From Draft NOtices, January—March 2011
New Victory over Military Recruiting in San Diego Schools
— Stephanie Jennings
Recruiting on high school campuses in San Diego underwent a paradigm shift on Nov. 30, 2010, with another victory by the Education Not Arms Coalition.
Born in 2007 out of students’ frustration over being put into JROTC classes against their will, and after constantly being told there was no room for them in college prep and AVID classes, the coalition brought together young people, their teachers, parents and community activists to challenge a practice that felt like tracking and a back-door draft for students in working-class communities.
In February of 2009 the Education Not Arms Coalition achieved its first victory by winning a 3-2 vote in the San Diego Unified School Board to eliminate weapons training in their schools. It also successfully influenced the superintendent to issue a policy that requires informed consent for students taking JROTC courses.
After this victory was celebrated, the students and other activists quickly went to work to challenge other inequities they saw playing out daily on their campuses. Military recruiters had unfettered access to students at school, often having daily contact in classrooms and the lunch quad. Recruiters sponsored assemblies and rallies and offered free gifts in exchange for personal information, which they later used to contact students at home.
At the same time students seeking college and career information rarely saw college or job recruiters on campus. When visiting the counselor’s office, they could access plenty of information on military careers but had difficulty finding college information. Combined with the lack of availability of A-G courses (the basic set of courses that are required for acceptance to California state universities), the message was painfully clear. Getting a college preparatory education was not possible for many of the students on their campuses. Instead they were being led toward the military as one of only a few viable options presented to them.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, January—March 2011
—Rodrigo de la Rosa
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) was rejected by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 21, 2010. There has been a massive student movement in favor of this legislation that would allow undocumented students the possibility of acquiring citizenship. The sad reality of this bill is that it will only benefit a few, will work regressively regarding legalizing all of our undocumented youth, and will force more than half of the undocumented youth that qualify for this act to join the military.
The newest version of the DREAM Act that was drafted in 2010 gives undocumented people two options: either to pursue higher education for two years or join the military, which requires a total obligation of eight years. The DREAM Act does not guarantee that if the higher education path is chosen the undocumented person would pay in-state resident tuition rates; nor does it allow such individuals to receive any type of federal financial aid such as federal Pell grants, forcing students to take out loans and fall into debt. It is a bill designed to guide our youth into a path of disparity and death. The current DREAM Act would restrict undocumented youth even more than earlier versions. If it were to be implemented, the individual would not be able to attain health insurance, would have to disclose his or her information to the immigration authorities, would have to wait at least two years before he or she is granted any type of legal immigrant status, and would not be allowed to sponsor family members or anyone else for U.S. citizenship.
From Draft NOtices, January—March 2011
—Rick Jahnkow
As sources of public money for public education shrink, K-12 school districts are being forced to consider budget cuts that will seriously affect classes and student services. In some places they are reducing or eliminating counselors, school nurses, teacher aides, librarians, and programs like art, music and athletics.
One program that is rarely subjected to cuts is the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), a military training/recruiting program that is currently offered in approximately 4,000 of the nation’s high schools. Even though this course is a non-academic elective that does not count toward meeting admission requirements at state colleges and universities — and schools are scrambling to provide electives that do help students meet those requirements — JROTC is usually given privileged treatment by school trustees who are politically intimidated by the pro-JROTC lobby and often deceived about the money that could be saved by cutting the program.
There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about the presence of a military-run program in public schools -- for example, the propagandistic character of the curriculum, the questionable credentials of the instructors, and the fact that JROTC brings marksmanship training into most of the schools where it exists. Public debate over these concerns, however, has never led school trustees to remove a JROTC unit. In large part, this is because of the well-organized lobby that emerges from JROTC classes themselves. There is considerable politicking by instructors, and the military structure of the program allows them to easily mobilize cadets and their families.
Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS
When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:
