Military recruiters have unprecedented access to our nation's students.Spring 2003
By Harold Jordan One of the most controversial aspects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a provision (Section 9528) that requires schools to grant military recruiters access to student information and to school grounds and activities. Few students or educators were aware of this provision when the law passed, because we were focused on its testing and accountability requirements. Most school officials first learned of the military access issue when they began to receive letters from local and regional military officials in the summer of 2002. Concern and opposition is widespread, although few districts appear willing to challenge the law outright. Most activism centers on attempts to enforce another provision of the law that requires schools to provide a parent or student with the option of having student information removed from directory lists distributed to military recruiters. THE POLITICAL CONTEXTUsing the law to support military recruiting is not a new development. The Pentagon has been lobbying for such legislation at the state and federal levels for more than two decades. Today, many districts are faced with the triple whammy of having to contend with the mandates of two new federal laws as well as state law. About half of the states had already enacted laws supporting military recruitment by the time NCLB was even proposed. Under another recent federal law (National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2002, effective July 2002), a school may deny recruiters access to directory lists or to school facilities and activities only if the majority of the district's governing board votes to do so, or if such access is denied to all post-secondary institutions or prospective employers. Districts with schools deemed noncompliant could be visited by Pentagon officials, who could also request assistance from the governor and representatives from that district. NCLB contains the added sanction of the possible loss of federal funding. In testimony before Congress, recruiting officials have spoken of an "institutional bias against the military" among many high school administrators. Criticism of educators for pushing the college option is also a major concern of recruiters. In testimony before a government commission, Marine Corps Master Sergeant John Bailey stated, "Our war starts at the school. . Counselors would rather sell college." The Pentagon released information to the Senate Armed Services Committee claiming that recruiters had been barred from schools in 19,000 incidents in 1999, and that 2,000 public high schools have policies barring military recruiters. These laws are an attempt to establish a guaranteed right of access to students by military recruiters. They would accomplish this goal by removing decision-making about such matters from individual school authorities, overriding local and state anti-discrimination policies, and making the protection of student privacy subject to a political process. EQUAL ACCESS OR PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT?The situation most students face is quite different from how it is presented by recruiters.
OPTING OUT
Many education activists and youth organizations have begun campaigns to have student names removed from contact lists distributed to recruiters. School districts have been slow in providing students and parents with opt-out notices. In many cases, the notices that have been distributed do not provide enough information for parents or students to make informed choices, and they're lumped together with many other handouts about unrelated matters. Youth and civil liberties groups have developed their own forms. In New York City, Youth Activists-Youth Allies and the New York Civil Liberties Union are organizing a citywide student opt-out campaign. Education activists have also pressured schools to provide the military with no greater access than is provided to other education and job recruiters. In most cases, this would result in the military being granted less access that it generally has. Unfortunately, many school officials haven't been receptive to this argument because they fear harassment from the Pentagon and public officials. No Child Left Behind presents many challenges to school districts. Whether the Pentagon will be successful in using "education reform" for recruitment depends largely on how committed schools are to protecting the rights of students. Spring 2003 |
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