Putting ideals into action
Nick LaRue's students join a challenge against hunting via
the Web

The practice started in Texas, where the owner of a for-profit game reserve came up with a plan to offer hunting over the Internet. People could log on to the Web, pay a fee, and use their computers to remotely control a gun trained on a feeding and water station set up on the reserve. A monitor allowed Web users to see any wildlife lured to the food and water; and a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse were all it took to sight the gun, pull the trigger and put the animal down.

Virtually all of the students felt cyberhunting “was really offensive and immoral” when it came up for discussion in class last fall, remembers LaRue, a member of the Albuquerque Federation of Teachers and veteran hunter who says the practice only masqueraded as sport. “The animals were robbed of their defenses. They couldn’t see or smell the person firing at them.”

Under the direction of LaRue, the students did more than steep themselves in righteous indignation. They put their convictions into action and mobilized with other students across New Mexico to help draft, lobby and ultimately win a new law that banned cyberhunting across the state.

Assisted by the Center for Wildlife Law at the University of New Mexico, the students helped draft legislation for the 2006 state legislative session. They worked in tandem with other New Mexico students, from the college to the elementary level, to get their proposal sponsored by state Sen. Michael Sanchez and placed on a short-list of priority bills for the current session by Gov. Bill Richardson.

The school project lasted more than 12 weeks. It involved more than 170 students at Madison and included activities that touched on all aspects of lawmaking: developing briefing materials, reaching out to traditional game-reserve owners and other interested groups, and writing letters to their local representatives.

Their efforts set a new milestone for the Center for Wildlife Law. The group has worked with students for more than a decade on projects to teach how to write legislation benefiting wildlife. But the push for a cyberhunting ban marked the first time one of their projects resulted in a new law.

It was a proud day for LaRue’s students when Gov. Richardson signed the bill into law­—a day that reminded him what being a social studies teacher was all about. “I want my students to be active participants in the democratic process,” he explains. “It’s about implementing change—that means you have to write legislation and you have to pass it.”

State expands Milwaukee school voucher program
Expansion termed a 'wake-up call' for voucher opponents

The law would raise the cap on the number of students who could receive private school vouchers in Milwaukee from 15,000 to 22,500 next year. A majority of Democrats opposed the cap increase, which many lawmakers fear would lead to a drain on traditional public schools in the city.

A deal was reached after language was inserted into the bill that would require private schools participating in the voucher program to administer the Iowa Basics Test or a similar standardized test. Test results must be reported to the state and also to researchers at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who are conducting a longitudinal study on the effectiveness of the program. Additionally, the bill requires schools in the voucher program to obtain accreditation by an outside group.

Also included in the compromise was new funding for the state’s class-size reduction initiative.

Andy Gussert, president of AFT-Wisconsin, stresses that education groups across the state opposed the voucher expansion. Ultimately, “you had a powerful coalition, backed by big business and out-of state interests, who were able to generate enough pressure to get it through.”

The Milwaukee voucher expansion should “serve as a wake-up call to anyone who thinks the battle over vouchers has become a back-burner issue” in the nation, he adds. “AFT-Wisconsin will continue to work with the coalition of education groups to prevent further expansion of vouchers and to hold private schools accountable” for the public funding they receive.

St. Louis educators pack evolution seminar
Meeting offers teachers practical tools to address anti-
evolution efforts

The meeting, “Evolution on the Front Lines,” sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and backed by the St. Louis Teachers and School-Related Personnel Union, was held to empower science teachers and give them tools to respond when students, parents or local officials pressure them to avoid teaching evolution or to introduce the faith-based concepts of intelligent design or creationism in the classroom.

“Our teachers are being pressured to the point that they don’t teach evolution,” says Ray Cummings, a vice president of the St. Louis local.

“It’s important for the union to be proactive, reach out to teachers and respond to their issues and concerns,” which is why the union encouraged its members to attend the half-day meeting, says Cummings.

“To have a respectable organization bring teachers together and offer them some form of support means a lot to teachers. It sends a message to educators that they are not alone,” says Cummings, who is a former biology teacher for the St. Louis Public Schools.

Concern about “legislation and policies that undermine the teaching of evolution and deprive students of the education they need to be informed and productive citizens in an increasingly technological, global community,” prompted AAAS to include the meeting as part of its annual conference.

“Teachers are  the ones on the frontlines. They are experiencing the pressure to compromise and dilute the science of evolution,” says Alan Leshner,  the chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of the journal Science. “We want them to know that the scientific community stands with them and wants to help anyway we can.”

“Evolution is a necessary part of the science curriculum; without it nothing else makes sense. It’s too important not to teach,” says Elizabeth Petersen, president of the Science Teachers of Missouri, who was in attendance.

“We want to honor where people are coming from yet be able to teach evolution from a scientific standpoint,” says Petersen, a science teacher at Ladue Middle School in St. Louis.

The impressive show of support for evolution education by AAAS and the union was an encouraging sign to Petersen. “As teachers we’re the ones in the trenches and it’s good to know that there are people who are thinking on the same wavelength and dealing with the same issues.”