MISSION TO SEEK AND EMPLOY: Enlistment plan falters on front line: Schools

[Bozita]

Blue collar suburban schools seem to be the target today.

Frontpage of today's Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/news/education/military26e_20050426.htm

THE MISSION TO SEEK AND EMPLOY: Enlistment plan falters on front line: Schools


April 26, 2005


BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER



First there's the flash: an M1 tank and flight simulators, high-tech video games and climbing walls.Then there's the cash: up to $90,000 in incentives, including a signing bonus of as much as $20,000.


It's all part of the gizmos and dollars used to attract high school students into "An Army of One." But the military needs much more than one -- they need about 80,000 fresh recruits for the U.S. Army this year, almost 2,400 of them from Michigan.


And they're getting harder to find, especially for the Army and the Marine Corps, the two services that have taken the brunt of the casualties in Iraq. All together, the U.S. military is investing about $4 billion this year on recruiting the all-volunteer force -- with less than stellar results so far. The Marines missed their recruiting quota in February. The Army missed its goal in February and March and expects to miss it again in April.


To help maintain access to a steady supply of potential troops, a little known clause was slipped into the federal No Child Left Behind Act: Every high school that gets federal money -- which includes almost every public school -- must allow military recruiters the same access to students as they give college and job recruiters, sort of a No Child Left Unrecruited clause.

more...

[etherealtruth]

1. Just another way to exploit kids with the least options after school

... I'm surprised PELL grant haven't been completely eliminated so that if you come from a poor or "blue collar" family you have absolutely NO options----the military would start looking better and better...

[rodeodance]

4. Bush decreased the Pell grants last budget but some were restored

I do not the status of it with this years budget.

[MountainLaurel]

8. In a related issue:

In an article from this week's Chronicle of Higher Education, someone blames financial aid programs for raising the cost of college. A conservative: big surprise, no?

If the U.S. Congress wants to curb the growth in college prices, it should put the brakes on the financing of federal student aid, a scholar from a conservative think tank told lawmakers last week.

Speaking at a hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, Richard K. Vedder, an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor of economics at Ohio University at Athens, charged that by continually increasing the budgets of federal grant and loan programs, the government is making it easier for colleges to jack up their prices.

"Universities raise their tuition a lot because they can get away with it," Mr. Vedder stated. He urged the lawmakers to "stop the growth in the money flow."

The committee's Republican leaders had invited Mr. Vedder, author of the book Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, as they begin work once again to renew, or reauthorize, the Higher Education Act, the law that governs most federal student-aid programs.


continued:
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i34/34a02601.htm?cct

(Note: The link may not work because our institution has a subscription to CHE. But if anyone wants to read the whole thing and can't find other access, PM me and I'll e-mail it to you.)

[rodeodance]

2. schools are aware of this clause-and some have opted to send partents

a letter saying they can opt out. But the problem is-many schools are passive. It is only when parents raise a ruchus over the clause at school board meetings that parents DO something about it.

Check with your local school board as to what there actions (or inaction --) have been.

[rodeodance]

3. make this clause visible at local school board meetings.

[HockeyMom]

6. You cannot opt out if

you kid is 18. The Military waited until after my daughter had turned 18 in her Senior year before calling. We later found out that SHE could have signed a do not call.

Please let people know about this option. Tell the students that if they are turning 18 while still in HS to make sure they get the paperwork and sign it themselves.

[trogdor]

9. Sounds like a typical Army thing.

SFC Snorkel: But sir, this person has a do-not-call in place.

1LT Flap: Lemme see that....Just as I thought. Signed by the parent....student is eighteen years of age. Her birthday was last week. That means you are derelict in your duty because you haven't called her yet.

SFC Snorkel: (grunts, then squeaks his office chair)

[etherealtruth]

14. That was my experience also ...

... I think, after three years, they have finally stopped calling!

[BiggJawn]

5. Check the window. Anyone else feel a DRAFT?

"Hey, look, we got 150,000 people over there and we've only lost 1600. What are the ODDS?" evidently is NOT an effective recruiting tool.

[Mari333]

7. Where oh where are the young republicans?

hiding in their hidey holes through all this? why dont the recruiters target the young republicans on college campuses? Surely there is a plethora of young men and women amongst those who support Bush who would be more then willing to take up the cause of their beloved fuhrer....

[yodermon]

10. So, the PNAC write this letter to the pResident:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/defense-20050128.htm

The United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume. Those responsibilities are real and important. They are not going away. The United States will not and should not become less engaged in the world in the years to come. But our national security, global peace and stability, and the defense and promotion of freedom in the post-9/11 world require a larger military force than we have today. The administration has unfortunately resisted increasing our ground forces to the size needed to meet today's (and tomorrow's) missions and challenges.

So we write to ask you and your colleagues in the legislative branch to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps. While estimates vary about just how large an increase is required, and Congress will make its own determination as to size and structure, it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years.

(snip)

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution places the power and the duty to raise and support the military forces of the United States in the hands of the Congress. That is why we, the undersigned, a bipartisan group with diverse policy views, have come together to call upon you to act. You will be serving your country well if you insist on providing the military manpower we need to meet America's obligations, and to help ensure success in carrying out our foreign policy objectives in a dangerous, but also hopeful, world.

[AnneD]

11. This is no suprise to DU'ers

But when I tell this, even to educators, they are so shocked and think I am making it up.....until they start getting the phone calls from recruiters.

[earth mom]

12. This makes me SO angry!

They target kids that are from families that don't have a pot to piss in!
If the freepers want this war so badly let THEIR kids fight it!!! :grr: :grr: :grr:

[driver8]

13. "Hmmm, do I make less than min. wage getting my ass shot off...

...or do I work for minimum wage at McDonald's and stay alive?"

It is starting to get a little drafty in this country, isn't it?