, they're left to depend even moreso on the same government that benefits from their continued oppression in that the government finds the largest percentage of its soldiers from these poor neighborhoods surrounding these inadequate schools.
the lack of opportunity that is a direct result of the lack of quality education and other resources within these communities disproportionately populated by black folk is what contributes to brothas not doing 'ish', and therefore, the solution begins first with addressing the inequality that creates these lack of opportunities. if, when a brotha has all of the same opportunities afforded anyone else, and he FREELY AND WITHOUT THE BURDEN OF BEING POORLY SKILLED AND/OR EDUCATED, makes the decision to join the military, only then can your argument truly hold any weight.
just saying brothas ain't doing shit and therefore the military provides a viable option for them is to say that there are no circumstances contributing to their current status and therefore, its their own fault they don't have choices.
which just ain't true.
self-pity and low self-esteem won't be eliminated from the mindset of black folk without a comprehensive elimination of the socioeconomic inequality that creates the population of ready soldiers the government needs. until then, the military is only "the solution they're most qualified for considering their poor education and/or impoverished backgrounds." and i will never be satisfied with that.
oh yeah, and 42.9 percent of black folks are making less than $25,000 a year. disproportionate indeed.
I see all the statistics you've pointed out and everything you've said -- I just don't see the problem with an organization that gives you the opportunity to get a good education for free and pays you.
Same thing as teach for america in my mind...
i don't have a problem with them providing an opportunity. however, i do have a problem with the opportunity being provided in lieu of providing other kinds of opportunities, i.e. affordable good education, jobs that don't make a person work 80 hours a week in order to make ends meet, etc.
in other words, i'd prefer the government use its efforts more towards equalizing opportunity across the board instead of ignoring the problems that create the belief that the military is their only option.
there has to be some standards here. opportunity just for opportunity's sake doesn't solve the larger issues.
I know all about the statistics sweetie, you dont have to school me on the statistics, it doesnt change my point of view.
danielle: i wasn't trying to school you on the statistics. your brilliance makes schooling you on any level unnecessary.
brownsoul said: "When you think about it, this is most likely why blacks are overrepresented in the military in relation to the population."
I think that is part of the reason - the military is overrepresented with less affluent parts of the population. But part of it may be that the military - in general - gives a fair shake to those no matter what their skin color.
ddot - I did not misunderstand your post. If recruiters used fair tactics, I would see nothing wrong with having them in schools. Some corporations are allowed in schools to recruit. Same with colleges on certain days.
Consider this: so many recruits promised "free health care" for the rest of your life that Congress, even though they never officially made the claim, instituted a program for health care (not free, but at reduced cost) for those who were recruited between certain periods of time (for those who retired honorably).
If you look at percentage of different races, the General Officer ranks are very similar to enlisted ranks (with the exception of Pacific Islanders, I believe). Lots more Pacific Islanders make the rank!
And, ddot, I absolutely love the new facelift of the blog. Very professional-looking. Very ddot.
Nikki - I was addressing king :)
D - Check this out. Enlightenment comes with time. Looks like it is time... This article was published on 11/4/2005 in the USA today.
Black Americans make up smaller share of military
By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Long a mainstay of the military, black Americans have made up a shrinking share of enlisted troops since 2000, Pentagon statistics show.
The number of black enlisted troops has declined significantly in three military branches from 2000 through 2004 — by 15% in the Army, 23% in the Marines and 11% in the Air Force. The Navy's number fell only slightly. The overall size of all four branches has stayed roughly the same.
A major reason for the trend is a sharp drop in blacks joining the military, according to a Pentagon analysis conducted in response to questions from USA TODAY. During the four-year period, African-American recruits in all four services fell nearly a third, from 38,034 in 2000 to 26,170 in 2004.
Other factors include a rise in black college attendance and the fact that the war in Iraq is more unpopular among blacks than among whites, according to public opinion polls.
The Army has been hit hardest by the declining number of black recruits. The Army repeatedly missed its recruiting goals this year. The service expects more problems in 2006.
Curtis Gilroy, who oversees the Pentagon's active-duty military recruiting, calls the drop in black recruits partly a "good-news story." It shows many minorities now have career options outside the military.
The share of enlisted blacks in the Army fell from 29% in 2000 to 25% in 2004.
David Segal, a University of Maryland military sociologist, says the Army will have to "reduce its dependence on African-Americans" and recruit more whites and Hispanics.
The percentage of Hispanics in the Army who aren't officers grew from 9% in 2000 to 11% in 2004. Hispanics are the nation's largest minority group, but they have lower high school graduation rates than other groups. That makes it harder for them to enlist, Segal says.
Fewer than 5% of enlistees aren't high school graduates.
In a related article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-03-army-blacks-inside_x.htm
You are on point.
who is brainwashed?
lol Ddot sorry for hijacking your joint man...
You talken to me Miss P? Please do not say your talken about enlightening me, cuz we'll have problems.
It's cool Rell. I love to see the discussion. I'm just sorry I couldn't get involved the past couple of days.
Danielle you seem to have a real problem with this topic but you haven't exactly said why. I don't think anybody is trying to offend you or attack you personally. I just feel that if you tell a kid that they only have one option, regardless of what that option is, is wrong.
Nikki you're killing it right now!!
Great post, the good ones get large comments (got folks thinking). I don't see anything wrong with recruiting though, it's the draft thing that scares me!
It is unfortunate that the military preys on the less affluent folks in our society, letting them beleive that they have no other way to make something of themselves. If the military needs recruitments so bad, why focus only on the poor neighborhoods, (where one would have to think that the govt thinks less of the abilities of the people who live there)...When i see them sending the Bush twins and kids of the like into the fire, then maybe i can be supportive of the actions of our military - be it recruiting or otherwise.
NIce blog. 1st time visitor :)
Wow. Can't argue with any of that. Have you seen 'Jarhead' yet?
By the way, I was teaching English today - my class is low income, almost all black and hispanic students - and one of them asked me, "Who invented school?" (They were trying to get me distracted, and also saying, what a rip we have to be here.)
I shot back, "Rich people. Thousands of years ago rich people were the only ones who hired people to teach their kids because they understood that knowledge is power, and they wanted their kids to stay in control of things."
And they just looked at me...
you know, my cousin 'entertained thoughts' of joining the military for a while. he changed his mind. then, about six months later, war broke out.
i wish people knew it, but there's always a choice.
and um, yeah, a lot of parents don't know. there are still parents out there right now who can't read, so learning about something like that isn't going to be easy. it shouldn't be a requirement of the schools to accept military recruiters, it should be an option. such a thing has always been an option - which is why they got rid of the draft, right? the US military is already all over the TV, the internet, and the radio. kids hear about it and see it all the time. why not give them a chance while in school to learn about what they'd be fighting for before asking them to give their lives?
@ rell: there's always a better solution. while the government is shoving the military at our young black men (translated: children), why not give them equal access to those other options? provide the tools needed to educate our young people at the same level as the children of those more affluent parents who sign those letters. when all options (education, other job training, etc.) have been presented, then i could understand recruiters in high school, but never middle school or below. picking up a gun and risking one's life, or possibly taking the life of another person should never be an option given to a young child.
i won't say the military isn't a good place to be for some - some people really find that it works for them. but your statements, including:
"The propensity for seeking young, black males often comes from the fact that, we (myself included) as young black males don't do anything, aren't upwardly mobile and end up in prison moreso, proportionally then any other race."
speak more to personal choice than anything else. you make examples of lazy people you know, but this isn't (sorry, but it really isn't) representative of the potential of the majority of black people. other options need to be equally presented, and i think that's what ddot was going for here.
@ herobill: yeah, i know what you mean. and some (many) of those wealthy families are still 'in power' today. make sure you tell them that too.
I can dig it Goddess. I have a couple of uncles who retired from the military and probably feel the same way you do. If someone wants to go into the military that's cool but we have to present them with ALL of their options.
I know this is way late, but this post touches my heart. I totally agree w/ Goddess and Rell. Thank you for saying all you said. The military is a stepping stone to get where you need to be. What is wrong with giving some poor/maybe underprivileged children an opportunity? When we consider the cost of college we are all poor! I know my mom and dad couldn't stroke a check for even my HBCU tuition. That is why I joined. But now I am debt free (at least in the case of 55k from student loans. I have friends with upwards of 100k in student loan debt.), educated and well trained with job and life skills. The debt free thing put me in a good position to buy a house. I also had the option of the VA Loan to do that. The job skills gave me the good gov't job I have now. You see where the advantages come in? You see I am building my wealth and trying to make it that my kids don't have to join the military to pay for an education. But if they wanted to join, I would let them. They don't have to be career military people (as I am not) but they will learn so much. People respect my uniform even when they don't want to. I have received so many opportunities because of it. I can't imagine my life without it. While I did not find everything to be fair in the organization, that is the same in life. a lesson learned for me!
And I think the big argument in this post was that they are recruiting in underprivileged schools. So, what? Who doesn't see 15 army commercials a day on TV? (Rich people see it too). Some of them decided to join regardless of what their parents think. And who cares that they are coming into elementary schools? They are coming on career day, just like the doctors, dentist, and accountants. They can't sign up a 5 year old, so stop tripping! We are always talking about how our people are not educated about their opportunities, but here we are rejecting people who are choosing to do that. I have a co-worker that is enlisted (I'm an officer) and we joined the military at the same time. She said she didn't KNOW about the program I got into because no one told her. She is a brilliant young lady and would have made a fine officer, but because of arguments like this, she didn't have the opportunity. And that is sad.
Being in the military is an education of it's own. I learned things there about life that I could have never learned anywhere else. (You know college doesn't teach you about life and neither do the streets if you want to be "real") I also think the real big beef about this is the war. No one wants to see kids dying in the war. Well guess what their are other branches of military than the Army! I know they are the ones most prevalent in the schools, but they may allow people to think of the other services that do not have such a bad rap for their people dying in war. The bonus to that is all the services get the same benefits. Free education, job training, discipline, and a host of other life skills!
And Like you said this is recruiting, not the draft. You would much rather recruiting than the draft, right? Because the King, might be in the big sand box!
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