BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) — A little-noticed provision in a new federal education law is requiring high schools to hand over to military recruiters some key information about its juniors and seniors: name, address and phone number.
The Pentagon says the information will help it recruit young people to defend their country. But the new law disturbs parents and administrators in some liberal communities that aren’t exactly gung-ho about the armed forces.
Some say the law violates students’ privacy and creates a moral dilemma over the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.
“I find it appalling that the school is sending out letters to do the job of the military,” said Amy Lang, the parent of a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where Coke was once banned in a protest against the soda giant’s investments in apartheid South Africa. “It’s clearly an invasion of my daughter’s privacy.”
The No Child Left Behind law, signed last January, pumps billions into education but also gives military recruiters access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of students in 22,000 schools. The law also says that schools must give the military the same access to their campuses that businesses and college recruiters enjoy.
School systems that fail to comply could lose federal money. The measure also applies to private schools receiving federal funding. But Quaker schools and others that have a religious objection to military service can get out of the requirement.
Students and parents who oppose the law can keep their information from being turned over to the military, but they must sign and return an “opt-out” form.
2 comments on “Ready to be drafted?”
Yeah it’s a really annoying thing. Over the course of my senior year and the summer following it I got about a dozen pieces of mail trying to recruit me into the army, navy, marines or whatever. They also called me a couple of times. I treated it like getting a call from a telemarketer… As soon as they say who it is I say “No thank you” and hang up. It was rather obnoxious though. They also had a table set up outside of our cafeteria every day. We just talked to them so we could get the cool pens and markers they gave out for free.
That’s really sad, a publicly funded telemarketing annoyance.
That would scare me so much to have the military that aggressively recruiting people.