I came across an interesting article today about how the Garfield High School (Seattle) Parent Teacher Student Association has voted to "adopt a resolution that says "public schools are not a place for military recruiters." Now mind you, under the No Child Left Behind Act, public schools are required to release the names of students to recruiters, but schools are not yet required to allow military recruiters on campus (the Supreme Court is deciding a similar issue about colleges barring military recruiters.)

So why are these parents so peeved about having military recruiters on high school campuses? Well, first, they feel the government is spending money fighting the War on Terror in Iraq that could be better spent in our public schools:

Like so many schools today, Garfield grapples with painful budget cuts, loss of teachers, and dwindling resources. The school's opposition to military recruitment seems, in part, a result of parents' growing realization that tax money spent for the Iraq war is money not spent on children's educations or other domestic needs.

"They're spending $4 billion a month in Iraq, but we have to cut our race relations class, which costs $12,500," Ms. Hagopian pointed out. "That's an important class for our kids."

Even though the author of this article, one Dean Paton, uses scary words like "painful" and "dwindling", the facts say something completely different. According to the Seattle School District's website, the General Fund budget for 2004-2005 was $443,667,649. This is an increase of 2% from 2003-2004. Similarily, the instructional budgeted increased 3% from 2003-2004 to this school year. So actually, their budget has increased as have their resources. Huh.

I'm terribly sorry that Seattle students can't take such a valuable class as "race relations", but don't blame stingy taxpayers for it. Another interesting point is that the Bush administration has consistently increased educational spending. You, like me, may not appreciate what a tax and spend Republican he is, but the facts hardly support Paton's "woe is me" rhetoric. But, why bother presenting facts when you've got an agenda to push, right? Of course, not all parents and teachers at Garfield High are looney lefties. Here's one voice of reason:

During discussion at the PTSA's meeting last week, Ted Inkley argued against the resolution because he thought it dangerous to deny free speech to organizations simply because their philosophies or intentions disagreed with the PTSA.

Mr. Inkley, an attorney whose daughter is a senior, told the crowded library he could "easily" see a resolution by some other PTA that banned Planned Parenthood representatives from campus because of their views on contraception and abortion.

Unfortunately, this voice in the wilderness was quickly drowned out by the lunatic fringe:

Steve Ludwig, whose son is a senior and whose daughter will enter as a freshman next fall, made a point shared by many in attendance: Garfield does not allow organizations that promote illegal activities to recruit students to perform those activities, nor does it allow organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation to recruit on campus.

"Planned Parenthood, as far as I know, does not advocate or perform illegal acts. The US military does," Mr. Ludwig continued. The soft-spoken carpenter said he would not object if Army representatives came to Garfield to debate their ideas on torture or aggressive war. "What I object to is their coming here to recruit students to perform those acts," he said. "It's not about free speech."

This is a "point"? No, this is rhetoric scraped from the bottom of the barrel at places like the Democratic Underground. Remember this when looney lefties try to save face by saying things like "I support the troops". That's just a bunch of B.S. Just as folks like Ward Churchill see the victims of the 9/11 attacks as little Eichmanns, these guys really do think our troops are nothing better than Earth-bound Storm Troopers raping, plundering & pillaging for our Emperor George. To them, it doesn't matter that the people of Afghanistan and Iraq have held free elections. It doesn't matter that we've spent billions and billions rebuilding their countries, not just from the War, but from the shoddy conditions that their totalitarian regimes left them in. It doesn't matter that American men and women died soley because we're fighting the most careful wars in history. It doesn't matter that our military has killed or captured thousands of terrorist assholes, who will no longer be able to harm the innocent. It doesn't matter that millions of Afghani women were freed from a repressive regime that every liberal in the world would find abhorent. Nope, the only thing that matters is that Bush is a Republican, and they are not. Let me tell you something, if I was the military I wouldn't want their kids. God only knows what they've been brought up to believe.