Today's David Kranz column features a crusade by Jeanne Koster of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center:
The No Child Left Behind Act specifies that military recruiters must have the same access to contact information about students at the secondary-education level as those students' other prospective employers have.
Information includes name, address and telephone number.
"That section gives recruiters unprecedented access," said Jeanne Koster, South Dakota Peace and Justice Center director in Watertown.
SDPJC web site provides us with clues that the SDPJC is an obvious far-left organization that is anti-military. Example:
Resisting War. Promoting Peace.
Witness publicly against militarism and violent non-solutions to world and national problems.
Oppose missle defense and space militarization
Have opposed proxy and actual military intervention in Latin America as a means of economic and political hegemony.
So here is their latest crusade:
Her organization wants to tell parents and students about their rights if such information is sought.
So it is implementing "Eyes Wide Open" - an effort to help schools "fulfill the complete obligation" in section 9528 of No Child Left Behind, Koster says.
She's focusing on the second provision of Section 9528, called Consent.
"Schools have to notify parents this is going on, and the parents have the right to have data for their own kids struck from the roster that is submitted to recruiters," Koster said.
Students also can exercise their right to have their names removed.
Assuming that schools have no resources to communicate the information, Eyes Wide Open teams will help them, Koster said.
"We hope, at a minimum, the teams will help schools comply with the obligation of parents' rights to opt out," she said.
I don’t have a problem with their crusade. I am a promoter of informing and empowering parents. But I do have two problems. First, David Kranz did not inform his readers that the SDPJC is a far-left anti-war activist group. Second I have a problem with the SDPJC's religious tone to their mission statement. Excerpt:
To provide credible information and resources to South Dakota faith communities.
If such was the case, why doesn’t the SDPJC apply their "Eyes Wide Open" program to the public education’s sex education curriculum? Why don’t they inform parents of the anti-religious crusade of Planned Parenthood that is being conducted in our public schools?
Again we have a far-left group saying their something they are not and the MSM is all too happy to promote their propaganda.
UPDATE: Here is more about Koster's anti-war position from the Democratic Underground.
Another Update: I have previously posted on an anti-war tie between Koster and Democrat operative Roger Andal:
The South Dakota Peace and Justice Center sponsored rallies Saturday in Sioux Falls and Rapid City as part of an international protest for peace marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
In Sioux Falls, dozens of people lined one side of a busy street, held signs and waved at passing cars.
Jeanne Koster of the Peace and Justice Center says it was part of protests held in at least 50 countries and in 250 cities across the United States. The purpose, she says, was to say 'no' to war and, in her words, "let's get busy on the peace."
Roger Andal, a Vietnam veteran who took part in the event, said the demonstrators support the troops. He says they just want them to come home -- alive.
Koster said it's the United States that needs a regime change.
I have more: Would you be surprised that I found a tie between Koster and Moveon.org?
