Youth & Education
I call it demanding your rights
Fri, 03/12/2010 - 14:18 — Dave CulverThe protests of March 4 were, indeed, a chance for students to plead for themselves--to plead for a decent education. Mr. Robinson calls this self-pleading; I call it standing up for your rights. He calls it crass; I call it resolute.
David Patterson, Socialist Worker
African American students at UC Berkeley protest outside the Sather Gate (Suzy Babb)
David Patterson is a librarian at Cañada College in Redwood City, Calif., who helped organize for the March 4 Day of Action to defend public education and contributed to the Socialist Worker roundtable on "Why we're protesting on March 4."
The day after the protests, right-wing commentator Peter Robinson wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal--titled "The Golden State's Me Generation"--denouncing the demonstrators for only caring about themselves. Front and center in Robinson's rant was a quote from Patterson's contribution.
Stop the racist attacks on our children
Thu, 03/11/2010 - 13:18 — Dave Culver- It’s a classic hate crime, carried out for the sole purpose of inciting racism and hate against indigenous peoples.
- The message is clear: Native people are like pests or vermin, and can be disposed of by simply calling a free service to have them “extracted.”
Valerie Taliman, Indian Country Today
Just as we think we’re making progress, another hate crime rears its ugly head.
And this time, it’s against our children.
Last week the Web site UsedWinnipeg.com ran an advertisement headlined “Native Extraction Service” with a photograph of three young Native boys. The service offered to round up and remove First Nations youth like wild animals, and “relocate them to their habitat.”
The text of the ad read:
“Have you ever had the experience of getting home to find those pesky little buggers hanging outside your home, in the back alley or on the corner??? Well fear no more, with my service I will simply do a harmless relocation. With one phone call I will arrive and net the pest, load them in the containment unit (pickup truck) and then relocate them to their habit.”
They’re talking about our children.
The sports drain on our schools
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 17:52 — Dave Culver- At a teach-in for the March 4 Day of Action to defend public educations, students talked about how sports teams siphon money away from other programs.
- College football is very taxing
- Today's American sports culture is out of bounds
Dave Zirin, SocialistWorker.org
On March 4, I was proud to take part in a student walkout at the University of Maryland in defense of public education. It was just one link in a National Day of Action that saw protests in more than 32 states across the country.
I am not a student, and haven't been since those innocent days when Monica Lewinsky mattered, but I was asked to come speak at a post-walkout teach-in about the way sports is used to attack public education. It might sound like a bizarre topic, but it's the world that students see every day.
At the University of Maryland, as tuition has been hiked and classes cut, football coach Ralph Friedgen makes a base salary of 1.75 million bucks, which would be outrageous even if the team weren't two steps past terrible. Friedgen also gets perks like a $50,000 bonus if none of his players are arrested during the course of the season.
Related:
Subsidies for Big Banks or College for Kids: WIll Senate Blow This?
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:29 — Dave Culver- Direct lending to college students (that saves $90 billion in excess subsidies to big banks and uses it to pay for college grants for poor kids and tax breaks for working families to help pay for tuition) in trouble in the Senate.
- The banks, bailed out by taxpayers, are spending millions on big-time Democratic lobbyists to kill the reform.
Robert Borosage, Campaign for America's Future
The president rightly calls it a "no brainer." Direct lending to college students that saves $90 billion in excess subsidies to big banks and uses it to pay for college grants for poor kids and tax breaks for working families to help pay for tuition. This isn't complicated. The House passed it overwhelmingly last year.
But according to the New York Times it may be in trouble in the Senate. The banks, bailed out by taxpayers, are spending millions on big-time Democratic lobbyists to kill the reform.
Teacher quit corporate job to make difference
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:43 — Mike SteigerwaldOn Sept. 12, 2001, Andre Mountain submitted his resignation and booked a flight home.
The terrorist attacks a day earlier jarred him, and he no longer wanted to sit in a cubicle of a Merrill Lynch office in New Jersey, performing the tedious task of verifying a long list of stock prices before a sale could be finalized.
The attacks reminded him how short life is, he said, and he wanted to serve the interests of the community rather than those of a corporation.
"Teaching was always nagging at me in the back of my mind," Mr. Mountain said.