Stephanie, I second your feelings about people posting disclaimers re military or KKK affiliations; strikes me as both sad and stupid (which is why I did mine with a little tongue in cheek).

Which brings me to Calvin’s comment. I don’t understand why you think my comments are irrelevant to this blog? First of all, the thread is on Starbase. That was the subject of my post. Second, the blog is about equity. Equity is all about allocation of resources to provide equitable opportunities for children regardless of their socio-economic situation. In short, it’s all about the money.

My latest postings on Starbase were meant to point out that choices are being made about how and where the feds spend our tax dollars, allegedly to support science education. I disagree with the way our money is being spent and contend that it is both ineffective as a means to accomplish the stated goal and insidious in that it targets for military recruitment the most vulnerable students.

How is that not on point?

Is my suggestion for an alternative way to support science education fanciful? Yeah, probably given the prevailing political climate. But the only way to change that prevailing climate is to subject it to scrutiny and advocate for alternatives.

Just doing my bit.

Imagine how many science labs we could install in the K-8s and how many science teachers we could hire to staff them if the Feds gave PPS $300-500K/year to support science education?

Imagine the feds issue an RFP (request for proposals) through the Dept. of Education rather than DoD for non-military agencies to provide equivalent programs in all the locations Starbase currently serves. According to the 2008 Starbase annual report they had programs in 60 locations in 34 states at a cost of almost $18 million, about $310,000 per site. And the funding would be virtually guaranteed year after year after year. (See http://www.starbasedod.com/ima.....lreprt.pdf page 5)

Think there might be some agencies that might be willing to provide such a service? Whatever happened to the whole free market thing that I keep hearing about? I’m guessing this kind of money might elicit some pretty serious interest from existing science museums, educational institutions, entrepreneurs, and non-profit agencies. In the process, our tax dollars would be supporting the creation and maintenance of a lasting infrastructure that would provide consistent, high quality opportunities for scientific and technical exploration for all kinds of kids year-round, not just for the “lucky” few poor kids who get to do it once for 5 days.

Imagine OMSI or the Aviation Museum getting a guaranteed $300K/year to provide quality science education to school children. Imagine them leveraging that money to get matching funds and expertise from Intel, Boeing, Columbia Helicopter, and other business outfits I don’t even know about. I’m thinking that could be a pretty powerful way to enhance scientific exploration. At minimum, they could cut the entrance fee to a level that would be doable for poor families.

And, oh by the way, the teachers would be in civvies.

How’s that?

The question is not whether the feds should support science education. Of course they should. The question is what are they actually trying to achieve here and what’s the best way to do it. Personally, I don’t think the current configuration of Starbase is an effective or efficient way to improve the state of science and technical education in the US, the alleged purpose of the program, and it has unfortunate ancillary impacts that I object to.

They want to get serious about really improving science education, I’ll the first to cheer.

As always, thank you for your calm voice of reason.

What I have found missing in all of the threads related to Starbase is any eyewitness testimony. So herewith I will try to provide some, with the disclaimer that I am presenting them strictly as my own observations, not the whole story (whatever that may be).

I used to work at one of the Starbase schools, back in the 1990′s. At that time, the student population at that school was approx. 2/3 black. For what it’s worth, the 5th-grade teachers at that school were appreciative of the Starbase program because it provided instruction in science that the teachers did not have the training or equipment to give at school. For what it’s worth, the students seemed to enjoy going, but then, students usually enjoy field trips anyway.

And that is how the Starbase program was treated there—as just another field trip, or series of field trips. As far as I know, no one gave out any personal information about the students to any Starbase personnel. Certainly the teachers did not (except perhaps first names on nametags, for the obvious purpose of teaching). Perhaps the principal did it without our knowledge, but I have a hard time believing that any principal would risk raising parent ire in that manner. Or maybe something has changed in the last 10 years, but I would think that principals would want to be even more careful now than then. If any of you who are still teaching know different, please respond.

I left the school district 10 years ago. So the students I knew as 5th-graders then would be in their early 20′s now. For what it’s worth, I have never heard of any of them joining any branch of the military. Of course, it is entirely possible that some did and I just never heard about it. (I did hear of some who went to college, thanks to scholarship assistance [yay!] and some who ended up in gangs and/or in jail [moan].)

To address a few of the questions in the original post:

I do recall that there was an “opt-out” for families who wished it. In practical terms, that meant that their child spent the day in a 4th-grade classroom.

The reason for holding the program at the base was that that was where the materials and equipment were. The school did not have the money to replicate the program in-house. As far as I know, they still don’t.

PPS’s “zero-tolerance policy on weapons” refers to hand weapons, not “large-scale” weapons.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” applies only to actual members of the military, not guests who are visiting the base on a school field trip. I have never heard of any student being denied access to Starbase on the basis of sexual orientation or any other discriminatory reason.

Just to reiterate: these are my observations only. I am neither a proponent nor an opponent of the Starbase program. However, I think it worthwhile to remember that the folks who run the local Starbase program are our fellow citizens of Portland, and their kids attend the same schools ours do. I keep seeing “the military” referred to as some faceless entity when it is actually made up of PEOPLE.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have numerous relatives who have been members of “the military” going back all the way to the colonial era.