Air guns battle real guns: stepped-up ROTC programs in schools are aimed at keeping kids off the street

American Demographics, Sept, 1996 by Shelly Reese

Stepped-up ROTC programs in high schools are aimed at keeping kids off the street.

The federal government and high schools nationwide are using an old program to create new results. In an effort to keep at-risk kids from turning to guns and gangs, they are revitalizing the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). JROTC is open to high school students aged 14 and older, and emphasizes discipline, work ethic, personal responsibility, and citizenship.

In the past four years, the Defense Department has increased annual funding for JROTC programs from about $76 million to $173 million. The number of JROTC units grew from 1,461 to 2,558 over the period. The initiative has sent enrollment soaring nearly 50 percent, from about 205,000 in 1992 to 303,000 in 1995.

The JROTC program was created in 1916 to prepare teenagers for service in World War I. Its recent revival was precipitated by the 1991 Los Angeles riots. The riots underscored the lack of opportunities for teenagers in economically disadvantaged areas. That led General Colin Powell to lobby for expanded JROTC as an alternative to drugs, gangs, and violence for at-risk youths.

The program costs about $500 per student a year. It is funded jointly by the Defense and Education Departments and local schools. The military usually pays 65 percent of a JROTC unit's costs, which include instructor salaries, uniforms, textbooks, and educational materials. It also makes additional funds available to schools in lower-income areas.

The JROTC curriculum, which is taught by retired and noncommissioned officers, emphasizes group leadership, public service, and civic values. Instruction is conducted as a classroom elective. Some schools grant academic credit for JROTC civics and science classes. Extracurricular activities include summer camp, marksmanship with air rifles, and color guards or drill teams.

As enrollment in JROTC units has increased, so has criticism of the program. Some educators see JROTC as a thinly veiled military recruiting effort that forces cash-strapped schools to cut other electives, such as art and music. Others say it promotes rote learning and discourages student creativity.

However, since the program is voluntary and largely paid for by the Defense Department, those criticisms don't carry much weight, says program spokesman Major Tom Iskrzak. "It's an elective, like band or shop," he says. "Students don't have to participate, and all the units that are out there have been asked for by the schools themselves."

For every critic, JROTC has a supporter. Many parents and educators credit the program with introducing structure and discipline into the lives of at-risk teens, and presenting them with positive role models. A 1991 survey of Naval JROTC cadets, their instructors, and host-school administrators underscored those perceptions. Administrators rated cadets as "much better" than the rest of the student body when it came to respect for authority, behavior, appearance, self-respect, and self-discipline. More than half of the cadets surveyed said JROTC was a major factor in their decision to stay in school.

In addition to helping keep kids off the streets, JROTC programs have another advantage from the military's perspective: they do increase enlistments. About half of all graduating high school seniors with more than two years' participation in JROTC end up joining the military, enrolling in a military academy, or joining a senior ROTC program. In fact, 3 percent of the 5,675 recruits who enlisted for military service in 1994 were graduates of JROTC programs.