Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
Victor Banuelos was surprised when military recruiters called him at home repeatedly, telling him that the "only way out of the ghetto" was to join the military. The teenager's name, address and phone number were provided courtesy of Los Angeles High School before Banuelos' graduation last June.
"I told a recruiter that I was planning to go to college. He told me that I couldn't pay for it, and that the only way out of the ghetto was through the military," recalls Banuelos, now a freshman at UC Santa Cruz. "I told him I would get financial aid or student loans. He said I wouldn't be able to pay for it and that I should go through the Army and get the GI Bill."
When the recruiters would not take no for an answer and continued calling him, the honor student began pretending that he was someone else and told them Victor was not at home.
Under Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the military is now granted access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of high school students so they can be recruited for service. Schools that fail to provide this information face a cutoff of federal dollars. The provision, buried deeply in the 1,100 pages of the federal law, overturned schools' strict privacy policies, which in the past withheld students' personal information from even college recruiters. NCLB requires schools to allow military recruiters physical access to school facilities.
Proponents say changes were necessary because before 2000, up to 15 percent of the nation's high schools did not allow recruiters on campus. Others say the law is unnecessary, since federal law already requires every male who is a U.S. resident (regardless of citizenship) to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of his 18th birthday. Failure to register could result in five years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The NCLB law gives students and their families the right to have personal information withheld from recruiters if they sign a written form. But even those who have signed these forms may find that their wishes are ignored.
"I got the form from a teacher and signed it," recalls Banuelos. "But I still got contacted. I think it's horrible to say that it's important for no child to be left behind when, in reality, you are telling them they have no options but the military. I know my family is not the richest in the world, but I found a way to pay for college."
Frances Martin, a senior at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, also signed the form to have her personal information withheld. Recruiters, however, call her cell phone on a regular basis. "I signed the paper to opt myself out and it didn't mean anything, because they still got the information," says Martin. "When I asked them how this happened, they said I fell through the cracks. And they keep calling."
Some school districts have tried to fight the law. The San Francisco Unified School District decided to provide information to recruiters only if students requested that it be provided — in writing. But the idea of having students "opt in" rather than "opt out" of providing information was nixed recently when the federal government threatened to withhold badly needed money, says Dennis Kelly, president of United Educators of San Francisco.
Groups of teachers, students, parents and community members — including the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools (CAMS) and the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) — are trying to overturn the law through protests and public awareness campaigns.
"We are trying to make parents aware of their rights [to opt out] and encourage districts to take a proactive stance in notifying parents of their rights, instead of burying the information somewhere in the parent handbook," says Andy Griggs, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and CAMS. "We feel that this law is wrong because it is an invasion of student privacy."
"The problem with NCLB is that it exploits student information in ways that are inequitable," says Rebecca Solomon, a teacher at Los Angeles High School. "While all schools must provide information, it's usually accessed in schools that military recruiters believe will be most useful — working-class communities and schools with students of color. It targets students of color who are already the most underserved, and it's just not fair."
