20 Navy JROTC High School Units Do Not Meet Minimum Enrollment Standards

The Following Data Did Not Appear in the Print Issue of Peacework Magazine
It is a web-based supplement, linked to from Air Force Plans To Invade: 48 High Schools Set to Start AF JROTC.

Peacework Magazine has acquired a list of twenty Navy JROTC units in high schools across the country that failed to meet their minimum enrollment requirements in October 2004 (please see list below). AFSC-NERO intern Jamie Munro obtained this list from the Navy JROTC cadet command. This is a pre-publication version of a forthcoming article in Peacework, June 2005.

These units are still actively recruiting and militarizing students in the schools and continue to be funded by the local districts.

JROTC units need to maintain a minimum of 100 students (in schools which equal or exceed 1000 students total) or 10% of the student population (in schools with less than 1000) to meet minimum Navy JROTC requirements.

The Navy JROTC cadet command asserts that the units in these schools will exceed minimum enrollment requirements in the fall of 2005. In theory, the Navy cancels JROTC programs in schools in which minimums are not reached two years in a row, but we are not sure if this is the actual practice.

JROTC units that do not recruit the Navy’s minimum number of students still cost districts a large amount of money (an average of over $76,000, according to an analysis done by AFSC-YAM, see Peacework Magazine, October 2004, because they are still required to pay a minimum of two JROTC instructors. Because of the low number of student participants, the cost per student is exorbitantly high. Thus, they may be more vulnerable to community opposition and calls for removal.

Peacework Magazine encourages local opposition to these failing units, as they are potentially places where JROTC could be removed. We also urge that activists gauge the political atmosphere in your school and community to assess the most effective course of public action. Alerting the community to the impending failure of a high school JROTC program in the absence of a strong coalition prepared to advocate for alternatives risks a backlash of support for these units by vocal JROTC proponents that could entrench their place in the schools, no matter how costly, ineffective, discriminatory, and militaristic they’ve proven to be. Mobilizing a diverse group of students, faculty, community members, and school board members prepared to point out the many nonviolent programs which could be funded for equal or less money (see Rick Jahnkow’s post to the counter-recruitment@yahoogroups list-serve regarding alternatives to JROTC with the subject line “Re: Violence in JROTC footnoted fact sheet plus alt...” on June 15, 2005 and http://www.objector.org/jrotc/alternatives.html) if these schools replaced JROTC and stopped subsidizing the Pentagon might maximize chances for success. For more tips about working with school boards, please see http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/militarism-in-schools/Working-with-School-Boards.htm.

Local activists are encouraged to call the American Friends Service Committee’s Youth and Militarism office at 215.241.7046, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (Philadelphia office) at 800-NO-JROTC (800.665.7682), the War Resisters League at 212.228.0450, or Project YANO at 760.634.3604 for assistance, support, and networking. Please keep us informed of organizing struggles and progress.

Peacework magazine has requested parallel lists from the JROTC cadet commands of the other 3 military branches, but has not yet received them.

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