A version of this is part of the Old Mole Variety Hour for 25 May 2015
Today is Memorial Day, so we're talking about memory, and the military, as well as about education and labor. All of those institutions arose in their modern disciplinary forms in the 18th century, along with the rise of capitalism. The process of disciplining bodies through the school, the army, the factory, were all parts of the process of extracting maximum surplus value from the populace. But what begins as a series of closed systems has now become an assemblage of techniques of control that interpenetrate and overlap. Take, for instance, education and the military.
Our current education budget is only about two percent of the federal budget, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about a tenth of what we spend on the military. And of course that education money often goes to testing rather than repairs. Because if we spent money getting students out of poverty, what would happen to the poverty draft?
Last year, Sylvia McGauley, who teaches at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, published an essay in Rethinking Schools magazine titled "The Military Invasion of My High School: The role of JROTC." The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires all schools receiving federal funds to allow military recruiters on campus. Reynolds School District, "a high-poverty, culturally diverse district with two of the poorest elementary schools in the state" of Oregon, is "perfect prey for military recruiters who win points for filling the coffers of the poverty draft."
McGauley describes how many of her students are "enamored with the military’s alluring promises of a magic carpet ride away from poverty and uncertainty." And many people think, “Well, the military is a good option—or perhaps the only option—for many kids.” But McGauley points out that "The potent presence of the military at Reynolds High School shines a floodlight on educational inequity. One sees college recruiters walking the halls of affluent Lincoln High School near downtown Portland. At Reynolds High, college recruiters are few and far between, but military recruiters, Junior ROTC commanders, and ... Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery testers clamor to establish daily contact with potential recruits."
The National Defense Act of 1916 established JROTC to increase the U.S. Army’s readiness in the face of World War I. The ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 directed the secretaries of each military branch to establish and maintain JROTC units for their respective branches. In the 1990s, the programs began expanding rapidly throughout the country. Today, there are approximately 3,500 Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard JROTC units in schools in the United States and its territories. [In 2013,] Congress instructed the secretary of defense to expand further and to report on “efforts to increase distribution of units in educationally and economically deprived areas.”
As McGauley points out, "JROTC is not about education. But by housing recruiters and JROTC in public schools and offering them carte blanche privileges, [schools] provide them a cloak of legitimacy. Militarism was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “giant triplets” of societal destruction (along with racism and extreme materialism), yet today it appears as a legitimate component of the educational system—most often at underfunded schools."
At Reynolds, JROTC "is an actual school within a school, one that offers four levels of classes for which students earn full credits. It meets state requirements for career training," can substitute for other physical education classes, offers credit for writing and study skills classes, and is hoping to expand its array of credit offerings.
"JROTC instructors are not certified in the same way as other school district teachers. In some states they are not required to have more than a GED . . . Generally, the military decides who is qualified to be a JROTC instructor and then presents them to the school district for hiring.....There is no required teacher training...."
At Reynolds, "student loads for most non-JROTC teachers hover between 180 and 220 students (more than twice the load of the JROTC instructors)" who have student loads of 70 to 90.
"In general, the federal subsidy covers less than half the total salaries and none of the employment taxes or benefits for JROTC instructors. Schools wind up using extra money from their budgets to, in effect, subsidize a high school military training/recruiting program for the Pentagon."
And what do they teach in these courses? As you might imagine, it's not good. McGauley provides several examples, as does the organization Code Pink on their web page devoted to Military recruiting, where you can also download a copy of some of the materials the JROTC use in schools.
As McGauley points out, "The sole mission of the U.S. military is to prepare for and fight wars. JROTC in middle and high schools, ROTC in colleges, the [Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery] ASVAB test, military partnerships with schools, research and development programs—all are designed as tools for fulfilling this goal." As In These Times recently reported, there are even programs in some middle schools.
And as McGauley notes,
Military recruiters and JROTC personnel are notorious for not disclosing the whole truth and for making seductive promises—verbally
and in writing—that can be broken at any time. ... JROTC is a component
of the U.S. military apparatus, what King called the “greatest purveyor
of violence in the world today”—and nothing about the current world
situation would encourage him to modify that statement.
Reynolds High School has embraced school-based initiatives, including a commitment to restorative justice and peer mediation, that teach and encourage students to resolve conflicts nonviolently. JROTC’s militarism runs counter to these programs. Schools across the country are employing a variety of methods to curb bullying and violent incidents, create safe learning environments, and teach peaceful means of conflict resolution. JROTC’s introduction of weapons training, its partnership with the NRA to sponsor marksmanship matches, and its modeling of authoritarian militaristic solutions to problems contradict the schools’ stated opposition to violence.
Critics have been successful in getting JROTC to discontinue the use of live weapons in schools on a national level, but units continue to use air rifles for target practice at [Reynolds High School] and numerous other schools. Organizing makes a difference. In San Diego, for example, the Education Not Arms Coalition, made up of students, teachers, parents, and community groups, successfully removed target practice with air rifles from San Diego JROTC programs....
Reynolds High School has embraced school-based initiatives, including a commitment to restorative justice and peer mediation, that teach and encourage students to resolve conflicts nonviolently. JROTC’s militarism runs counter to these programs. Schools across the country are employing a variety of methods to curb bullying and violent incidents, create safe learning environments, and teach peaceful means of conflict resolution. JROTC’s introduction of weapons training, its partnership with the NRA to sponsor marksmanship matches, and its modeling of authoritarian militaristic solutions to problems contradict the schools’ stated opposition to violence.
Critics have been successful in getting JROTC to discontinue the use of live weapons in schools on a national level, but units continue to use air rifles for target practice at [Reynolds High School] and numerous other schools. Organizing makes a difference. In San Diego, for example, the Education Not Arms Coalition, made up of students, teachers, parents, and community groups, successfully removed target practice with air rifles from San Diego JROTC programs....
McGauley's article is followed by a note,
In June, after this article had been accepted for publication, an avid
(and apparently mentally unstable) JROTC student at Reynolds High School
armed himself with a semi-automatic rifle and pistol, a knife, and
hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He fatally shot one student and
injured a teacher before police cornered him and he took his own life.
This tragedy highlights the importance of closing down programs that
feed violent tendencies in vulnerable students and contradict
school-based efforts to teach nonviolent conflict resolution.
For more information on resisting the militarization of schools, you can check out these resources:
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
War Resisters League
The Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities
Countering the Militarization of Youth
[image above from the war resisters league pamphlet]
update 6/23/15 via Sylvia McGauley:
Sadly, little seems to have changed at Reynolds High since the shooting -- except that we had more police on campus during the last couple weeks of school this year. I did confirm that JROTC students continue to do air rifle practice and a club continues to participate in national shooting competitions, winning high honors. The air rifle range is -- unofficially-- located in the JROTC classroom. According to a student, the commanders lock the door and cover the window when students are firing.
