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American Teacher April 2002--Speak Out
Should schools limit military recruiters' access to students?
YES Jill Wynns: It keeps the playing field level Our school district has had a policy barring military recruiters from our high school campuses that was in place before I was elected to the board in 1992. More important, we do not provide the military with the personal information--names, addresses and phone numbers--of all members of the senior class as we once did and as the military would like us to do again. We do, however, have JROTC in our district, even though it has been controversial. We have supported this program because it represents significant opportunities for students, and that is our most basic mission--providing opportunities for all our students. I strongly support both of these policies. I believe we are providing the best possible environment in which students can both maximize their options and learn to make thoughtful decisions. We limit access to all recruiters for postsecondary institutions. We do not provide the University of California or Harvard or Stanford or City College of San Francisco or Microsoft or McDonald's with such personal information. We must not give home phone numbers to any organization. We have a responsibility not to send the message to our students that their school favors one of their possible choices for the future over others. If we do have a bias, it is that all students should continue to pursue their education beyond high school. There have been many studies that show a strong correlation between increased higher education and escalating earning capacity. In our country, opportunities to pursue higher education are directly related to socioeconomic status. Further, it is poor and minority students who are often more likely to believe that they have very limited opportunities after high school. I do not want our students to make a decision to go into the military simply because no one else has called and said, "We want you." We have also been told that military recruiters who call high school seniors are more aggressive in their recruiting than other job or college recruiters. It is likely that this is related to the economic realities faced by many urban youth today. Students should not be made to feel that military service is their only viable option. It is our job to create access to multiple options for the students in our system. Military service is a good career option for many young men and women. I do not believe that we would approve of unique and unequal access to students for the military. We must respect the individual decisions made by all students as they plan for their future. As educators, we hope to give them the tools, the support and the freedom to make thoughtful decisions. Jill Wynns is president of the San Francisco Board of Education.
NO Joseph B. Morgan: Students lose if limits are placed With the attacks of Sept. 11 and our ongoing war against terrorism, many Americans asked themselves: "What can I do to help support America?" Young people, in particular, sought to give meaning to their lives and became more interested in careers in public service. For the hundreds of thousands of high school students each year who seek a rewarding path to follow after graduation, President Bush and Congress took a giant step forward with a little-noticed provision in the new education law. Generally speaking, it requires that high schools give military recruiters the same access to students that they give to colleges or prospective employers. This new law is a "win-win" for our country. It provides students with information concerning opportunities to earn money for college, learn occupational skills and serve their country. In turn, these students will become the foundation of a talented and enthusiastic military, committed to defending our freedoms. For too long, some administrators of our high schools treated military recruiters as second-class citizens. While allowing colleges and companies to recruit on campus, these administrators relegated our military recruiters to shopping malls and fast-food restaurants. Young Americans never heard about the rewarding careers that our military offers, or about the $50,000 that recruits can earn for college. Some schools resisted requests for information about students out of privacy concerns. I understand those concerns and applaud the privacy protections that the new law includes. Some schools withheld information and barred military recruiters from on-site visits out of an anti-military bias. That's a harder posture to understand, especially when our shared need for a strong military to defend freedom at home and abroad is ever more apparent. The fact is, restrictive policies that exclude our military on high school campuses deny our high school students a wonderful array of opportunities. For some, it can be their only ticket to higher education or to high-quality vocational training. For others, it's the opportunity to train with sophisticated technologies and software. In fact, the Army provides training in more than 200 occupational specialties. In any case, military training gives young Americans the skills they need to prosper in an increasingly competitive global economy. Military training also builds workplace skills such as dependability, punctuality, efficiency and enthusiasm, which make its alumni so attractive to private employers. Without question, former members of the armed services re-enter civilian life better citizens and better employees, proud of themselves and their service to our country. The "No Child Left Behind Act" sets the right policy for high school administrators and military recruiters. We should all applaud President Bush and Congress for having the foresight to require schools to allow for military opportunities on high school campuses. Joseph B. Morgan, a retired U.S. Army colonel, is a regional director of Troops to Teachers and founder of the National Military Role Model program.
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