The Final Call

America's Education Massacre

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(FinalCall.com) - A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a weapon that can kill and or bring significant harm to a large number of humans. War is actual, intentional, and widespread armed conflict between political communities. We have seen the effects of WMD's and war in instances all around the globe, with death tolls in the millions.

'While the best schools are trimming the fat, the worst schools are cutting into the meat of the curriculum. Good textbooks, adequate teaching staff, and proficient nourishment in the cafeteria are not safe from dreaded budget cuts.'

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Nations have been fighting a “War on terror” for nearly a decade. The number of dead and injured is jaw-dropping: United States, 43,675 people; Pakistan, 30,000 people; Afghanistan, 59,024 people; Iraq, 2.5 million people, others (including coalition troops & journalists), 21,091 people. Regardless if life was lost or a serious injury was sustained, this war impacts many.

There is another war happening right on our own soil and it is affecting the lives of over 76 million people. This war is against our youth; the perpetrator is the public education system; and its weapons of mass destruction are incompetent teachers and school officials, lack of funding, and the use of psychotropic drugs. The casualties of the War on Education are dropouts and those receiving diplomas who are ill equipped to maneuver through life with much hope of success.

Former CBS anchor Dan Rathers' documentary, “A National Disgrace” released May 10 highlighted failing Detroit public schools. There have been millions of dollars stolen from the schools and a 50 percent illiteracy rate among the adults “cultivated” by the public school system. It is no surprise that such degeneration is being experienced nationwide. With the high-school dropout rate at nearly 25 percent; 40 percent amongst Blacks and Hispanics, and a literacy rate ranked 20th behind Cuba, Russia, France, and Poland, the United States public education system must come under deeper scrutiny and answer for the decline of our children's minds.

In 2009 ABC News aired “Stupid in America” by John Stossel. He observed that schools in Belgium are not government monopolies. School funding is tied to children so if a school is low performing, the parent has the right to pull their child out of the classroom and enroll them elsewhere. In America we are locking people up for trying to give their children a better education by sending their child to schools outside of their designated districts.

It is horrendous that the United States public education system, along with teachers unions, makes it nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher. Although recently disbanded, one way of dealing with incompetent teachers was to put them in “rubber rooms.” Some New York teachers were in faculty lounge-like settings away from the schools during school hours but still were paid while awaiting trial to determine their academic ability.

On average it takes between 2-5 years to fire an incompetent teacher. If an educator is not up to par, principals may send them to other schools, forcing bad teachers on someone else. Most often those teachers end up in at- risk schools in worse off neighborhoods.

Some argue funding of education is a non issue, but the poorest performing schools are synonymous with poor neighborhoods. Budget cuts have made schools lessen the number of extracurricular activities offered.

While the best schools are trimming the fat, the worst schools are cutting into the meat of the curriculum. Good textbooks, adequate teaching staff, and proficient nourishment in the cafeteria are not safe from dreaded budget cuts.

Leonard Muhammad is a public school teacher in Washington, D.C. “The money that goes towards wars shows you that the country values imperialism opposed to education,” he said, “We are going to come to a point where we will not be able to cure diseases or figure out a way to handle pollutants because we don't fund education. These children are the voice of tomorrow and instead of connecting those dots we are building prisons for every 3rd grader that fails an already biased standardized test.”

Poor schools are so crowded overwhelmed teachers often cut their classes by any means necessary. Teachers send students to special education classes, “treat” the child with psychotropic drugs, and ascribe problems to mental or learning disorders, according to Umar Abdullah Johnson, a child psychologist.

“Children as young as three-years-old are being prescribed mood stabilizers and often times it is a combination of many different drugs nicknamed a ‘kiddie cocktail.' These drugs are compared to the worst illegal drugs—cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine—all just as potent, all just as habit forming,” he continued.

Furthermore children on psychotropic drugs have a higher dropout rate because of their side effects including stroke, heart attack, tremors, diarrhea, hallucinations, delusions, brain cell death, anxiety, suicidal/homicidal tendencies, and stunted growth of the body and brain, Mr. Johnson said. Often times these children are mistakenly diagnosed by a teacher who has no authority to diagnose anyone with a mental or behavioral condition, he stressed.

Instead of holding teachers and administrators accountable for lackluster lesson plans and outdated education structures we “Blame the Brains” of these students who have too much energy for a lazy school system. We are turning our children into mindless drones. The psychotropic drug industry is booming. Just look at the commercials. You probably often self-diagnose while watching these entrancing ads, becoming more assured by the second that you have some sort of disorder as they flash symptoms across your screen.

Our children are screaming for an intervention! Parents WAKE UP! Look what they are doing to your babies. Do not allow this war mongering, money hungry government to deprive your children of a human right. Band together and demand a difference and remain consistent until the system changes. Power is in the parents, anything can be changed if they get active. There are great examples and outlines for reform like the one found in “Torchlight for America” by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

As Dan Rather said, “On tough issue after tough issue we have allowed ourselves to confuse finger pointing with problem solving and self serving distortions with a fidelity to the truth. We need to demand more from our leaders and ourselves.” If we don't I am afraid this is a war we will never have a chance of winning.

(Shaheerah Farrakhan is a Final Call Intern.)