Money For Schools, Not War!

On November 2nd, 2005, Callie Martin of South High School, Minneapolis, gave the following speech to welcome a rally of 2000 youth who had walked out of school to protest the war and military recruitment.

I have often been told that as a youth of this country I am the future. I’m sure that I am not the only one who has heard this from family members, other adults and of course, public officials. But if we are the future, why aren’t we being treated like it?

Minnesota has spent over $4 .7 billion during the course of the war in Iraq. So many things could be done with that money to help our state.

With that money 84,988 elementary school teachers could be hired. Or 654,695 scholarships for university students could be paid for. Instead, this money is funding a war where students who can’t pay for their education end up fighting and dying.

There are more children enrolled in public school then ever before, but with budget cuts, many qualified teachers are being laid off. South High School has laid-off 30 licensed teachers in the past 3 years because they couldn’t afford them.

Nearly a third of new teachers in public schools nationwide quit within their first three years after facing low pay and overcrowded classrooms. Schools in Minnesota need $5.5 billion in repairs and modernization, but can’t afford those either.

The White House dropped the school renovation grant program and did not include repair or modernization for schools in the 2005 national budget. Since 2001, there has been no money sent from Washington to solve the problem of overcrowded classrooms.
Only 8% of students participate in after school programs because of the lack of funding. In fact, the Federal Government gave only half of the money they promised to fund those programs.

Because of the budget cuts in the public schools, many young people’s opportunities are being cut short, so students who are looking for new ways to create a successful future have turned to the military hoping to survive long enough to get an education.

Military recruiters in our schools use the lack of funding and post secondary options to recruit more soldiers for a war that is going nowhere. It is a vicious cycle: they cut the funding from the schools to pay for their war and then use the students left behind to fight it. This must stop.

We are here today, as youth of this country, to protest an unjust war, and demand that our schools receive the funding they need. We love our country! We are the future of this nation! And we demand the future be a bright and peaceful one!

Priced out of an Education State funding for higher education is at the lowest level in 25 years. Per-student spending has dropped 17% in the last three years (Boston Globe, 10/18/05). Average tuition increased by 36% in the past five years. The $361 billion wasted on four years of war could have sent 7,437,000 students to private college or 17,975,738 to public college including room and board. (The Institute for Policy Studies, 2005) NOT War! Priced out of an Education