No Child Left Unrecruited

Certainly, George Bush has left the Obama Administration much clean-up work to do. The notorious No Child Left Behind Act is such an example, and is currently up for renewal. I suspect this may likely be one of the first projects undertaken by the Obama Administration. Despite this being quite a controversial bill in and of itself, there is a provision buried deep within the bill that many people are unaware of. My motive, as always: Knowledge is Power.

Have you ever questioned how military recruiters get your address and phone number? As part of Bush’s plan to enhance America’s educational system through the No Child Left Behind Act, military recruiters now have unfettered access to students’ high school records.

Hidden amongst the 670 pages of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a provision which requires public high schools to provide private student data to military recruiters. This provision, in Section 9528 of the act, grants the Pentagon access to school directories with students’ names, addresses and phone numbers, so they may be contacted and recruited for military service. Prior to enactment of this bill, schools have been explicitly instructed to protect the integrity of students’ information. The No Child Left Behind Act paves the way for the military to have unimpeded access to underage students who are ripe for solicitation for the military. If a school does not comply, it risks losing vital federal education funding.

In addition, the Pentagon also recently set up a database of 30 million sixteen to twenty-five year-olds, including name, address, e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, ethnicity, social security numbers and areas of study. This Pentagon database is updated daily and distributed monthly to the Armed Services for recruitment purposes. And yes, the military is exempt from the restraints of the Do Not Call List. Once they have your private information, be prepared to receive phone calls from your dear Uncle Sam.

The No Child Behind Act should serve as a wake up call to students and their parents to reclaim their privacy, to reinvest their energy into demanding quality education, and to remind our leaders that stealing money from education to pay for military recruitment is unacceptable.

Source

Very interesting post on the no child left behind act ... i did not know about this, anyone else know about this? what are your thoughts on this?

[edit on 1-12-2008 by baseball101]

If I'm not mistaken, recruiters have had access to names and numbers for students longer than No Child Left Behind has been around and really most of them don't like calling anyone out of the blue to talk to them about the military. I don't really see having names and numbers as that big of a deal, all I would need is your first and last name and the city/state to find your number and address in the phone book. The only difference here is that it is specifically students and not just the general population.

As for the social security numbers, email addresses and cell phone numbers, the school doesn't give those out. The students themselves do. Schools don't know if a student has an email address, except school emails accounts, or cell phones. Can't give out information they don't have. And social security numbers aren't just handed out to whoever wants them by anyone due to privacy laws, not even to the military unless you do it yourself. So the database, if they did create one, would be information that was voluntarily given by the students in said database. This is the first I've heard of the government creating one though.

And for anyone who gets a call from a recruiter, tell them you are not interested and they most likely won't call again. If they are calling for your child, the child has to be the one to tell them they aren't interested. If you tell the recruiter your child isn't interested, they know that means YOU aren't interested in your child joining and doesn't mean the child isn't interested either. Sometimes they may slip up and call someone more than once after being told flat out no, but it is probably not the same recruiter and if it is they just forgot. They are human, give them a break and just tell them politely that you already told them you weren't interested. If you act even the least bit interested or tell them you aren't sure, they will call back. If you are honest and say you really are not interested at all, they usually won't.

I don't have a problem with this at all.

As Jenna said, they have had access to this information since before No Child Left Behind. That program may have it's problems, but this isn't one of them.

I see nothing wrong with recruiters contacting young people to gauge interest in the military. After all, it is a volunteer army, and if you aren't interested, that's all you have to say.

Keep complaining about the military recruitment process though, and maybe one day they'll make it mandatory for you.

It's not a far step from what Germany has/had, smart kids go to higher schooling... Dumb kids fight wars.

I am still on the fence about citizenship. Use to think it was a good idea. I know what I learned from Uncle Sam and am glad I went. But it's stil a manner of control. I guess as long as it's not perverted into something more later on (not that our government would EVER do something like that ) it might not be that bad. How come it's just military recruiters and militia arn't involved

Originally posted by Jkd Up
It's not a far step from what Germany has/had, smart kids go to higher schooling... Dumb kids fight wars.

The very idea that only "dumb" kids enlist in the military is not only ignorant but offensive.

This country provides endless opportunities to those who wish to take advantage of them. To suggest that the only ones who fight for us are "dumb" is a slap in the face to every member of our armed forces.