Buffalo
Soldiers
Hutch Tech's New Program: Forcible Constcription
Allan
Uthman
“State
education law says a child can only participate in JROTC
if they’re 14 years or older, if they voluntarily want to
do it, and only if they have their parents’ permission.
It’s quite specific.”
So
says John A. Curr III, acting director of the New York Civil
Liberties Union’s western regional office. But Hutchinson
Central Technical Institute Principal David Greco sees it
differently. Hutch Tech’s entire freshman class was auto-enrolled
in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps this year,
and may have been for two previous years.
Greco
says parents were sent two letters over the summer giving
them the chance to opt out of the program. But students
who missed the opt-out deadline were out of luck—until some
angry parents and the NYCLU piped up.
In
an AP story on the controversy from October 6th,
Greco cites the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires
schools receiving federal aid to make student information
available to the military unless parents opt out as precedent:
“I took that and said, `Well if it’s good enough for the
federal government to say, that’s what my letter should
say,’ ” Greco said. Of course, providing student information
and enrolling them in JROTC are two entirely different things,
and JROTC isn’t even mentioned in NCLB.
“The
bottom line here,” says Curr, “is why do we have principals
deciding curriculum issues? Why do we have principals deciding
that they know a better way than the state education law?”
As
to the advance letters, Curr says, “Just because you sent
2 letters home does not mean you weren’t breaking the law
in the first place…They don’t have to opt out, they have
to opt in. That’s the law.”
JROTC
was instituted by Congress in 1916 to steer kids toward
military careers in preparation for World War One. Recent
years have seen the program grow, although predominantly
in poor and minority neighborhoods (Just imagine the outcry
if the freshman class at Amherst Central were to suddenly
find themselves enrolled in a military training class without
their parents’ permission).
But
that’s just one part of this story. The other half is the
financial cost to our beleaguered city’s bedraggled school
district.
There
are at least five JROTC programs currently operating in
Buffalo: three from the Army, one Air Force and one Marine
Corps, operating at Hutch Tech and other schools including
Buffalo Traditional, McKinley, and South Park. Apparently,
Hutch Tech is the only one with an opt-out system, rather
than the more traditional (and legal) opt-in variety.
But
even for those programs that don’t forcibly conscript 14-year-olds,
the costs are high. Focusing again on Hutch Tech, Curr gave
us an idea how expensive this might be:
“Once
the DoD and JROTC as a program get into a school, they have
this two instructor rule. You have to have an enlisted guy;
you have to have an officer in charge. Then, when you’re
talking about military property you have to have a property
accountability custodian. There has to be minimum facilities
requirements. So this can become quite an economic burden
to school districts…
“All
these retirees are double-dipping. They get a full military
pension—you have to be a retired military guy to get the
job. If they worked for the federal government their wages
would be offset. But if you go out and teach JROTC, you
get both.”
But
aren’t the Feds paying for it?
“None
of our claims about the budget and the money being spent
have received a counterclaim that it’s federally reimbursed.
So I can only deduce at this point that, like many other
programs we’ve seen nationwide and throughout New York state—Rochester’s
programs and Albany’s programs that once they seed the program,
those monies don’t go beyond the seeding of the program.
It’s up to the school districts to support them.”
Beyond
salaries, there is equipment to pay for: all of it paid
by the school district. “If these kids are drilling with
rifles,” Curr says, “the Buffalo school district is paying
for guns.”
Seems
like they could save a little cash for the books and learning
and stuff. Maybe they should ask the kids to bring their
guns from home. While some parents are angry that JROTC
even exists at their kids’ schools, Curr, a Gulf War combat
veteran, insists this isn’t an anti-military crusade:
“It’s
not about whether or not it’s a valid option for children
to have JROTC. It’s about whether there is compliance with
the state law, which says it should be voluntary, and after
that, the parents have to approve.”
Last
Wednesday, October 12, nine parents lined up to complain
to the school board on the issue. It was standing room only,
crowded with students. The atmosphere was emotional; talk
strayed to issues of militarism and war. After the parents
spoke, Superintendent James A. Williams, swiftly gaining
a reputation as a short-tempered speaker, launched into
a fulminating diatribe, expressing solidarity with his principal.
Then Bruce Beyer, a politically active parent who has been
involved in this controversy from the beginning, chimed
in. “Beyer made a comment to the effect of ‘even though
it’s gonna cost a lawsuit, and it’s against the law,’ ”
says Curr. In response, Williams “had the audacity to tell
the crowd, who booed him, that he didn’t care about
the law.” Later on, a school board member cautioned Curr
and Beyer not to “take too much” out of the superintendent’s
remarks.
Indeed,
the board says that next year, the program will go legit—opt-in
rather than opt-out. But what about this year? “What we’re
saying is that’s not good enough,” Curr says. “These kids
need to be discharged, Okay? They were fraudulently enlisted,
they need to be discharged. We don’t draft adults; we don’t
draft children. And they haven’t gone that far yet. We’re
taking this to the state department of education and let
there be no mistake; these kids will be disenrolled this
school year.”
At
least someone cares about the law.
