Reader J. R. Muller sends in this atrocious article by AP reporter(?) MaryClaire Dale on military recruiting in our high schools, touching on a little bit of everything liberal, and passing it on as fact, including:
* Military recruiting access in high schools
* The “No Child Left Behind Act”
* Targeting minority students (while only 22% of recruits are black, 30% of the army is black, because they often find “the Army a fairer and better place to live than civilian society”)
* Poor students from poor communities (There has been a perception that the American military is manned by the American underclass” but that perception is untrue.)
* Putting minority soldiers on the front line (A Myth- great article here)
* And, finally, another outrageous anti-military quote, this time from Democratic Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) (Yep, “Baghdad” Jim McDermott)
Nancy Carroll didn’t know schools were giving military recruiters her family’s contact information until a recruiter called her 17-year-old granddaughter.
That didn’t sit well with Carroll, who believes recruiters unfairly target minority students. So she joined activists across the country who are urging families to notify schools that they don’t want their children’s contact information given out.
“People of color who go into the military are put on the front line,” said the 67-year-old Carroll, who is black.
A provision of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal education funding. Parents or students 18 and over can “opt out” by submitting a written request to keep the information private.
None of the nation’s approximately 22,600 high schools has failed to comply with the military provision of No Child Left Behind, and just one is “finalizing its compliance,” Krenke said. None has lost funding.
Before No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002, about 12 percent of the nation’s schools refused to turn over student records to military recruiters, Pentagon officials said. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who sponsored the recruitment provision, called the actions of those schools “offensive.”
Now, activists are holding rallies and awareness campaigns to make sure students know they can opt out.
In Montclair, N.J., more than 80 percent of Montclair High School students have opted out since a student-led effort began last year.
“It’s a place where military recruiters are not likely to have a ton of success, anyway, partly because … a lot of parents can assist their kids with going to college,” school district spokeswoman Laura Federico said.
Rep. McDermott faults the military for enticing students with talk of patriotism, adventure and college funds, instead of giving them a realistic view of combat.
McDermott is among those in Congress trying to change the law so that students instead “opt-in” for recruitment.
“There’s nothing dishonorable with serving in the military,” said McDermott, a psychiatrist who served stateside during Vietnam. “But it ought to be done with your eyes open.”
For Representative McDermott to vote against renewing provisions in the Patriot Act, to push for an “opt-in” program for recruiters rather than the current access to our high school students, to make the job more difficult for recruiters because of his own anti-military bias when enlistments are already down, is nothing less than Anti-Military and possibly much worse!
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