WP: Schools and Military Face Off

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061800957_pf.html

When Capt. Larry Dibble wanders into Greece Olympia High School, just outside Rochester, he is greeted with smiles and handshakes. Teachers invite him into their classrooms to talk to students about joining the Marine Corps. The school provides an almost-complete list of student names and telephone numbers.

In another suburb, at Fairport High School, Dibble is barred from setting up a recruiting table. Appointments are required to talk to students, and interviews are allowed only in the guidance office. The school will release student contact details only with written parental approval.

The different receptions reflect the twin poles of a nationwide debate about military recruiting in high schools that has heated up with the war in Iraq and the increasing demand for military manpower. As pressure mounts on recruiters to meet their monthly targets, principals across the country are grappling with difficult decisions over how much access to provide the military.

A little-noticed clause in the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act requires high schools to hand over students' names, addresses and telephone numbers to military recruiters as a condition of receiving federal aid. But some school districts are challenging the military's interpretation of the law, arguing that they are obliged to protect the privacy rights of their students.

[mcctatas]

1. I'm sorry, but having interned at a high school...

I don't necessarily think this is the best place to recruit. Of course with the Bush cuts to Perkins loans and work study, average working class kids may see this as the only option to get $for college. Coincidence? I hate these evil buttwads!:rant:

[AuntiBush]

7. Really. Sure didn't take them much time. This was just enacted

weeks ago on the floor. Right w/ya. Hate the evil wads, too! The poorest kids will see it as an only option... then again maybe not - think of the low registration.

They're not buying it anymore.

[coloradodem2005]

2. Schools have been giving out students' names before NCLB.

When I was in High School, you had to fill out a form and turn it in so they WOULDN'T bother you.

[havocmom]

3. Tucson's district had to come down hard and limit Recruiters to 1 visit/wk

They were coming into classes uninvited, pulling kids out of classes and testing them during class time, double teaming kids they pulled outta class and just generally being disruptive and coercing kids.

The district decided to place the same limits on Military Recruiters as on the ones for colleges and jobs: One visit per week, stay in one spot and the kids will come to you if they want to, no pulling kids out of classes.

If parents do not want recruiters calling their kids on the sly, behind their backs THEY HAVE TO PREEMPTIVELY act. There are forms they have to sign to OPT OUT of having their kids' contact info turned over the the head hunters.

[Cha]

4. "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND"!

They want to take our kids to war and die in Iraq..evil bottom feeders.

I hope the country is really catching on to this in spite of the mswm.

[Godhumor]

5. Ah, my home town.

I'm a teacher in DC, but my mother teaches in Irondequoit--right next to Greece. She was telling me the other day that the recruiters have been reporting Greece schools to Albany for non-compliance with NCLB and are trying to get federal funding cut. The Greece superintendent told the military he would never require a school to turn over their student records.

Proud to see the fight made the Washington Post, I will have to tell my mother.

[AuntiBush]

8. Friend in CT said same thing, and in MD.

[otohara]

6. The Republican Suburbs Bars Them! Shocking

and so fucking hypocritical.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Leave no recruit behind

http://tinypic.com/658wf6

[fasttense]

10. We have a ton of Christian fundie schools around here.

I wonder if the recruiters ever visit those schools?

[HockeyMom]

11. Private/Parochial Schools

Supposedly, if the school doesn't receive federal funds, they are not required to submit names to the Military, or meet any of the other requirements under Leave No Child Behind. A private school can more or less do what they want. However, I wonder if that applies if the school is taking vouchers from the government?

I would bet they still aren't recruiting at THOSE schools.