|
Work Issues:
- Alternatives to the Military
- ASVAB
- Conscientious Objection
- Equal Access for Counter recruitment
- High school JROTC
- Opt Out NCLB recruiting list
- Pentagon Database JAMRS
- Limiting Recruiter Access to Schools
- Recruiting Vans mobile exhibits
- School Board Policies and General Counter Recruitment Education
- C-R Trainings
- Research
Outreach to Specific Communities
Latino, African American, LGBTQ
Additional Information: The Committee for High-School Options and Information on
Careers, Education and Self-Improvement (C.H.O.I.C.E.S.) has been bringing veterans
and military family members along with counter-recruitment activists into DC public
schools and to community fairs since 1985. We provide a realistic view of military
enlistment, life and combat as well as options and alternatives for employment or
college funding. We do research into enlistment issues, hold training sessions for
counter-recruiters, work with national organizations, and develop community-based
campaigns against militarization of youth. Here is our current campaign flyer:
STOP THE MILITARIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS
FUND BETTER EDUCATION, COLLEGE ASSISTANCE AND JOB TRAINING
PROTECT STUDENT PRIVACY, LIMIT RECRUITER ACCESS, DROP JROTC
TO: Mayor Fenty, Vincent Reinoso, Parents, Teachers, Students in DC Public and
Charter Schools:
These issues should be among your policy PRIORITIES for our public schools:
Protect Student Privacy
The No Child Left Behind Act allows recruiters to collect contact information on
public secondary school students, but also allows students or parents to opt-out by
requesting the schools protect their privacy. No citywide policy is yet in place to
insure that parents and students in secondary schools know that they have the right
to opt out and deny military recruiter access to their private contact information.
Once contact information is released, the recruiters are very aggressive, making
dozens of calls as well as door-to-door visits with the Armed Services Vocational
Battery (ASVAB), a test that is biased against women and people of color and used to
determine their job placement in the military if they enlist. Parents and students
need to know they have the right to refuse to have their privacy violated by the
recruiters and how to make that option permanent for their entire time in secondary
school without blocking access to other information about careers and college
funding.
Limit Military Recruiter Access to Schools
The No Child Left Behind Act requires that military recruiters have "essentially the
same access as other career paths and institutions of higher learning" at publicly
funded secondary schools. In fact they have a very unequal access and are the most
visible job alternative for students in our schools. Currently, military recruiters
from all branches, reserves and National Guard have an unequal access to students
making career choices. Recruiters are present in the community and in our schools
almost daily. The Mayor should adopt a policy to allow them in, but limit their
presence to Career Days or other forums where civilian alternatives are present as
well, without open access to any school. In other words, that they really would have
"essentially the same access" as other options.
Delayed Entry Program
Over 90 percent of current enlistments come from the Delayed Entry Program that
relies on recruiting juniors and seniors before they know they have other options,
and then often illegally harassing and threatening them when they change their
minds. Military regulations are clear that DEP enlistees are not in the military or
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and that any who do not show up on their
reporting date are disenrolled, not pursued and jailed as recruiters often threaten.
Teachers, guidance counselors, students and parents need to be informed by the
schools about these rights.
End Mandatory JROTC
At least seven of the DCPS High Schools now put JROTC, a military recruitment
program, on the freshman class schedule for all students. School Board members were
notified of this when the first school set the policy, and said it was illegal
because it makes it effectively mandatory. Not only are freshmen unlikely to contest
any class placement, but also those who do are told they can only be excused if they
come from a traditional peace church, a standard that dates back to WWI, and is not
inclusive or fair. A standard policy, making JROTC fully voluntary at the least,
should be adopted.
Drop and Replace JROTC
DC schools should seriously consider canceling JROTC and de-funding the program,
which diverts critically scarce funds for education from the DC school budget to a
recruitment program. JROTC is the most expensive per student academic or
extracurricular program. The vast majority of students drop out of the program, only
5 percent complete it. There is no empirical study showing that JROTC improves
discipline, grades or dropout rates. There is no relationship between JROTC and
becoming an officer, but enrollment makes it more likely a student will enlist.
This program costs taxpayers over $2.1 million a year, when our schools cannot
afford physical plant, textbook, teachers and other critical equipment for the
students. DC schools pay half the cost of the salaries and equipment used by
instructors, who also do not have to have more than a GED to be hired to teach.
JROTC instructors do not teach anything that adds to the core curriculum or
educational excellence standards being developed by the Mayor.
During the 1990s the DCPS Board of Education and the City Council both voted to end
JROTC in the DC schools. However our schools were then under the control of an
illegally appointed "Board of Trustees" made up of military generals and officers
who ignored the democratic decision and left the programs in place. Mayor Fenty
should now drop the program and replace it with free programs like Habitat for
Humanity where students can learn teamwork discipline, real skills and help the
community.
Replace Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)
The ASVAB mentioned above is used by many schools in DC to replace more objective,
useful and unbiased aptitude and skill tests, since it is administered by military
recruiters for "free" to students, who often are told that they must take it, and
are not told that they can opt not to have the results sent to recruiters. The
Mayor should at least adopt a policy to make sure it is known to be voluntary and
that students can protect the privacy of their results (Option 8), or better yet
replace it with a more useful civilian aptitude and job skills test at a minimal
cost to the schools.
C.H.O.I.C.E.S. (Committee on High School Options on Careers, Education and Self-
Improvement)
Since 1980, DCPS has had a rule that if military recruiters come into our schools,
others must be given access to present an alternate point of view. CHOICES brings in
veterans of many wars, military family members and statistics that reveal the
reality of military life, combat and veteran survival issues, as well as the special
problems and risks faced by women and people of color in the military. CHOICES also
provides current information on alternatives for funding college, learning
marketable skills and getting help with basic job training and placement from
community agencies and other sources. We would like Mayor Fenty to expand that rule
to require and allow equal display of alternative information and alternatives in
the guidance offices and halls of the school wherever recruiters have their
materials. We would also like a policy requiring DC schools to inform us ahead of
time when they have a Career Day or Night, a senior assembly, or any visits by
military recruiters.
John Judge, 202-583-5347
CHOICES
PO Box 7147
Washington, DC 20044
|
