Posted on: Sunday, December 19, 2004

EDITORIAL
Schools don't belong in recruiting business

Folks who may be worried that the armed forces are thinking about signing up their young children for military service can relax. Of course they have no such intention.

The confusion, however, is both understandable and totally unjustifiable.

The problem is a federal provision requiring the public school system to release to military recruiters contact information for secondary students as young as 6th-graders.

Congress thought it was being smart by sticking this provision into the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That body has a longstanding, and annoying, habit of hiding unrelated, sometimes controversial, provisions in major legislation.

All schools receiving No Child money must provide this information or risk losing the money. The exception is if the student, parent or guardian requests that the information be withheld for privacy reasons.

This provision is both inappropriate and unnecessary. Older teens who are serious about enlisting know where to find recruiters. And of course it's absurd to bother families with children far too young for military service with such concerns. Indeed, the military indicates it has no interest in students younger than 17.

The law thus is imposing an expensive, time-consuming and largely unnecessary administrative burden on schools.

Of course, the problem should be corrected at its source. To begin with, Congress should require schools to forward information only on students no younger than 17.

But we think Congress should take a harder look at whether such information should be forwarded for students of any age.

First, there's a perception of inequity, since private schools that don't receive No Child money aren't required to send such information.

And second, there's a difficult and dangerous war in progress, with thousands of members of the military finding themselves in conditions they'd swear they didn't volunteer for. Stop-loss orders, involuntary extensions, activation of reserve and Guard units, and multiple combat tours are examples of developments that young people should be aware of before signing on the dotted line.

Bottom line: It's the mission of schools to educate kids, not to help recruiters meet their quotas.