JROTC and “Independent Study” PE
SF School Board Poised to Make End Run on State Law
June 5, 2009
Next San Francisco School Board Meeting:
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 — 6:00 PM — 555 Franklin Street at McAllister
Yesterday the good news spread that AB 351, the state bill that would have granted Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) cadets an exemption from physical education (PE) classes, was derailed.
But, today, the bad news needs to spread that the San Francisco School Board wants to pioneer a new way around state laws on PE, in order to continue to funnel our youth into JROTC.
At next Tuesday’s school board meeting there will be a vote on creating an “Independent Study” PE option for JROTC cadets. In essence, this is an attempt to wiggle through state laws on “independent study” and set up a system where, with a wink-and-a-nod from school district officials, the Pentagon’s JROTC instructors will oversee a make-believe PE program for JROTC cadets. This would allow them to ignore the clear intent of state law, and continue to use PE credit as bait for incoming freshman and sophomore students — 14 and 15-year olds — to get them into one of the military’s favorite and most successful recruitment programs.
Don’t for a moment think that this is a “San Francisco” issue. If this “independent study” PE option is successful, school districts around the state, from San Diego on north, will ape the program and thumb their noses at the victory that has been won against AB 351.
The plan is both simple and complex. The concept is simple: JROTC cadets will supposedly be doing “independent study physical education,” partly after school and partly during JROTC classes, instead of taking a regular PE class. The execution will be more complex: regulations are to be drawn up, plans for supervising the program created, keeping administrators and bureaucrats and lawyers overseeing the new program busy, busy, busy making it up to snuff (and, perhaps, fighting off a legal challenge to this cockamamie scheme).
But, as with many things in our byzantine public education system, the devil will be in the details, and the devil — in the person of the Pentagon’s pursuit of cannon fodder for its ongoing illegal wars and occupations around the globe — will be calling the shots behind the scenes, as they always have when it comes to things JROTC.
The complexity of this “independent study” program demonstrates its disingenuity. For all the effort it will require on the part of school administrators, and for all the alleged “independent study” that JROTC cadets will allegedly be doing, it would be a lot easier to tell them just to take regular PE classes. But that would, of course, defeat the whole purpose of this new program: to get these 14 and 15-year-olds out of PE classes and into JROTC.
The fact that JROTC proponents are so eager to go past giving youth a “choice” to be part of this military program, and to actively promote JROTC by dangling the carrot of getting out of PE to get them into the program, demonstrates that their real aim is to enable the Pentagon to recruit youth, particularly low-income youth and youth of color, onto the military path.
Recently, the organization Courage to Resist has publicized a little-known scheme of the Pentagon to boost its troop levels: the “Individual Ready Reserves” (IRR), a “form of involuntary service that has been fueling troop supply for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... The IRR is composed of troops who have finished their active duty service but still have time remaining on their contracts. The typical military contract mandates four years of active duty and four years in the IRR... at any point, IRR members can be recalled into active duty... Since September 11, 2001, about 28,000 IRR members in the US Army have been mobilized [and] 3,868 Marines involuntarily recalled...” (Read more at http://www.CouragetoResist.org/x/content/view/714/1.)
That’s how desperate the Pentagon is to find troops to fight its ongoing military adventures around the globe. Those who tell you that the same Pentagon won’t go after JROTC cadets are just whistling Dixie.
Those who care about the health of our youth, even if they love the Pentagon and wish it well, should take note of this new “independent study” PE program for JROTC cadets.
Study after study has shown that there is a physical fitness crisis among our youth. This crisis is particularly acute among the poor and communities of color. That is why the state has tightened up physical education curriculum and credentialing standards in recent years — and that is the major reason there was so much resistance to AB 351.
If this “independent study” PE program gets its legs here in “progressive” San Francisco, it will spread far and wide, and the progress made in the attempt to restore the health of our youth will suffer a huge reversal.
The school board vote on this program next Tuesday looks to be the same as the vote on May 12 to restore JROTC here: President Kim-Shree Maufas, Vice-President Jane Kim and new board member Sandra Lee Fewer passionately opposed, but the foursome of Jill Wynns, Rachel Norton, Hydra Mendoza and Norman Yee in favor.
Wynns and Norton, beholden to the downtown pro-JROTC money that got them through last November’s election, are immovable. Hydra Mendoza, her paycheck cut as the “Education Advisor” to rabidly pro-JROTC Mayor Gavin Newsom, is also probably immovable.
That leaves Norman Yee, once again, as the only potential swing vote. But, as a sponsor of the “independent study” PE resolution, and having already thrown his campaign promises from last November to oppose JROTC into the trash can, it is hard to imagine him reversing course. Yee, who has been less-than-secret about his desire to run for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, is now courting the pro-JROTC base and downtown corporate money. He must figure this support will get him through any backlash as a candidate whose campaign promises are found in the round file the day after the election.
It ain’t pretty.
Do any big-time players in San Francisco have the moxie and the wherewithal to block this move? Are there any state players who want to cut this off at the pass, and are willing to expend the necessary political capital?
If not, then the powers-that-be behind the war machine win another round, and the slaughter of the innocents will grind on unabated.