The practice of recruiting kids from our high schools is a shameful one. We as a country have allowed this to go on for far too long. Having a table at "career day" is one thing, having uninhibited access to classrooms is another. IT professionals, activists, lawyers, doctors and a myriad of trades do not even come close to having the face time with students that the military does. Thankfully someone with some authority in the city sees this and wants to do something about it.
From The New York Times:
Military recruiters are frequently given free reign in New York City public schools and allowed into classes in violation of the school system’s regulations, according to a report released yesterday by the Manhattan borough president and the New York Civil Liberties Union.The report, based on surveys of nearly 1,000 students at 45 high schools citywide last spring, said the city’s Department of Education exercised almost no oversight over how much access recruiters had to students at high schools.
“There were recruiters who were in the classroom not to talk to students about reading, writing and arithmetic, but to talk to them about how to get a one-way ticket to Iraq and all the benefits you will accrue by that process,” Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, said at a news conference. “This is something that must be stopped. It’s outrageous, and it gives recruiters a captive audience.”
Of course the Bushie interviewed for this article claimed ignorance, but that isn't too surprising. The report she claims she'll review shows that these recruiters disproportionately go into schools with large percentages of minorities and students from low-income families. We all know they do this, the report just confirms it. The question is....what do we do about it?
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