Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, November-December 2000


San Diego has become a major battleground in the struggle between the military-corporate complex and civilian public education.

In what may be the worst case of political overkill in a school district election, over half a million dollars is being spent by wealthy businessmen in an effort to oust a single individual, Frances O’Neill Zimmerman, from the San Diego City School Board. The money, which is being channeled through a non-profit organization called the Partnership for Student Achievement, is paying for television ads that are clearly designed to convince the public to vote Zimmerman out of office on election day.

Zimmerman has drawn the ire of the local chamber of commerce and supporters of Superintendent Alan Bersin, in part because she does not agree with Bersin’s authoritarian way of running the district. She also has blocked a proposed land deal that would be profitable to local business interests but not necessarily the school district. Zimmerman’s election opponent, Julie Dubick, is a personal friend of Bersin and a partner in a law firm that has represented some of those business interests in one of the proposed land deals.

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From Draft NOtices, September - October 2000

November 7 election could provide an important lesson for students, parents and the general civilian community.
    

While most attention is focussed on the races for national and state offices that will be decided by voters this November, some of the most significant decisions will actually be made at a much more local level in school board elections — particularly in San Diego.

When it comes to factors determining the political and social climate of this country, the most basic factor of all is the way that young citizens are socialized into accepting or rejecting the status quo. And the most intense part of that socialization occurs in the school system, where young people learn values and lessons that will affect their attitudes and behavior far into the future.

The military knows this, which is exactly why they target our schools. The Pentagon is not just looking for a few qualified enlistees — it is pushing its way into K-12 schools on a massive scale in order to influence the political and social climate in this country. As a result, the prospects for progressive social change could be diminished for many years to come.

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From Draft NOtices, September-October 2000
    

- Molly Morgan

A decade after the official end of the Cold War, the Pentagon budget is still astonishingly bloated and Congress routinely gives it more than they ask for. Military spending takes up over half of the discretionary federal budget — $305 billion in 2001. The next largest category, education, is only $42 billion. The U.S. military not only has the most advanced weaponry with the biggest stockpiles, but outspends every other country by an enormous amount. The combined military spending of Russia, China, and the seven "states of concern" is still much less than half that of the United States. While global military spending continues to decline, the U.S.’s share continues to increase; in 1998 it was up to 36%.

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Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS

When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:

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