No Comment

Separate and Unequal

In this era of ever-increasing segregation in U.S. schools, the question is often asked, "Is 'separate but equal' really such a bad thing?" Here's how ColorLines, an Oakland-based magazine of "Race, Culture and Action," responded in its spring issue: "It's impossible to answer that question, because separate but equal schools do not exist. Schools in this country are both separate and profoundly unequal."

What's 'Normal?'

The principal at a high school in Carrollton, TX, pulled a story from the school paper last year, citing concern about a "negative" reaction. The story was about plans to form a gay and lesbian student club. The principal admitted the story was factual and represented all sides of the story, according to a report in the December Freedom to Learn newsletter of the People for the American Way Foundation.

The club, however, was highly controversial in a community where, a year earlier, a high school choir trip to Disney World was delayed because of Disney's policy of providing benefits to gay employees' domestic partners.

"Because of the nature of the topic and because of the conservative nature of the community, I didn't want a negative reaction before we even had a club," the principal said. "This is not just one of your normal teenage clubs. I didn't want undue controversy."

¡No Habla Espanol!

Maria Cobarrubias runs a small supermarket in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, catering to a growing Hispanic community in the area. The local marshal recently fined her for having a sign in Spanish in her store -- a violation of a 1995 ordinance prohibiting signs that are less than 75% English, as determined by local authorities.

The offending sign? The store's name: Supermercado Jalisco. (If any Norcross officials are reading this, supermercado means supermarket, and Jalisco is the Mexican state where Cobarrubias was born.)

Sgt. H. Smith, the Norcross marshall, said he has also cited several Korean churches and an "Oriental beauty shop," according to a report in the Feb. 6 Washington Post.

"The 'super' is English," Smith said, "but I don't know what 'mercado' means. If an American was out there driving by, he wouldn't know what that was."

Cuba Comes Out Ahead

The quality of education is better in Cuba than in other Latin American nations, according to a recent study by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

In language and math tests administered to fourth graders through the region, Cuba outperformed the other countries, even though its per-capita Gross Domestic Product was one of the lowest.

"There is one country which is far ahead of the others," Juan Casassus, coordinator of the evaluation, said in reference to Cuba.

The survey covered Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela. Costa Rica, due to a change in government, did not get its data in on time, while the Peruvian government refused to release its figures.

Junk Drinks

Teenagers are drinking more soda than ever before, due in part to targeted advertising by the soft drink industry and the growing prevalence of soda machines in schools.

Among 13- to 18-year-olds, soda consumption is up 80% from 20 years ago. The average 12- to 19-year-old male who drinks soda consumes more than two 12-oz. cans (28.5 ounces of soda) a day, according to a study released late last year by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The study, "Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans' Health," noted that the average 12- to 19-year-old female drinks about 21 ounces of soda a day.

Health advocates are worried because of the amount of caffeine in most soda drinks, and because soda is often drunk in place of milk, which is high in protein and calcium. Insufficient calcium intake is a particular problem for adolescent girls, who develop most of their bone mass during their teenage years; insufficient bone mass contributes to osteoporosis in later life.

Schools generated an estimated $750 million in revenues for the vending machine market in 1997, according to the trade journal Vending Times. In recent years, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo., in particular, have offered million-dollar contracts to schools if they will sell their product exclusively.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is a non-profit health advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Its study is available online at www.cspinet.org/sodapop/liquid_candy.htm.

Class Privilege

Massachusetts is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to try to close the spending gap between rich and poor school districts. But, as Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara wrote in a Dec. 9 column, "In the end, the haves find ways to retain their advantage over the have-nots."

Brookline High School kicked off a $10 million fund-raising campaign in December with a $10,000-a-person cocktail party for some of its most affluent alumni. At the event, former Gov. Michael Dukakis traded quips with talk-show host Conan O'Brien (class of '81). Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" fame (class of '35) was also present.

Dukakis said Brookline's campaign presents an equity problem only if other school systems fail to follow its lead, according to McNamara.

"Every community has its proud, successful graduates," Dukakis argued. "I will be disappointed if this idea doesn't spread to other cities and towns."

With Friends Like These. . .

John Gardner, the citywide school board member in Milwaukee, recently criticized a board committee that wants to provide laptop computers for Milwaukee high school students: "I'd love to give every kid a computer. I wouldn't even dream of doing it, though, without knowing if a kid is truly enrolled in school, if they know how to use them or if there isn't some process to make sure kids aren't selling them for cocaine."

We wonder, John. Would you have made the same comment if the surburb of Whitefish Bay had made such a proposal?

Quotable Quotes

"People keep talking about the Y2K problem. For many workers in this country, it really is 1900 all over again. There's the lack of health insurance. The minimum wage is a cruel mockery of the term -- it's a third of what it was in 1950. We have bloated giant multinational corporations with CEOs making 200-500 times more than the entry-level jobs in their companies."

-- Anti-corporate activist Ralph Nader, as quoted in the January Labor Party Press of the Labor Party.

"America's biggest export is no longer the fruit of its fields or the output of its factories, but the mass-produced products of its popular culture -- movies, TV programs, music, books and computer software.. . . International sales of software and entertainment products totaled $60.2 billion in 1995, more than any other U.S. industry."

-- Paul Farhi and Megan Rosenfeld, in a Washington Post series last fall on "Exporting America."

Spring 1999