War in the United States during WWII was waged by citizen soldiers that represented a cross-section of our citizens taken by the draft from all social classes. During the Vietnam War this changed and those who got drafted tended to come from the lower classes, so that Black and Latino soldiers represented twice the percentage of soldiers that they groups represented in the general population, while predominantly White students were able to avoid the draft by staying in school with a II-S student deferment. It is no accident that the Vietnam War came to an end shortly after the draft lottery was brought into existence to create more equity in the draft by finally subjecting all men 18 and over -- irrespective of school status -- to being drafted.

A major theme that we have tried to address in several of our posts is the idea that virtually all public education reform in the United States adapts to the continuing existence of urban predominantly minority filled school districts that have failed for generations. In California and elsewhere, states have taken over individual schools and sometimes entire school districts, but there appears to be an irrational taboo to not even consider dismantling/reconstituting these school districts. It is the very continued existence of these districts in their present form that requires public education reform in the first place. These districts as presently constituted will keep sabotaging any real educational reform that they see as threatening their present interests.

About eight years ago when I was still teaching at relatively high achieving Palisades Charter High School, I was invited to a well funded program at UCLA, where we were asked, "What can we do in high school to improve the achievement of Black and Latino students, so that they might have greater success in post secondary education." The answer I gave at that time is still as political incorrect as it was then, because most politicians and educators refuse to accept the fact that the failure to assure appropriate physical and mental stimulation to the developing brains of Black and Latino children at the appropriate time in their development does immutable damage that cannot be subsequently rectified.