Arne Duncan was on the news this morning arguing for a decrease in bureaucracy in the education department and I understand that everyone one loves to hate bureaucracy.

But we have to ask ourselves what this decrease in government staff really means. Duncan has apparently been involved in a massive privatization of Chicago’s Public School system. Charter schools are publicly funded but run by private contractors. That means that, not only are taxpayers paying for building costs, teachers’ salaries and student supplies, they are also paying for a contractor to make a profit from providing education services.

As well, those making the education decisions for these students of “private” public schools are accountable to their own finances as well as the well-being of children.

No one can argue for the efficiency of government, but after the disaster that has become the privatization of the military, perhaps we should think long and hard about keeping certain essential public services in the hands of elected officials accountable to that public.

The decision to re-examine the school’s proposal has garnered some cheers from the gay community. But perhaps we should be lamenting its demise instead.

Solving problems in the education system is not like solving problems anywhere else. The causes of education related problems are numerous: too little funding, too many kids, too few teachers, the individual behavior of the students, the influence of the parents, the list goes on.

The solutions must also be numerous. Simply implementing tolerance programs aimed at bullying in general in existing schools cannot, alone, make the education environment hospitable for LGBT students. It is like fixing the economy by throwing money at a few banks (and we all know how well that works).

Improving tolerance in schools and education about sexuality issues are important, but they are not sufficient. A safe haven is needed for those children who are in intolerable, life threatening situations. They need a place to go in September where they won’t be beaten on their way to school, where they won’t be teased mercilessly once they get to school. The 33% of gay or perceived gay children who are likely to commit suicide can’t wait for slow institutional change. They need a different solution.

The gay school is not the be all and end all of the tolerance program in Chicago schools. It is one of many solutions that target the weakest and most at risk among us.

The Pride Campus could have saved lives. We should all support its continued struggle for approval.

Under mounting pressure from ministers and gay activists alike, Social Justice Solidarity High School planners had already changed the school’s name and focus to create a school that would be one of the nation’s largest to serve any students who’ve fallen victim to bullying and harassment.

The plan – pulled Tuesday night, hours before a scheduled Wednesday vote on its creation – also was a less explicitly gay version of a plan first presented to Chicago’s board of education in October by schools chief Arne Duncan.

The school’s intended start date remains fall 2010, planners said.

“The proposal has changed since the Oct. 8 public hearing, and the design team is taking an additional year to finalize the proposal,” the design team said in a statement released Tuesday night by Chicago Public Schools.

Chad Weiden, who would be Solidarity High School’s principal, did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press.

“We respect the decision of the design team, and we look forward to them resubmitting their proposal in ‘09,” the district said in a statement.

The original plan was for the Social Justice High School: Pride Campus to open in 2010 and eventually serve 600 students, about half of whom were expected to identify as gay. The newer Solidarity plan had the same timeline and enrollment goals, but a different mission.

The initial mission statement to serve “the underserved population of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning youth and their allies” was replaced by one that offers protections for students regardless of “orientation,” but doesn’t mention sexuality. Instead, the Solidarity school aimed to address “citywide concerns over violence, bullying and harassment.”

Students nationwide say sexual orientation and gender identity are two of the top three reasons behind bullying and harassment. Appearance is No. 1, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

A 2007 network survey of more than 6,200 middle and high school students found that 86 percent of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered students experienced harassment in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 60 percent felt unsafe at school.

In the same survey, 33 percent reported skipping a day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe, compared to 4.5 percent of a national sample of secondary school students.

“Harassment is the rule, not the exception, if you’re an LGBT student,” said Kevin Jennings, founder of the New York City-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Chicago’s school board had been slated to vote on the Pride Campus proposal in October, but the vote was delayed as school officials and organizers heard from ministers, gay activists and conservatives opposed to segregating gay students.

“If we’re going to have a separate high school, let’s put the bullies in the high school, not the (gay) kids,” said Rick Garcia, political director for the gay rights group Equality Illinois.

The Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus of New Life Covenant Church on Chicago’s West Side said ministers’ message to Chicago Public Schools was “don’t segregate, tolerate.”

“The gay community has fought so long to be inclusive and now you’re going to isolate them,” De Jesus said. “This is not sending the right message.”

Other conservative critics argued that gay teens aren’t the only ones being bullied and that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used to provide a one-sided education on such a controversial topic.

When I was fourteen, my younger sister, who was and still is eminently cooler than me, taught me a new word: dyke. It basically means anyone who is lame, stupid, aggressive, ugly, the list goes on.

For months I used that word as an insult at least once a day until finally my parents heard me and set both my sister and I straight: a dyke is another word for a lesbian, and people are going to think you’re homophobic if they hear you say it.

The thing is, I still hear the kids I know say that things are “gay” all the time. Many young adults too.

When I point out that it’s homophobic and offensive, not only to me, but likely to other people who overhear it, they laugh or scoff or look at me like I’m an idiot. Those that respond, say, “It doesn’t mean gay gay, just stupid.”

So imagine my cheer at learning that schools are taking on this problem directly. The Ad Council in conjunction with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network has created a series of ads that explain why using the word “gay” as an insult is, well, insulting. The best part is, they’re funny.

Getting kids to change their vocabulary, even when what they are saying could be classified as hate speech, is not easy. And they don’t respond well to authority figures telling them what to do, even in ads that a bunch of adults assume will be effective.

Still, if I’d seen these ads at 14, I would have started watching what I say a bit more.

Hopefully, it will have the same effect on at least some of the next generation.

Check out the videos (there are three of them): “That’s So Gay”

About 200 people attended the hearing, the first step in the process. It still requires approval by a Chicago Public Schools evaluation team with the final decision up to the head of the school system, Arne Duncan.

Called the Social Justice High School—Pride Campus it would offer a core curriculum preparing students for college, The Chicago Tribune reports. The earliest it could be up and running would be 2012.

Among the proponents of the school was Chad Weiden, who is openly gay and currently an assistant principal at the Social Justice High School. He would become principal of Pride Campus, the paper reports.

“[We want] to continue to provide a college-prep campus for students who are often overlooked. Gay, lesbian and transgender students are often overlooked in our district. And this is a school for all students,” Weiden told the hearing, according to The Tribune.

But Andy Thayer, of the Gay Liberation Network, voiced what he sees as the downside of the school. Thayer told the hearing it could give students a false sense of security and ill prepare them for the real world.

He also said that he was concerned that the school would allow Chicago Public School administrators to ignore their responsibility for making sure gay and lesbian students throughout the whole school system are being treated respectfully.

“My fear is that the rest of the system will be let off the hook,” Thayer said. “The notion that the Pride Campus is a silver bullet to set aside all needs of [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] youth is mistaken.”

Weiden said that if the proposal gains final approval the school would have about 600 students.

The first all-gay high school in the U.S. opened in New York City in 2003, named for slain San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk.

A 2005 study commissioned by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that gay-bashing is a major problem in the nation’s schools.

Three-quarters of students surveyed across America said that in the 2004-2005 school year they heard derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten  reported hearing “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” – meaning stupid or worthless – frequently or often.

Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their gender expression.

Nearly one-in-five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth  because of their gender expression.

The study also showed that bullying has had a negative impact on learning.

LGBT students were five times more likely to report having skipped school in the last month because of safety concerns than the general population of students.

Two students sued the school district in September 2005, claiming that groups including the Spirit Council, the Asian Culture Group and the Chess Club were allowed to publicize meetings and events, but members of Straights and Gays for Equality (SAGE) were consistently denied such requests.

The plaintiffs were two female students who were seniors at the school.  They were represented by  the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

Defendants included the current and past superintendents of the Osseo School District, the school’s principal and the district’s school board members.

The lawsuit claimed a violation of the federal Equal Access Act, which holds that public schools must extend the same privileges to all student-organized, non-curricular clubs.

Last year, a federal judge ordered the school district to recognize the club and to treat SAGE like any other student group when it came to access for meetings, avenues for communication and other rights.

The school district appealed to the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court ruling upholds the lower court ruling.

“The federal Equal Access Act makes it crystal clear that schools can’t pick and choose how they treat clubs based on which students’ views they like and which ones they don’t,” said Chuck Samuelson, Executive Director of the ACLU of Minnesota. 

“These students wanted nothing more than a place to talk about how to stop anti-gay harassment and discrimination at their school and in the community.  That’s something schools should welcome, rather than waste taxpayer money and break the law to stop.”