No Child Left Unrecruited

Two Kansas teens taught me something this week. David Goldstein of McClatchy Newspapers reported that Alexia Welch and Sarah Ybarra of Lawrence, Kansas, have put together a short film, No Child Left Unrecruited, exposing a little-known provision of the No Child Left Behind Act. The film, which started out as a five-minute class project, became a 25-minute expose.

The piece of the law in question infringes on the privacy of children and their families and forces school officials who might oppose this to stay silent. Specifically, the law requires schools to give the military personal information about all students. If schools fail to comply, federal aid can be withheld from the school, putting educational programs at risk. Information can include the proverbial “permanent record,” as well as age, gender, DOB, and even parent names and work phone numbers. Military recruiters then use this info to target individuals who will be most susceptible to their efforts.

Before going forward, let me make two things clear. First, I have no problem with the military recruiting in high schools in general. Second, I have no problem with young adults being required to register with Selective Service upon reaching the age of majority. That said, the government has no right to the above information for the use of targeting children without the consent of the parents of these children. The military can recruit at work/college fairs (and the like) in the same fashion as do private employers, community colleges, and universities.

What is similarly a violation of personal rights is that Welch and Ybarra found that their high school was empowered through the law to compile the above information, absent – I believe – the “permanent record,” into a booklet of student information that was for sale to anyone for $2.00. That’s right, anyone from pedophiles to the local dentist to Dick Cheney, could buy the book for a couple bucks. In this case, students and their parents could opt out of inclusion in the directory, but doing so would remove the student from being listed in the annual yearbook, from the graduation list in the school newspaper, and from the honor roll. Nice.

Congressman Michael Honda (D-CA) has been working to change the Act to remove this provision. He has been a supporter of the girls’ project, going so far as to arrange a screening in Washington, DC. The film is also being screened at film festivals around the country. A trailer for it can be seen on YouTube. Other information can be found on Salon.com, MotherJones.com, and DemocracyNow.org.