So it turns out that “No Child Left Behind” isn’t just an empty Republican promise on education… it’s also a recruiting strategy for the U.S. military:
This federal law [the “No Child Left Behind Act”] that is supposed to help create better educated children also mandates that all public secondary schools hand over students’ previously protected private contact information to military recruiters. Schools must now allow them on high school campuses, just as they do with college admissions officers. If schools refuse, they face losing the federal portion of their already lean school budgets. Parents can “opt out” of handing over home phone numbers and addresses, but that assumes that harried administrators get around to giving families notice before Uncle Sam comes calling.
Advocates of the recruiting provision contend that the military should be on the same footing as colleges when it comes to providing students with career information.
…One difference being that in college, if you decide to walk out during your mid-terms, your proctors won’t wrestle you to the ground and jail you. And heated though the football rivalry with State Tech might be, nobody’s shooting at you.
