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[DaffyGrl]

I don’t know that many people are aware of this (I certainly wasn’t), but the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has a proviso allowing - no, demanding - that military recruiters have access to high school students’ contact information.

Here is a portion of the text of the NCLB section (sorry, I forgot to save the link):

‘‘SEC. 9528. ARMED FORCES RECRUITER ACCESS TO STUDENTS AND STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION.
‘‘(a) POLICY.—
‘‘(1) ACCESS TO STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION.—Notwithstanding section 444(a)(5) -B- of the General Education Provisions Act and except as provided in paragraph (2), each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide, on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings.  (emphasis mine)
‘‘(2) CONSENT.—A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address, and telephone listing described in paragraph (1) not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.

Students from McDonough are as much as six times more likely than those from McLean to join the military, a disparity that is replicated elsewhere. A survey of the military's recruitment system found that the Defense Department zeroes in on schools where students are perceived to be more likely to join up, while making far less effort at schools where students are steered toward college. “I think Iraq has hurt recruiting," said Sergeant Kevin Bidwell, who commands the Army recruiting station that includes McDonough High. "People automatically think that as soon as they join up, they're going to go over there."

Bidwell said he tells prospects that such a fear is a "misperception, because objectively you don't know for sure. The Army is a million strong, and if you look at statistics over there, there's under 100,000 from all four branches." Actually, about 140,000 US troops are serving in Iraq. Common Dreams

"I think the privacy implications of this law are profound," says Jill Wynns, president of the San Francisco Board of Education. "For the federal government to ignore or discount the concerns of the privacy rights of millions of high school students is not a good thing, and it's something we should be concerned about." 
<snip>
Recruiters are up-front about their plans to use school lists to aggressively pursue students through mailings, phone calls, and personal visits -- even if parents object. "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the family is if they call their congressman," says Major Johannes Paraan, head U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York. "Or maybe if the kid died, we'll take them off our list." Mother Jones

Nearly 40 percent of the American deaths in Iraq are people of color. The disproportionate number of African Americans, American Indians and Hispanics is directly related to what the military is doing in our poorer public or reservation schools.  In addition to the NCLB recruitment mandate, ROTC and ASVAB testing are also used to persuade children that their best chances for a bright future begin with joining the military. Teaching Virtues

In these sources, recruiters claim that young, prospective enlistee’s fears of being sent to Iraq are mostly unfounded, and yet, “old” soldiers are being called back for Iraq regardless of age, physical ability, or time since last service. On 60 Minutes last night, they did a story on that subject. Some of the callbacks: A 4’ 8” tall, 55-year old woman who last served in the 60’s, a 31-year old mom with two kids under the age of 2, an undercover drug cop, and a 47-year old man who was disabled. Of these, some were commissioned officers who somehow neglected to formally resign their commission, and the military is using this and other tactics as loopholes to round up people who have completed their active and reserve service obligations!

Personally, I find these tactics sleazy, slimy and outrageous. Bush may well have stated that there will be no draft, but this is a sneaky-snaky way of getting around one, imo!

Some questions:

Since NCLB is geared toward funding schools in poor, rural, and/or minority areas, is the military unfairly targeting these groups for recruitment?

Is the release of high school students’ personal information an appropriate item to be written into federal education legislation (e.g., NCLB)? Why, or why not?

If our “volunteer” military is adequate, then why are retired soldiers being rounded up and sent to Iraq, regardless of physical capability or whether they have already completed their obligation?