Peter Herlihy and Jerome Dobson, professors of Geography at Kansas University, received funding from the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), located at the Fort Leavenworth U.S. Army base in Leavenworth, Kansas, to map communally held indigenous land in the states of San Luis Potosi, and in Oaxaca, Mexico. The project, named the Bowman Expeditions or México Indígena, began mapping in 2005 in an indigenous region known as La Husteca, which is partially located in the state of San Luis Potosi, and then moved their operation to the state of Oaxaca amidst the statewide popular uprising of the Oaxacan Peoples’ Popular Assembly (APPO) in 2006. (Anchorage – March 19, 2009) – "Logic-defying, dumb-founding, short-sighted – and a slap in the face to parents, children and educators across Alaska." That's how the National Education Association of Alaska (NEA-Alaska) is describing Governor Palin's decision to reject more than $160 million of federal stimulus funds for Alaska education.
"Governor Palin has deliberately chosen to ignore the education needs of tens of thousands of children across Alaska. Her attempt to score short term gains will have long-term, dire consequences for our students and educators," said Barb Angaiak, President of NEA-Alaska. read more
At Thurgood Marshall elementary school in Olney, a K-8 school with an enrollment of about 600, more than nine out of ten students eat breakfast in school every day. Compare that to Andrew Morrison elementary just a few blocks away, a school with similar demographics -- a mostly African American and Latino population, 85 percent of which are poor enough to qualify for free and reduced price lunch -- where only about 30 percent of the students eat breakfast at school.The Colorado State Legislature's Joint Budget Committee has voted on and recommended a measure that would cut higher education funding by 50% as well as allowing institutions to have massive tuition hikes. This not only shows the state's lack of regard for higher education, but their willingness to put the burden on students rather than the schools that are mismanaging their budgets and overpaying administrators. The students that will experience the brunt of this are those attending affordable schools like Metro and the community colleges. They will be the poor, the people of color and the otherwise under-served. read more
On March 16, 2009, students and educators from public colleges all over the state converged on Sacramento to demand that California fully fund higher education and not raise tuition. Over 6,000 students, teachers, administrators, and education workers converged in Sacramento. They came to demand, "Keep the doors open," "No budget cuts," "Bail out colleges, not banks," "Fund education, not war," and "Money for schools, not prisons."
Sasha Dela, the curator and a former Core fellow, explained what inspired the free school. “I teach at universities and have found what I want to teach is not included in the programming at the universities,” she said. “I wanted a place where new things can happen, something interdisciplinary, where people can volunteer to teach a class or students can propose a class. There is a long tradition of free schools, an anarchist tradition that started in Spain. There are no charges. We may go off-site or stay at Skydive.”
Efforts from teachers, students, activists, and concerned citizens, have continued in the February struggle to save some 20 schools from phase-out, closure, and consolidation under the city's controversial "Renaissance 2010" plan. The Rochester school board meeting last evening was very, very long. The threatened change to board policy regarding release of student information to military recruiters was on the “new business” agenda. The board’s existing policy requires that parent’s written permission is required for release of information to the military. Superintendant Brizard violated board policy this year with a parent letter stating that if parents did not return the release form by February 6, their child’s information would be given to military recruiters. This new “default” mode, handing over student information to the military without parental consent, violated existing board policy.
During the public comment time more than a dozen people spoke in favor of maintaining the current policy which protects privacy – students from Students for a Democratic Society, parents, several veterans including three Iraq Veterans Against the War members, parents of soldiers, the director of the local NYCLU and members of antiwar groups presented diverse perspectives on why changing the existing policy would be harmful for students. There were only two speakers who spoke about how joining the military was good for their now-adult-children and appeared to support giving recruiters open access to student data without parental consent. There were approximately eight uniformed military recruiters present, but none of them spoke publicly. The recruiters were, however, making themselves available for media interviews outside the meeting room.
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