Military Out
of Our Schools
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Tools for Activists
Introduction, January 2007
The military and its recruiters are present in almost every public high school in the United States. Recruiters are at schools to sell students military enlistment. They use a sales pitch that is riddled with half-truths and deceptions and individual recruiters will resort to outright lies to sign young people up.
The recruiting budget for FY2007 is over $4 billion!!
The Military Out of Our Schools Organizing kit gives you the tools to act in your local community. The dangers of military enlistment are uknown to too many people. And the extent of the military's presence in our schools is uknown to even more. In many school districts military recruiters have unlimited access to students. The military makes its sales pitch in schools via:
- Local military recruiters, who may be allowed to pull prospective recruits from scheduled classes and even have an office in the school;
- The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 and Section 9528 which forces schools to give student contact information to military recruiters or risk losing federal funding.
- Through administering the ASVAB test in schools which not only provides student contact information but also allows recruiters to see which military jobs potential recruits are eligible for.
- JROTC which, although touted as an educational program, is little more than an intensive recruiting program;
- Adventure vans that tour the country with M16 simulators and high tech video presentations;
- Career fairs;
- Classroom presentations;
- Referrals from local guidance counselors;
We believe the military's sales pitch should not go unchallenged and activists have gone to court to assert that right. Two federal court decisions have established the right for you to visit a school that allows military recruiters to talk about:
- The myths behind recruiters promises of skills training, travel and money for college;
- The real mission of the military: to fight wars;
- Moral arguments against participating in war;
- Alternatives to military enlistment.
- Activists use the Military Out of Our Schools Kit to:
- Table at career fairs;
- Leaflet in front of the military's adventure van;
- Make classroom presentations;
- Place materials in guidance counselor offices next to recruiting brochures;
- Place ads in the high school newspaper;
- Make presentations to school boards challenging the military's access to local schools.
This kit gives you the information you need to act.:
- Before You Enlist...
Outreach materials to put in a guidance counselor office, leaflet with, or table with at a career fair. Think of Before You Enlist... as the Consumer Reports of military enlistment.
- Questioning JROTC
Everything you need to know to challenge the presence of JROTC in your school.
- Strategies for Action
Discussion of the strategies you can use to get access to your local schools.
Tools for finding out when and where the Military Adventure Van will be in your community and what to do when it gets there.
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