A little off topic, but interesting:
Idea of the Week: A Military Charter School
If ever there was a sign of changing times, this is it: Oakland, CA, Mayor Jerry Brown, with the support of Gov. Gray Davis and U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, has convinced the CA Board of Education to approve and partially fund a military charter school in his city, over the opposition of Bay Area anti-military activists.
Younger folks may not know that Jerry Brown, two-term Governor of California from 1975-83, was once the darling of the cultural left, not just in California but around the country. Gray Davis was his chief of staff; indeed, his work for Brown was often cited by Republicans during the 1998 gubernatorial race as evidence that he could not really be a centrist Democrat. Diane Feinstein, of course, was Mayor of San Francisco when it still had the reputation as a sort of urban theme park for the Left.
Brown is now mayor of a city with some of the worst public schools in California, especially those serving inner-city minority kids, and he's become an avid supporter of charter schools as a way to give parents options; schools a chance to meet the real needs of specific students; and kids a chance to get into college. Big changes seemed to be called for: Fewer than 10 percent of African-American males graduating from Oakland public schools had even the course credits necessary for admission to the University of California or California State University systems.
One particular idea Brown embraced was to experiment with a military charter school that would combine top-notch college prep courses with a disciplined and mutually respectful atmosphere and some physical training. A closed military base in Oakland was available as a site, and both the California National Guard and the U.S. Department of Defense offered financial and technical support.
But Brown and military school organizers had to get permission from the Oakland School Board to open a public charter school, and that's where all hell broke loose. Some local opponents, like their counterparts in the education establishment nationwide, simply don't like public charter schools, claiming they "drain money" from "real" public schools. But much of the energy behind the drive to halt the school came from area activists who basically oppose the U.S. military in all its forms. Said Wilson Riles, Jr., Pacific Mountain Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee: "This proposal represents the continued and deepening influence of militarism and the legitimization of violence in our community. The school would be yet another way for the military to recruit more students."
The argument is interesting, to say the least. No one would be forced or pushed to go to the military charter school, and expectations are that it would be flooded with eager applicants. But hey, kids need to be protected from the "influence" of the military, and shielded from the temptation to sign up with Uncle Sam.
Rebuffed by the Oakland School Board last May, Brown went the next step up the ladder, asking for a charter for the military school from the Alameda County School Board. Protests were renewed, and again the proposal was rejected. Finally, an exasperated Brown went to the final body with the power to issue a charter, the State Board of Education, and with the support of Davis and Feinstein, won by a unanimous vote on Dec. 7.
Feinstein came out for the military charter school in August, comparing Brown's efforts in Oakland to the successful drive in Chicago over the last several years to turn around one of the worst public school systems in the country with a heavy emphasis on rigorous performance standards and intervention in failing schools. "Mayor Brown's call for a military charter school, though controversial, represents the type of boldness and experimentation that we need to improve public education," she said.
Davis' support was obviously most crucial. He appeared personally before the state board of education when the proposal came up, and he has placed state funds to support it in his budget. Himself an alumnus of a military school in North Hollywood, Davis was naturally unsympathetic to the idea that military-style education represents some sort of culture of violence. "I am proof that military school can make a positive, lasting influence in a young person's life."
For his part, Jerry Brown, whose commitment to quality education for inner-city, minority kids has led him into constant conflict with his erstwhile friends on the activist Left, is living proof that the most radically progressive ideas today are often found in the vital center.
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