Recruitment: No Child Left Behind

Ok, so call me “slow” and ask me “where have you been?” but I did not know the “No Child Left Behind Act” meant we didn’t leave any public school kid behind when we gathered our children up for military service in Iraq! I read today in the StarTribune that the “No Child Left Behind Act” requires by law that any school receiving federal funds must “cooperate with military recruitment efforts.”

What?!

If, as the article goes on to say, the school fails to “voluntarily turn over information such as students' Social Security numbers, birth dates and ethnicity” to military recruiters, an officer will visit the school to get the information flowing back on course again. "The chief enforcer,” says Board Member Judy Farmer, “is that all of the federal funds we receive could be lost." Board Member Peggy Flanagan adds, "Everyone knows military recruiters are going after students that are poor and students of color. That’s many of our students. When I talk to students, [that’s] what they're passionate about."


Of course there is the “opt-out” form. This form directs recruiters to a “no contact” stance toward any student properly completing and submitting the form, but the form must be signed by both student and parent to be counted as directive, and it must be resubmitted at the beginning of every school year. Even then, says Kirsten Kohlhase (now 18), “I filled out an opt-out form, and I still got called.” Parents are increasingly concerned, raising questions about what happens to the information after it is entered into military record systems. Faced with the threat of lost funding, school boards are of little help, complying, as they must, with the law. “No Child Left Behind” takes on new meaning for me today: Parents Beware!


technorati tags: recruitment, War, NoChildLeftBehind