Admiral Gene LaRocque (USN, Ret.),
Pres., Center for Defense Information
HOST:
Admiral John Shanahan (USN, Ret.)
Director, Center for Defense Information
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH:
David T. Johnson
DIRECTOR of TELEVISION:
Mark Sugg
SENIOR PRODUCER & NARRATOR:
Ira Shorr
PRODUCERS:
Glenn Baker
Daniel Sagalyn
Stephen Sapienza
PRINCIPAL ANALYST & SCRIPTWRITER:
Ira Shorr
SEGMENT PRODUCERS:
Stephen Sapienza and Jennifer Hazen
VIDEO GRAPHICS:
Adam Luther
ORIGINATION:
Washington, D.C.
PROGRAM NO.:
838
INITIAL BROADCAST:
4 June 1995
CONDITION OF USE: Credit "AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR"
(Center for Defense Information).
(C) Copyright 1995, Center for Defense Information. All Rights Reserved.
Videotapes also available.
ADM EUGENE CARROLL (USN, Ret.)
Deputy Director, Center for Defense Information
LCOL MIKE HAYES
Director, High School Directorate, US Army Cadet Command
LCOL CLYDE HENDERSON
JROTC Instructor, Ballou High School, Washington, D.C.
HAROLD JORDAN
Coordinator, American Friends Service Committee's National Youth and Militarism Program
BARBARA WEIN
Director, Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development
LAVELLE WILLIAMS
Former JROTC Student
TOM WILSON
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Personnel Management and Equal
Opportunity
JROTC CADETS:
Cadet 2nd Lieutenant PATRICE ATWATER
Private STEVE CUMMINGS
Cadet Captain FREDERICK GAMBLE
Cadet GARVER
First Cadet Captain RONALD GRAY
NCO: I just can't say enough about JROTC. We need to be everyplace. It's very important.
Rear Admiral EUGENE J. CARROLL, Jr. (USN, Ret.): At the high school level, it's just too soon to start bending them, indoctrinating them with a favorable impression of the military.
CADET GARVER: Yes, I'm going straight into the Army.
LCOL CLYDE HENDERSON: We're teaching citizenship. We're not teaching or we're not recruiting people to come into the service.
NARRATOR: Today on "AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR," "Junior ROTC: The Military in America's High Schools." Is it developing citizens or soldiers?
["AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR" program introduction.]
Vice Admiral JOHN SHANAHAN(USN, Ret.): I'm Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, director of the Center for Defense Information. The Junior Reserve Office Training Corps, or more commonly, JROTC. Is it a good idea for our children to be exposed to military training and thinking as part of their high school education? This emotionally charged issue is the subject of today's program.
NARRATOR: April 1992. Los Angeles is burning. The verdict in the Rodney King trial was the spark that ignited this city into flames and violence. As the images of destruction spread across the United States, Americans were reminded of the desperation and rage that lies at the core of our inner cities.
The riots moved GEN Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to reflect on how the military could help confront the dangers of America's mean streets. GEN Powell looked to an already existing military program, the high school Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, or Junior ROTC, and called for its expansion.
Junior ROTC originated in 1916 as a response to an international conflict. World War I was raging in Europe. To help the United States mobilize for war, Congress passed the National Defense Act of 1916, which established the college Reserve Officers Training Corps, or ROTC, and the high school Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, JROTC.
A War Department memorandum at the time stated that Junior ROTC was established to, "inculcate students with respect for and loyalty to constituted authority and to give basic military training." In 1992, with America at war with itself, Junior ROTC was expanded to help mobilize for a different kind of battle.
Tom Wilson is the acting deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Military Personnel Management and Equal Opportunity.
TOM WILSON: I think GEN Powell saw it probably as one way the military could contribute to the situation, particularly in inner cities and the focus of the expansion was to be on -- I hesitate to use the term at-risk kids, but kids who would otherwise be called at-risk.
NARRATOR: Congress responded to GEN Powell's initiative with legislation that allowed for the future expansion of JROTC from 1500 units to 3500 units, more than doubling the program. The budget would jump from $76 million a year in 1992 to close to $160 million a year by 1996. But the expansion of the military's presence in public high schools has not come without controversy.
ADM CARROLL: I can't understand why we have to indoctrinate our high school children, young adults, with this idea of military service when they're only 14 years old.
BARBARA WEIN: I find the major contradiction in our society today where we're defunding civilian programs and we're slashing budgets for inner city youth for midnight basketball leagues, for all kinds of drug counseling and rehabilitation programs, but yet there is money available for the military to come into the schools.
NARRATOR: Junior ROTC classes, or units, are taught by retired military officers. But critics claim that Junior ROTC instructors serve more as recruiters than educators.
LCOL HENDERSON: Yes, the military, Junior ROTC has the military flavor to it, but it's just a matter of using that flavor to put things into perspective. Okay. We're teaching citizenship, we're not teaching -- or we're not recruiting people to come into the service.
NARRATOR: LCOL Clyde Henderson, a 22-year veteran of military service with a masters degree in international relations, is an Air Force Junior ROTC instructor at Frank Ballou High School in Washington, D.C.
LCOL HENDERSON: But just as I take this blue uniform into a neighborhood like Southeast Washington, okay, we use it as a tool. A tool that says, 'Hey, I've got a unique group of people. I've got a unique opportunity here.'
NARRATOR: Junior ROTC units are open to ninth grade students 13 years or older, who receive non-academic elective credit for participating in daily one-hour classes. Classroom work with textbooks is combined with military drill, marching, plus optional activities such as summer trips to military bases. One day a week, Junior ROTC students wear their uniforms to school.
During the 1994 school year, some 310,000 participated in 2,267 Junior ROTC units. This is an increase of more than 50 percent in two years.
LCOL MIKE HAYES: As the program evolved over the years, it has moved to be one that is less oriented towards the military, per se, and is mostly all oriented towards leadership and citizenship now.
NARRATOR: LCOL Mike Hayes heads the High School Directorate of the US Army Cadet Command.
LCOL HAYES: We have expanded program in terms of what career objectives, career planning the cadet may move into as they move through and after high school.
LCOL HENDERSON: One of the things of saving at-risk students is to give them positive things to be involved in. If they're here practicing their drill steps or they're practicing their rifle swings and, as you saw, their marching -- if they're here after school practicing that, that's less time for them to be on the street corner possibly involved in something else.
HAROLD JORDAN: Well, the JROTC programs come into the public schools alleging that they're going to deal with all of the problems of today's youth, the problems of public education. Whether it's discipline, drugs, whatever, they make this claim. I see them essentially as sort of a false god. And when times get tough, people often turn to false gods.
NARRATOR: Harold Jordan is coordinator of the National Youth and Militarism Program of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. AFSC has released a two-year study of Junior ROTC programs at high schools across the country entitled "Making Soldiers in the Public Schools."
Mr. JORDAN: Much more attention is paid to telling young people how to enlist in the military than is paid to showing young people how to pursue a variety of career options.
LCOL HAYES: As far as military recruiting is concerned, we have no active involvement in recruiting through the Junior ROTC program.
Secretary WILSON: But you can't, I don't think, get away from the sense of affiliation with the particular service's uniform and the tradition and history of the service. I mean, there's that. But you can't automatically make the leap from that to an active recruiting effort.
NARRATOR: Department of Defense statistics for 1993 show that of those high school students who graduate from Junior ROTC, 45 percent enter some branch of the service, a figure much higher than the overall enlistment rate for high school students. Junior ROTC advocates counter that most students enter the program already heading for a military career.
CADET GRAY: Well, the main purpose for me joining ROTC was because I wanted some military experience before I really, truly joined the military.
CADET JANUARY: I'm going into the military because they're going to pay for my schooling.
NARRATOR: Those who criticize Junior ROTC for primarily being a recruiting tool for the military point to the intense competition among the services for quality recruits. I was able to experience this competition firsthand.
I dialed an 800 number and asked for information about Junior ROTC. The Army sent me material through the mail. This was followed by information about Army ROTC. The Navy then sent me a brochure and invited me to join them.
I also got material from the Marines. They sent a letter that said, "Dear Ira, we are pleased to learn that you want to know more about becoming a United States Marine." This was followed by a visit to my home by a Marine Corps recruiter. My wife asked them if they really wanted to try and help a 47-year old man be all that he could be.
Critics believe that the military uses Junior ROTC to expand its pool of young enlistees by promoting the program to poor school districts heavily populated with minority students. For example, statistics cited in the AFSC report show that 65 percent of Junior ROTC units are clustered in southern high schools. Critics feel that by singling out the military as a career option, Junior ROTC shifts many students away from other careers that could be more lucrative and less dangerous.
Mr. JORDAN: The problem with that is that it sends a message to the young people, the parents, the teachers of the schools that these children are not worth being seriously educated. That the school district and the government would rather put its resources into a program which, in effect, tracks young people into the military than it would to put its money into programs that improve the overall educational quality.
NARRATOR: The AFSC report found that minority student participation in Junior ROTC is approximately 54 percent nationwide, largely because of where the units are clustered.
Secretary WILSON: Let me tell you another reason why I think we're there. Many of the young people used to come into the Army, use the Army as a stepping-up process to better themselves and to gain a skill and move on. Many of those people -- young kids who are in the inner city don't have that opportunity anymore because recruiting stations have been closed.
NARRATOR: While Junior ROTC has "officer training" in its title, approximately seven out of every ten graduates who enter the military immediately do so as enlistees. Supporters focus more on the immediate educational payoffs of the program.
LCOL HAYES: The program enhancements over the years have seen students improve in areas such as graduation rates, grade improvement, attendance, and also a general sense of confidence and wellbeing and involvement in activities. The statistics that we've been able to measure to date are primarily in the graduation rate area, where we average program-wide about a 5 percent increase above the normal school graduation rate. In some school systems, this can vary as much as 15 to 20 percent difference.
Mr. JORDAN: Some of them say 20 and 25 percent. But in our research and dealing with the military directly, we have found that they have not done systematic studies of this.
Secretary WILSON: And I think that's a fair criticism. There has not been, in my mind, a rigorous examination of the -- one that would stand up to the statistical inferential scrutiny, a rigorous examination of the value of the program.
NARRATOR: The AFSC analysis of the Army's Junior ROTC program found that students spend "at least three times as many hours in drill as in any other activity."
LAVELLE WILLIAMS: When I joined this course in my first semester, all we seemed to do was march, watch war films, learn about the uniform, how to wear it correctly.
NARRATOR: Lavelle Williams, a former Junior ROTC student, was speaking out in opposition to the expansion of the program before a city council committee meeting in Washington, D.C. Barbara Wein, the director of an international coalition of peace educators, also appeared at the hearing.
Ms. WEIN: The military has played very honorable roles in our country's history. But one role they should not be playing in our society is that of the education of our youth. I don't think they're trained in education methods, in pedagogical approaches that are sound, and that's not the role of the military in a civilian society.
NARRATOR: The stated mission of Junior ROTC is to "motivate young people to be better Americans." Textbook topics include citizenship, leadership, drill, physical fitness, and American military history. Additional sections deal with career choices, the role of the particular armed service, and optional subjects like "Marksmanship and Safety."
Ms. WEIN: The military chooses the instructors. They choose the curriculum, the textbooks. There is no certification on the part of the public schools for these Junior ROTC instructors. I have found that their teaching standards are very poor and that they are not presenting quality materials in the classroom.
LCOL HENDERSON: Okay. There's a lot of oversight. First of all, the school itself, there's an assistant principal over our particular subject area and he makes occasional drop-in visits to see how it's going, to watch the teachers instruct, to get a sense of what's happening to Junior ROTC.
NARRATOR: Critics of the Junior ROTC curriculum cite a report by the San Diego School Board, one of the few examples, they say, of real school board oversight. In the review, the San Diego Board noted that "many historical events are presented in narrow, simplistic ways. The narrative style is didactic and doesn't encourage critical thinking. And, generally, only the military point of view is presented."
The AFSC report compared an Army Junior ROTC history text's coverage of the Vietnam War to a civilian text and found that the Junior ROTC discussion centered on the argument that the Vietnam War was necessary because the United States took on and should continue to assume "the responsibility for being the world's police officer for democracy." Protests and disagreements about the war were presented as "a threat to national security."
In comparison, the AFSC report states, the civilian text coverage of Vietnam more fully confronted the causes and controversy surrounding the war.
Secretary WILSON: The principal of the school, basically is responsible for the educational process that goes on.
LCOL HAYES: We have recently formed a curriculum review committee, which our command oversees. It is composed of civilian educators and administrators, as well as some of our instructors and administrators in the military. And if we have critics that find that certain aspects of our curriculum may need to be improved or is not as relevant as it should be, we're continually taking recommendations in that area and evaluating them.
ADM CARROLL: There have been many, many criticisms of the curricula of the JROTC program and, as a result, they are making efforts to update them and make them more relevant and more accurate. At one time, the Army was teaching that the subjugation of the Indian tribes was a glorious accomplishment of the US Army.
NARRATOR: Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll served as director of military operations for US forces in Europe and the Middle East.
ADM CARROLL: A uniform is very impressive to a teenager -- brass buttons and ribbons, and epaulets. A gun is another symbol of power, of authority and that's not a good signal to be sending to these impressionable young people. There are too many guns around already, much less adding one that we tell them it's their duty to learn how to shoot.
NARRATOR: Marksmanship is an optional part of the Junior ROTC program.
LCOL HAYES: The purpose of having marksmanship training in our program is to reinforce the purpose of our program, which is to build self-confidence, self-esteem, and it's also a very strong safety factor in how to handle firearms and weapons and how to treat them properly.
Mr. JORDAN: I don't want people to be trained in how to use guns at all. I want people to be trained in how not to use guns when they have problems with people.
CADET GAMBLE: Well, nationwide, we have a murder problem, let me put it like that. We have a serious young people getting out killing each other problem. And ROTC does not have that problem.
Ms. WEIN: If you go out to some of the high schools in Maryland where they have Junior ROTC, the shooting range is in beautiful condition and the rooms for the ROTC instructors are very pristine, while the rest of the school is falling apart. So, I don't understand where the priorities are in this particular instance.
Mr. JORDAN: We're looking at school districts where there's been a real tradeoff between Junior ROTC and other programs. In a northern New Hampshire school district -- I think it's called the White Mountain School District -- four teachers were laid off when JROTC was brought in. This is an abomination.
NARRATOR: It's common knowledge that many of America's schools are suffering from a lack of resources. Internationally, the United States lags in public education spending, ranking ninth in the world. But the picture is bleakest for poorer schools. In some states, the richest, usually suburban public schools, often outspend poorer schools by as much as five to one. The Junior ROTC program has been seen by under-financed school districts as a source of funding help.
Secretary WILSON: It's a cheap program for the school system in terms of the amount of money they have to invest in it. You couldn't buy the same number of instructors if you handed that money to the Department of Education, for example, to give a grant to the school.
NARRATOR: Typically, the Department of Defense and the local school will split the cost of raising the Junior ROTC instructor's retirement pay to the active duty level. The military also provides uniforms, equipment and supplies. But critics of the program maintain that, in most cases, Junior ROTC is not bargain for high schools or taxpayers.
Ms. WEIN: Well, we provide all kinds of infrastructure and support, janitorial services, extra hours for the school to be open for Junior ROTC, transportation costs and others. And there are hidden costs to the school that don't surface until a year or two after the program has begun.
NARRATOR: San Diego's school district conducted a study that showed that with the partial salaries for two instructors, benefits, clerical support, facilities and other expenses, the cost of running eight Junior ROTC units was $300,000 more than regular academic classrooms. As the authors of the AFSC report noted, expense factors do differ from school to school.
Secretary WILSON: We don't go into the schools unless we're invited. It's not a program where we show up on their doorstep and say look what a good thing we've got for you.
LCOL HAYES: We, in fact, have over 70 applications right now for programs that we can't start, that are now going to be on a waiting list indefinitely until we can get additional funding.
Mr. JORDAN: From what I've seen, it works both ways. That there are some schools that are looking for JROTC units and there are other places where the military's targeting the school for JROTC. In the state of Pennsylvania, for example, every legislator in the state congress has received a letter, which we have a copy of, saying that the government's in the process of expanding JROTC and we want your help in identifying schools for possibly locating JROTC units.
NARRATOR: Many schools are also attracted by a program that promises to deliver discipline.
Mr. JORDAN: What a lot of administrators want is young people who will, quote, "pull their pants up and say, 'yes, sir' and yes,'Ma'am.'"
CADET ATWATER: No matter what you do in life, there's always going to be somebody above you. They teach you how to follow orders, give orders, and work with your peers.
LCOL HENDERSON: The military has taken the position of since education should be our number one priority, we've got some funds -- not enough funds, but we've got some funds that we will put toward education, toward helping those students that are at risk.
ADM CARROLL: They're not going to be able to keep the children who are truly at risk in these programs. They don't maintain their school attendance, they don't maintain their grades, therefore, they're not eligible to participate in the JROTC program.
Ms. WEIN: Well, I have dealt with at-risk children a lot in my neighborhood. We're setting up peace patrols in the schools, in the neighborhoods. We teach young people peer mediation, how to deal with their anger, how to deal with some of their most conflicted emotions, how to talk and communicate and creatively solve problems with other young people in the school.
NARRATOR: As with our society in general, America's schools have become increasingly beset by violence. In response, educators are turning to conflict resolution programs.
Ms. WEIN: Where we've introduced non-violent conflict resolution curricula, we have seen a reduction of gang problems, violence problems, about 50 percent in the first two years. We do find that there are other ways of introducing discipline and guidance with the young people, helping them resolve their own problems.
LCOL HAYES: We are looking at what's out there in education on conflict resolution, working through the contractors that we have to develop lessons that are relevant for our program.
CADET CUMMINGS: Before I came in ROTC, I used to fight and stuff. And ever since I've been in here, I haven't been fighting.
Mr. JORDAN: So, what does it mean for an organization whose strength and whose purpose is to prepare for and to fight wars to teach nonviolent ways of resolving conflict? It's a function that this military is ill-suited for.
NARRATOR: In many ways, the debate on Junior ROTC comes down to how you view the role of the military in today's society.
ADM CARROLL: Our military today really don't have an enemy. It's very hard to look around the world and say there's anybody out there threatening the United States of America and we're going to have to mount the troops and send them to war. Once you lose this focus, then you start looking for new tasks, new reasons to justify your existence.
LCOL HENDERSON: I don't think of JROTC as trying or looking for a way of maintaining its relevancy. I think there's a call, an essential call out for programs that provide some of the things that we, after the Cold War, are missing in our society.
NARRATOR: The United States spent an estimated $12 trillion to fight the Cold War. We invested in and built the world's preeminent military. But for all our military might, we are lagging behind the rest of the developed world in our ability to educate our children. Internationally, the US ranks fifteenth in science scores, twelfth in math scores, and twelfth in student-to-teacher ratios, and we are burdened with dropout rates that each year send hundreds of thousands of our children towards an uncertain future.
Junior ROTC proponents see the military as having the resources to help confront these problems. Retired military officers are committing themselves to making a difference in the lives of high school students. But critics conclude it's inappropriate to allow the military special access to high schools where they promote values that they say emphasize obedience and an uncritical view of American history.
Those who oppose Junior ROTC call for more federal support for education programs. And they perhaps note with envy that in 1995 the United States will spend nearly as much on the military as it will spend on all these other federal programs combined.
Mr. JORDAN: The basic programs within the schools really need more adequate funding; there's no question about that. We need lower class sizes, we need expanded electives opportunities.
ADM CARROLL: If we're educating children to be young military scientists, know how to march and shoot, that's one way to spend money. If you use it to set up a computer training center and train children to be computer literate and to be able to enter the workforce in a constructive role, you get another return.
Ms. WEIN: I have found some really exciting programs around the country that offer an alternative to Junior ROTC. Some of them are working with Habitat for Humanity in the inner cities to rebuild homes for the elderly and homeless. It's given students an enormous sense of pride.
CADET GAMBLE: ROTC's goal is not to train people to go into the military, but it's to give them discipline and some sort of citizenship, a feeling of togetherness. That's what we have here.
NARRATOR: More money is being made available for military programs in our high schools. But those who look to the federal government for increased support for educational alternatives face a hostile climate. Congress is currently considering major cutbacks in federal education programs and Republicans in the House of Representatives have called for the elimination of the Department of Education.
ADM SHANAHAN: You have just seen conflicting viewpoints on a controversial issue. The future of JROTC should rest with the school boards throughout the country and your influence over them.
For "AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR," I am Jack Shanahan.
[End of broadcast.]
CONDITION OF USE: Credit "AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR"
(Center for Defense Information).
(C) Copyright 1995. Center for Defense Information. All Rights Reserved.
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