Military role
We applaud the article “Reading, writing, recruiting?” for drawing attention to the increasing shift in Chicago Public Schools — from a civilian function, to a military role. As faculty members who prepare educators to teach in Chicago’s schools, we know that Chicago’s students hope for skills and opportunities. Instead of preparing all students to enter college and find satisfying employment, the city’s administration is directing them to the armed forces.
As the reporters noted, Chicago has the largest JROTC program in the nation, and leads the nation in the establishment of Department of Defense-run public high schools, where students study subjects like military history and enlist after graduation at rates as high as 40 percent, according to the Chicago Public Schools’ JROTC Web site.
Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, echoing the consumer-centered rhetoric of the No Child Left Behind Act, supports military schools as “choices” for students and families.
However, by offering a second-rate education, military public schools leave all their children behind.
These Department of Defense-assisted schools enroll predominantly low-income families of color. For a global city, this policy decision that results in explicit public tracking is more than an embarrassment. It rejects the primary civilian function of public education in a democracy — preparing our city’s children to be citizens, parents, workers and thinkers, not soldiers. We call for an immediate moratorium on the establishment of any Department of Defense-assisted military public schools in Chicago, and ask Mayor Richard M. Daley to establish a task force to assess the quality of the existing Department of Defense-assisted public schools.
Erica R. Meiners, Associate professor, Educational Leadership and Development, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago; Therese Quinn, Assistant professor, Art Education, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
