Encouraging kids to protest...

I wonder if this will start happening in Canada?

World Can't Wait — an anti-Bush, anti-war group, recently staged nationwide protests. The organization coordinated rallies in Chicago, Seattle, New York, San Francisco — and Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Unified School District took things a step further. The district helpfully agreed to provide buses — that's right, buses — as well as "adult supervision" to the nearly 800 high school students who walked out of 10 high schools. District officials said they thought it best to provide adults and transportation, since, you know, the kids intended to go to the rally, anyway. "Our issue . . . was safety," said the district's chief operating officer, "and I think we fulfilled our mission, frankly."

Really? Forgive some of us for thinking that the district's mission was . . . education. And, given the less-than-superb academic performance of Los Angeles public school students, the educrats, one would have thought, would have frowned on allowing the kids to skip classes.

In the case of L.A. Unified School District third-graders, according to the 2005 standardized CAT/6 test, 76 percent scored below the national average in reading tests, as did 70 percent of seventh-graders. In math, 54 percent of third-graders tested below the national average, with 68 percent of seventh-graders also below the national norm. For language, 65 percent of third-graders scored below the national average, with 70 percent of seventh-graders failing to reach the national average.

One L.A. Unified teacher reportedly gave students class credit for attending the rally! Now, since the Los Angeles district seems so concerned about student safety, can we expect the district to ferry students to and from, say, a pro-Iraq war/pro-Bush rally? How about a no-new-taxes rally? Or an anti-Roe v. Wade rally?