Military strategists and government PR handlers know that a draft
swiftly turns public sentiment against war—any war. Yet it’s clear
that war with Iraq is likely to be both protracted and casualty-intensive,
making the demand for fresh American bodies especially high. But
with voluntary military enlistment so sluggish over the past two
decades, what’s a world superpower to do to fill out the ranks?
Apparently, somebody was planning ahead for just such a quandary
when Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 last
year. The cornerstone of Bush’s “groundbreaking” education reform
package turns out to be the cornerstone of the U.S. military recruitment
effort as well.
Buried within the Act’s school accountability standards, testing
requirements, and instruction protocols is a little-noticed provision
that calls for unfettered military access to student records. Part
E, Subpart 2, Section 9528 of the Act requires high schools nationwide
to release a complete record of student names, addresses, and phone
numbers to military recruiters—without prior parental consent or
even after-the-fact notification.
Even more troubling is that the requirement actually has teeth.
Compliance is directly linked to federal funding provided to school
districts under the Act. Individual schools that refuse to hand
over the contact information jeopardize funding for their entire
district.
While, ostensibly, parents can request that their child’s information
be withheld, most are unlikely to ever know they have that option.
Schools are only required to tell parents once a year that such
information could eventually be shared with the military; this notification
can be as informal as inclusion in a single PTA bulletin or other
material that parents are “likely to see.” Even then, the military
is invariably buried in a large list of groups with whom schools
share student information, such as cap-and-gown companies and class-ring
vendors.
Suppose a conscientious parent does actually notice, and chooses
to opt out of the information sharing; it still won’t be enough
to shield their kids from military recruitment propaganda. The Act
also requires that schools “shall provide military recruiters the
same access to secondary school students as is provided generally
to post-secondary education institutions or to prospective employers
of those students.”
In other words, if a school allows college scouts or job fair hiring
reps to interact with students on campus, they must allow military
recruiters to do so as well. Reaching kids early and enamoring them
with the military without parental interference is clearly the goal
of the program.
Interestingly, though, private high schools that “maintain a religious
objection to service in the Armed Forces” are exempt from the policy,
meaning children whose parents can afford a private school education—read:
white, upper class—are insulated from the recruitment drive. (Public
schools with boards that oppose the policy on similar grounds don’t
have the same flexibility to refuse.)
This new school recruitment policy will help ensure that mostly
middle and lower class kids fight this war while the sons of the
privileged get a pass. Maybe the military’s new school recruitment
motto should be “Leave No Child Behind—Except the Rich.”
