JROTC
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, aka JROTC, takes precious resources from our schools that are already strapped for cash. Sold as teaching ‘discipline’ and ‘leadership’ in youth, the military offers to pay most of the cost for the first year of the program, and about half of the cost the second year, but then the bottom drops out and the programs are funded mainly by the local school. At a time when music, art, extra-curricular activities and in some schools even physical education, are being cut due to lack of funds a JROTC program is a real burden and misuse of public funds. JROTC costs, on average, $70,000 a year to cover the salary of 2 former military officers, supplies and space for the program. The former military officers, who are usually Majors, are not certified teachers - meaning they don’t meet the basic requirement that all other teachers do - yet they teach JROTC courses and there are cases where JROTC instructors teach civics or social studies classes as well. Last year, in Buffalo, incoming freshman were auto-enrolled in JROTC to fulfill their physical education requirement, and students were not permitted to drop the class on the first day of school; at least until students contacted the ACLU to challenge it.
Are there better ways you can think of for your school to spend $70,000/year? Check out these questions from the American Friends Service Committee to help you challenge the presence of JROTC in your school.
There are many ways to teach leadership and discipline in schools, but teaching that violence and use of force is a good way to accomplish your goals in the way that the U.S. military does, is not achieving either of those objectives. Students enrolled in JROTC are significantly more likely to enter the military right out of high school (rather than enrolling in college and ROTC) and in generally more dangerous positions, like infantry, and less likely to be promoted during their service.
