A little known provision buried within the No Child Left Behind Act requires schools receiving federal funding to provide military recruiters with student information.
The Pentagon’s database includes birthdates, Social Security numbers, courses and majors, grade point averages, email addresses and ethnicity for high school and college students. The data is being collected and stored by BeNow, Inc., under contract.
This will be the focal point of a town-hall style meeting Thursday night at the Nyack Center in Nyack, N.Y. Francis Pratt, the president of the sponsoring chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has concerns about this provision and urges all parents to attend.
“You have to know the contents of the whole act to know what is pro and what is con,” Pratt said. “And this is something that the community should not take lightly.” The Journal News
The provisions for the student database have been in effect since July 1, 2002. Currently, 95% of America’s 22,000 public highs schools are in compliance with this law. Schools who fail to comply risk losing federal funding.
Private schools receiving federal funding are also required to comply, unless they have verifiable religious objections to military service.
Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government’s right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work. — Washington Post
Information is being gathered from other sources as well, including driver license records and civil data brokers. Students do have the ability to opt out of this program by “providing detailed personal information that will be kept in a separate ’suppression file.’” Of course, the information is still gathered and stored. You just won’t be contacted.
The Army has had trouble meeting recruitment goals in recent years. In fiscal year 2005 it missed its recruitment goal by almost nine percent.
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Anno-nymous
Jul 03, 2006
What horrible scum our government is.
We should not allow this kind of political bull to take place.
Overthrow Bush’s war machine.
Raze the Capital.
Destroy it all!
Nigel Watt
Jul 03, 2006
Yeah, ROTC tried to recruit me because of my grades. Didn’t work.
Dana
Jul 03, 2006
In college, a navy recruiter contacted me. At the time, I thought it was odd he seemed to know a bit about me. He immediately began talking about languages and the language program at Monterey…I had always thought those calls were more or less random, but he certainly seemed to know I had an interest in foreign language.
I personally support the military. I don’t mind recruitment. But when I was in high school, we all went down to the gym for an assembly. Military recruiters along with a gazillion other businesses had their booths set up and we got free stickers, information, pencils and signed our names on little forms or entered drawings like any other job fair.
Dana
Jul 03, 2006
Incidentally, it isn’t just the military. Schools turn over this kind of information to private companies, as well. The legislation I have looked at appears to be preventing schools from discriminating against the military in its information sharing. It is still a concern to have this being collected and stored by government entities. And actually, I’d prefer not to have it shared with anyone without my prior knowledge and consent.
J. Bruno
Jul 03, 2006
We should just turn the public schools into boot camps. Little automaton factories. Why make pretenses about education? In this post-9/11 world, we need obedient killing machines, not scientists.
Dana
Jul 03, 2006
Little automaton factories.
Some would argue they already are. The transmission style of education where the teacher repeats information from the textbook and students are expected to absorb for the purpose of passing a test really only trains one for an automatic response…to fill in bubbles on tests. You don’t have to think or learn to reason. Of course, that started a long time ago in public education, but it is now getting more ingrained with district funds tied to these high stakes tests.
forstand
Jul 03, 2006
The above comments mostly do not agree with the need for our military to effectively recruit by having access to citizen data. IMHO, WRONG on this issue!
I see a necessary need for the military to have access to this data. I have NO respect for cowards. If you choose to NOT defend this country then I suggest you leave or shut up. During Vietnam the cowards went to Canada; I joined the USAF and went to S. Korea. I feel that everyone has a responsibility to defend this country in her hours of need. 9-11-01 took place on American soil so don’t tell me that it cannot happen in this country. What would you done on those planes? Peed your pants and begged for your life? What would you have done on United Flight 93? Those men were brave who attacked the Muslim terrorists in control of that aircraft.
This list of defenders of this country should include students, illegal immigrants, guest workers (Bush’s idea for these), and citizens of both sexes. If you are a coward then you deserve to have your ass kicked by the bullies and thugs of the world. If it comes to a firefight between me and those attacking this country then don’t get in the way of my bullets; I will shoot through you to get to this country’s enemies.
I apologize to no one for being a Life Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. Nor for being a patriot.
J. Bruno
Jul 03, 2006
That’s what I’m saying, Forstand. We have a responsibility to our fellow countrymen. We are, after all, born indebted to them. Whatever our private opinions concerning their judgement is irrelevant. I mean, ideally we shouldn’t even have private opinions. They only get in the way of our collective goals as an indivisible society. That’s why we have such a beautiful system of central planning: to decide who shall sacrifice themselves to the common good. Any man who thinks otherwise is no American in my book. Americans march bravely in unison to the beat of the same drummer, wherever the hell it should lead them, even if it is, indeed, Hell.
For these reasons I argue we should convert the public schools to boot camps. In a society that aspires to Freedom, military service ought to be mandatory. This country was not founded on the shoulders of some candy-ass pamphlet writers, but ruthless war-lords. Let’s start churning them out.
IndianCowboy
Jul 04, 2006
considering the american education system was designed and put in place by socialists who made it quite clear they were bent on indoctrinating children, this ‘little automaton’ business is just silly.
I really don’t see the problem here. The Fed is saying ‘if you take this money, you have to comply with certain conditions’ Since education isn’t supposed to be funded by the federal govt at all, I don’t see the big deal.
The army has been trying to recruit me for 5 years now with nary a letup in the stream of phonecalls and letters. First for ROTC, then for Armed Forces Health Scholarship, and I’m sure when I graduate it’ll be for Medical Corps as well.
Strangely enough, I haven’t turned into a ‘mindless automaton’ yet.
Dana
Jul 05, 2006
IndianCowboy, recruitment won’t turn you into a “automaton.” That isn’t the point. It is whether the government should have wide scale access to student data. As to the theoretical “automaton factory” that would be another post entirely…perhaps another blog entirely. That isn’t necessarily my position, anyway…but the public schools do fail students in a number of respects, just ask the universities. And our schools weren’t founded on socialist principles. That is what they became with the influence of Horace Mann in the 1800’s and later Dewey. They were founded in with an entirely religious focus.
Forstand, as I mentioned in my other comment, I do support the military and this, for me, is not about hindering its efforts. There are other means of gaining information…the job fairs at my high school seemed to work fine. That is how the air force originally got my number. And I was probably a better recruitment target because I had, through signing the form, indicated an interest.
Kevin Fields
Jul 13, 2006
So, because I am not interested in voluntairly submitting myself to military service, I’m a coward?
What a crock. We run a volunteer army that stays fairly well staffed. At least when it is properly managed and our leadership isn’t sending them off to take over entire countries on several fronts. We have plenty of men and women who have made the decision to volunteer for military duty. God bless them all, because they can dedicate themselves to a profession and a way of life that I cannot, even if they at times personally disagree with the actions of their employer.
One of the things I loathed the most when I was in high school was having to sit through school-wide military recruitment programs and being told I had to take a test for the Army. I wasn’t interested in any career with the military at all, so I purposefully decided not to take the test. After all, it had no bearing on my education or my grades, not taking it didn’t hinder my entrance into college, and even if it did, my grades were too strong to make a difference.
What a surprise – after I completely failed a test I didn’t want to take, the military never contacted me again.
Now if the United States was actually under attack, that is, a foreign or domestic force attempted to overtake American soil and become an occupying force, then I have no qualms about taking up arms to defend it with my life. But if you’re asking me to go fight a war in another land, this isn’t an obligation that I should be expected to uphold. The United States has not faced a legitimate threat to its sovergnity since the 1800s. Even the attacks on our ships and planes, and even Pearl Harbor during WWII, did not represent a signifigant threat to the nation.
It is no wonder the military is failing to meet its recruitment goals when our military leaders continue to send our soldiers into situations that we have no business becoming involved in to begin with. It is also no wonder that nobody is interested in joining the military knowing that our government does nothing to respect them. Time and again I’ve seen our leadership make decisions which hurt our veterans and active duty servicemen and servicewomen, and none of them is a bit sorry for it.
slaf
Oct 14, 2006
forstan,
You joined the Air Force and went to South Korea and then joined the VFW? Is that right? Excuse me while split my sides laughing.
Jan 17, 2007
Pentagon to restrict student recruiting database - Homeland Stupidity