Saturday, June 25, 2005

More on NCLB And Its Military Recruiter Provision

Fox News has this story about the requirement in the No Child Left Behind Act that schools must give contact information of students to military recruiters. Here's an interesting fact that is often overlooked:

Hagopian said parents are just becoming aware of the policy, which gives recruiters the same access to high school campuses and students' phone numbers and addresses as colleges and businesses have (emphasis mine). Districts that don't comply could risk annual federal funding.

Would it be fair for parents who want to opt out to have to opt out of all recruiter contact, military and otherwise? Or should there be boxes to check, who the information can be given to and who it cannot?

I don't disagree with the law now, but wouldn't mind at all if it were changed to give parents a choice of who could contact their minor children and who could not. As I've said in a previous post, though, I don't think recruiters should be forbidden to appear at high school campuses, and neither should they be required to turn away interested students who don't have some permission slip filled out.

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