Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, January-March 2024

In 2020, when the law was repealed that had made Selective Service registration a requirement to receive federal student financial aid, the standard form (FAFSA) used to apply for such aid was not immediately revised to reflect the change. Instead, it was promised that it would happen in stages as new versions of the FAFSA were produced.

 

COMD has confirmed that mention of the Selective Service registration requirement has now been removed from the most recent version of the FAFSA. It should be noted, however, that some states have had their own laws requiring Selective Service registration as a condition for state-funded student aid. Some of those states have repealed those laws (California did in 2021), but in states where the law is still on the books, it is unclear how they will handle Selective Service registration in their local financial aid application process.

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From Draft NOtices, October-December 2023

- Rick Jahnkow

   On August 29, 2023, the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education approved a resolution that, effectively, bans the enrollment of any student in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program without first obtaining fully informed consent from the student and a parent or legal guardian.

The impetus for proposing the resolution came from a front-page New York Times article published in December 2022, titled, "Thousands of Teens Are Being Pushed Into Military's Junior R.O.T.C." Enrollment data obtained by The Times indicated that some San Diego high schools were among those that were automatically placing students in the program.

Community groups in San Diego did further research and received confirmation that hundreds of students at one inner-city school were being automatically enrolled in JROTC. The groups contacted the school district and asked for action to end the practice. They pointed out that, according to The Times, involuntary placement in JROTC appeared to be taking place at schools "attended by a large proportion of nonwhite students and those from low-income households." They also noted that automatic JROTC enrollment at San Diego schools was in violation of section 51750 of the California Education Code, which states that "no student . . . shall be required to enroll in any course in military science and tactics."

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From Draft NOtices, October-December 2023

- Seth Kershner

  The U.S. military, spurred by a worsening recruiting crisis, is testing new programs that present unique challenges to counter-recruiters.

Recruiters haven’t had it this bad since 1973, when the all-volunteer force made its shaky transition away from the draft. In fiscal year 23, the Army is on track to come up 10,000 short of its goal of 65,000 new recruits. A defense official told the Wall Street Journal over the summer that in fifteen years of tracking the recruiting market they had never seen a situation quite so serious.

Experts cite a variety of reasons for the recruiting shortfalls. First, there appears to be declining support for the military as a career path. In recent years, the media has spotlighted stories about women military members facing sexual harassment and the difficulty veterans face in accessing health services. When asked to explain the recruiting crisis, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth recently cited parental worries about whether their children are “going to be sexually harassed or are they going to be more prone to suicidal ideations” by serving in the military.

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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:

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