Why We Say Navy Out Why we are for removing Rickover Naval Academy from the Senn Building

For those of you who were not around when the naval academy was forced into the Senn H.S. building over four years ago, here are the facts– The naval academy was placed into the Senn building over the objection of students, faculty, parents and the community. Several hundred people gathered in the Senn H.S. auditorium and later at a local church to oppose this, for one or more of the following reasons– • The decision was made undemocratically, over the objections of the people. • Forcing the new school into the Senn building would squeeze existing Senn H.S. programs.
• The military academies are training students and recruiting for illegal and unjust U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere. • The military follows a policy of discrimination against gays and lesbians. • Military academies hurt public education and deprive students of necessary resources.

A Senn Student Hits the Nail on the Head

Mohammed Hameed, a Senn High School senior, made clear what the problems are of having the naval academy inside the Senn High School building in a speech he gave this past Saturday. Mohammed spoke to an audience of over 400 teachers, students, parents, and community people at a public hearing called by CORE (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators of the Chicago Teachers Union) on the privatization and militarization of the Chicago Public Schools, and unequal treatment of various kinds of students.

Here is what Mohammed said: “I am here to talk to you about the differences that Senn students have to endure since the Rickover Naval Academy has been instituted in our building.

There are differences in science equipment. They have enough, and we don’t. For example, we have only 12 microscopes and have to share them, while the naval academy has enough for all. Our science teachers come to a point where they must have us share equipment if they want to teach us.

The textbooks aren’t the same either. We have about 20 year old editions of textbooks, and they have fairly new editions. This affects the amount of things we learn.

Physical structure is drastically different as well. At Senn, we have paint chipping off the walls and cracks in them. Some lights are not working. When we take a peek at the Navy side of the building, everything seems to be new compared to the Senn side.

I say ‘When we take a peek’ because Senn students aren’t allowed to go to the Navy side. But, the cadets are not compelled to follow the same restriction as we are.

Ever since the Navy has been imposed on Senn, the class sizes of Senn have increased significantly. We have 30-40 students in some of our classes, which really affects things and the amount we learn.

Another thing that affects me especially is the sports equipment. We have very old equipment and they don’t. I don’t mean to say they shouldn’t have all those things, but if they can have them, then so should we. We all should receive equal education, equipment, and school environment in general.”

A Senn Student Speaks about Selective Schools

Alpha A. Diallo, a senior at Senn High School, also spoke to the public hearing of CORE on Saturday. He spoke about his experience as an immigrant with the Renaissance 2010 program. This is a program that has shut down many Chicago public schools and replaced them with privatized selective schools that choose their students through testing, such as charter schools, or started military academies such as Rickover Naval Academy.

Among the things Alpha said was, “As for those charter schools, a student like me, when I first came here, I couldn’t get into those schools because they require a hard test for enrollment. And a bilingual student like me cannot pass an ESL test. So if immigrants can’t go to charter schools, and there aren’t others, how many immigrant students won’t be able to have their high school diplomas because they couldn’t speak English? Then going to the streets will be the consequence, and I think that’s more of a problem for the city.

Closing our schools for such new schools is like a man who doesn’t know his past. We have to always have better public schools. But closing schools is, for parents, the community, and teachers a way of losing their savings and starting all over. Please don’t close our schools. Make them better.”

Please read the following story– See how a former JROTC student, who joined the Army and served two tours in Iraq, and ended up with a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, experienced the Army breaking its promises and duty to him, even forcing him to return his re-enlistment bonus. Can you trust their promises when you see what happened to this former JROTC student? (“PTSD Victim Booted for ‘Misconduct,’” The Army Times, January 8, 2009, www.truthout.org/011009)

What About Obama’s Choice for Dept. of Education?

Barack Obama chose Arne Duncan to be Secretary of Education. Who is he? Duncan is someone who Mayor Daley put into place as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for seven years even though he had no college courses in education or experience in a school system before becoming an assistant for a few years to the previous CEO. Daley directed Duncan to carry out the Renaissance 2010 plan of the corporate Commercial Club of Chicago for privatizing and militarizing the schools.

When Obama picked Duncan, the media described him as a “reformer” who did wonders for Chicago schools. But, Chicago teachers, parents, and students can warn America– watch out for a program giving the public schools to corporations, relying on discredited standardized testing, and opening “charter” schools without elected Local School Councils, public accountability, teacher unions, or teacher input into school decisions.

After 7 years as CEO, Duncan has not improved public education for the 90% of Chicago students from the working class. Dozens of neighborhood schools have been replaced by schools directed in large part by private corporations or the U.S. military– paid for out of the people’s tax money.
Duncan can point to “failed schools” that he closed and programs he forced on teachers, but he can’t point to progress. Over 50% of high school students still don’t test at grade level or graduate. And one out of ten students are in military programs being trained by military personnel and often recruited into active military service.

Duncan took up the nation-wide program of the Business Roundtable, imposing a top-down method of governing, and meeting corporate needs: • Cutting Chicago Public School budgets, which means lack of current materials and other problems for all but students with high test scores, who go to selective schools with the best labs, computers, etc. There is promotion of charter schools with low paid teachers, in which only 50% need to be certified, with no check up by the State for 5 years. .• In most schools, emphasizing memorization, rote learning and test-taking, with dumbed down lesson plans that teachers must follow– all at the expense of not teaching critical thinking and preparing students to see through lies and mis-information.
• Eliminating elected local school councils and governance by parents, teachers, and communities. What can we do? (1) Let everyone know about Duncan degrading public education and using public schools to recruit youth into the military. (2) Support and improve existing public schools.
(3) Accept the invitation from CORE to join with them to oppose privatization of the public schools and, instead, use all funds to advance public education. (COREteachers.org)

Public education is a public trust. It should not be in the hands of Big Business.

For more on this issue, we urge you to read “Obama’s Betrayal of Public Education? Arne Duncan and the Corporate Model of Schooling” by Henry A. Giroux and Kenneth Saltman, 12/17/08. See www.truthout.org/121708R

This entry was posted on May 9th, 2009 and is filed under Special.