Oakland Teachers Oppose Attack

Reasons to Oppose the War in Iraq
Presented by the Peace and Justice Caucus of the Oakland Education Association*
For More Information Contact: Jonah Zern at 510.654.8613

Rather than continuously using its military and economic might to enforce its
version of democracy, the United States should focus on developing more
democratic and equitable way of life within its borders.

1. Money should go to our vastly under-funded schools, not to fighting a war
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 the United States federal government spent $ 776
billion dollars on its military ($437 billion in present spending, $339 billion
in past spending – War Resisters League, http://www.warresisters.org), compared to its
education system which will be given $56.5 billion by the federal government in
FY 2003 (Department of Education Fiscal Year 2003 Summary and Background
Information). No wonder why our public education system is referred to
consistently as a failure, the United States prioritizes its military well over
its education system. When asked about increasing funding to education a
newly “elected” George Bush Jr. said that pumping more gas into an engine
that’s broken will not make it run. This response clearly contradicts his
response to the September 11 bombings, where a “failed” security system meant
pumping $38 billion into “Homeland Security” and billions more into a “War with
No End”.

Federal and state under-funding of public education is offset in wealthy,
predominately white communities, where local taxes subsidize schools, and
parents directly subsidize their children’s education. However, in low-income
communities, such as Oakland, a lack of state and federal funding is deeply
felt by teachers, staff and most of all students. In New York State, the
richest school district spent $38,572/ student, 7 times what the poorest
district spent $5,423; in Texas per-student spending ranged from $3,098 to more
than 10 times as much - $42,000 (Applied Research Center: Education and Race: A
Journalist Handbook, 1998).

2. Young people of color and poor people are most likely to be killed in a war
As a result of a lack of extra-curricular opportunities given to youth of
color, Junior ROTC is a much more significant and effective presence recruiting
on high school campuses where poor and students of color are attending.
Because of a lack of economic opportunities presented to youth of color and the
increasing cost of higher education, these youth are much more likely to be
enticed by military offers to pay for college tuition and offer a salary.
While black people represent 12.8% of the United States population, they
comprise 22.4% of those enlisted (Center for Defense Information, Military
Almanac, 2000-2001)

3. The United States should put energy into building its own democracy, rather
than forcing its will upon other nations.
The United States is seen worldwide as a significant violator of human rights
and democratic process. Nations all over the world were astounded at the
blatant violation of voting rights that occurred when black voters were turned
away in mass numbers from the polls in Florida during the 2000 elections, and
nine people voted on who would be president. Corporations and wealthy control
the election process through massive donations to their candidates, and workers
are intimidated from organizing through massive anti-union campaigns and by
shipping jobs oversees. The United States currently has more prisoners per
capita than any other nation in history (over 2 million people, a majority of
them are people of color), higher than the Soviet Union under Stalin. The
United States’ population remains vastly uneducated, and it is one of the only
industrialized nations not to offer universal health care. The United States
is being boycotted by the Pan American International games for its use of the
death penalty in Texas, and remains the only developed nation to administrate
the death penalty; US and Iran are the only countries in the world that execute
juvenile offenders.

*Positions of OEA Caucuses do not necessarily represent the entire union; OEA, a 4,000 member teachers union
opposes an invasion of Iraq