Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Some school leaders say military recruiters have too much access -

This one is from the National Association of School Boards. And here is another take from Salon.com. A little known section of NCLB allows army recruiters to visit high school students without parents’ permission. Parents can opt out but most are unaware of this little known fact and do not. A district in central New York allows parents to opt in, that is if they want their teenager visited they can say yes, otherwise no-go. "...This year, 71 parents signed the opt-in form, compared with 60 last year and 48 the year before. The high school has an enrollment of 1,600... " They are in trouble with the law, and they are the only district in that category.

It sets one to wondering why the all-volunteer army needs to use such tactics, which even include visiting students at home without calling and without permission. It all gets curiouser and curiouser.

3 comments:

Darren said...

I'm sure the Department of Defense itself had nothing to do with that part of Education law. Defense-friendly legislators did.

I wonder if people would scream so much if other components of the federal government--say, the FBI or the TSA or even NASA--wanted to talk to kids. No, we save special scorn for the military.

Sickens me, actually.

Anonymous said...

People want an all volunteer force and then want to sit around and mock it. Giving the names of kids to a recruiter is just a small price to pay for having such an all voluntary force.

What is your alternative? Bring back the draft?

EdWonk said...

I think that names and addresses of public school students are sacrosanct. None but school employees (on a need-to-know) basis should have them.