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Yahoo!NEW YORK — The New York City Council is scheduled to vote later this week on a measure that may finally close the doors on the City’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, following complaints by parents and teachers, and a recent spate of student walkouts.
Critics contend that the training corps, whose official mandate is educational, is a recruiting arm of the U.S. Army. They note that the J.R.O.T.C. provides no non-military training, and that the firearm training offered by 90 percent of the J.R.O.T.C. programs undermines the no-weapons policies widely promoted on high school campuses.
At Jesuit-run Xavier High School in Manhattan, 33 percent of students belong to the J.R.O.T.C. “It’s the only gang the Fathers let us join,” bubbled Senior Cadet Leader Bernard Goetz Jr. “But it’s plenty good for me.”
Not all the Jesuits support the program. Father Jon Sobrino, who supervises the school’s ethics curriculum, said that the J.R.O.T.C. obedience training seemed to stunt some students’ reasoning skills. “‘Lock-and-load’ is not a recognized ethical philosophy,” Sobrino said.
With the end of the war in Iraq, concerns voiced for months at Parent Teacher Association meetings around the five boroughs received renewed urgency. “We are asking Secretary of Defense Scott Ritter to shift these funds into training programs in nonviolence and communication,” Queens Borough P.T.A. head Estelle Chavez said. “If our leaders of the past eight years had had that sort of training, we wouldn’t be in the huge mess we’re in.”
Retired General David Petraeus defended the program. The only way a volunteer army can recruit is if we can get them early. The fact is, it works. Plus, J.R.O.T.C. students who don’t join the army tell us the leadership training they receive helps them find work in security and related fields.”
Critics argue that those students who do go on to join the Army fare especially poorly. According to the Veterans Administration, veterans earn less than non-veterans; one-third of homeless men are veterans; and at least 10 percent of federal and state prisoners are veterans.
The City Council vote follows outrage by area principals over Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to cut $180 million from the Department of Education’s budget in the current fiscal year, and $324 million in the following year, cuts which will most likely effect after school programs, arts programming, and programs for children with special needs.
One group of critics has been working with Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein to redirect the $2 million J.R.O.T.C. budget to Urban Green, an after-school program that promotes environmental leadership for youth by creating organic gardens in vacant lots. Klein’s office issued a memo yesterday acknowledging the effort. “Our office feels that the J.R.O.T.C. budget might best be redirected to what we might call Victory Gardens, in celebration of a new direction for our country and for our nation’s youth.”
The council should vote to cancel J.R.O.T.C.! This is the best idea I’ve heard since the war ended.
Comment on November 12, 2008 07:10 pm