Is Our Children Learning (To March in Step)?

That sneaky little George.

With a soon to be kindergartener, we've been paying a little closer attention to the newsletter from the school district. With the school year about to start, the latest issue of the newsletter arrived in our mailboxes, containing the calendar for the year and other tidbits about what the different schools are doing to get ready to open. On the back of this edition, at the bottom of the page was a form to opt out of Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind act.

Section 9528? That's odd...that sounds like some sort of secret government espionage rule. What would this have to do with our president's grand plan to better our children's education?

For the answer, let's look at the title of Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act: ARMED FORCES RECRUITER ACCESS TO STUDENTS AND
STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION.

As it turns out, any school system receiving aid from the NCLBA must also provide military recruiters with access to the name, address and telephone of its secondary school students upon request. However, if you know about it, you can request that your name not be released to the recruiters.

But then again, how many people actually knew about it?

Military recruiters have already used this stealth tactic to their advantage, essentially using this provision to also threaten to cut off federal aid to
any school that doesn't provide the recruiters with their students' contact information.

While people and politicians argue over the merits of the education quality provided by this act, the Administration has managed to sneak in a new way for our armed forces to strongarm our schools into giving them potential soldiers.

Is it any wonder some people have trouble trusting this Administration?