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Events
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Thursday, February 07, 2008
The Cincinnati Public Schools: Military Recruitment in the Guise of College Prep?
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Photo courtesy of here.
Guest article by Reed La Botz and Dan La Botz*
The Cincinnati Public Schools appear to be promoting military recruitment in the guise of college preparation through a corporate program called “Making Your College Search Count.” Students at Walnut Hills High School spent fifty minutes this week in a required assembly listening to a talk about getting into college, and though the presenter never mentioned the military, the military option was ever present.
Sponsored by the Navy, the Marines, the Army ROTC, and the National Guard, as well as by major oil companies, Halliburton, the virtual University of Phoenix, and commercial websites such as Monster, the program offers students tips on making the most of their college visits and help on how to choose a college. It also asks them which military service they’d like to join—and makes it easy to find the recruiter.
The Military Option
While the program provides useful information about getting into college, students can’t help but get the message that the military can be the best route there, especially for those who need financial assistance.
Students attending the presentations receive a small booklet with four pages of military advertisements. On one page students see a young man in an Army ROTC t-shirt climbing a wall above the headline “Start Out Strong.” On the facing page are questions that ask students how they might pay for college. The suggestion seems clear enough.
The closing page of the booklet has a picture of an iPod saying: “National Guard…100% College Tuition.” An asterisk on that line points out in fine print that the Guard assistance covers up to $4,500 in tuition and fees per year, though most public colleges cost at least $17,000 a year, according to the same booklet.
Since the program is presented each year to students from freshmen to seniors, there are multiple opportunities for the military services to get their message across. The group’s website (http://www.makingitcount.org) printed on nearly every page of the booklet is filled with corporate and military logos and advertisements.
Students who participated in the Making Your College Search Count dog-and-pony show at Walnut Hills this year got trinkets from the University of Phoenix and baseball caps from the U.S. Navy.
A Corporate Program
Making Your College Search Count grew out of a book by Patrick O’Brien, former brand manager for Procter & Gamble, the Cincinnati-based multinational corporation. In 1987 he prepared notes for discussions of college with his younger sister which subsequently became the outline for his book Making College Count: A Real World Look at How to Succeed In and After College published in 1987.
O’Brien’s book in turn led to the creation of the Making Your College Search Count road show sponsored by Fortune 500 corporations, among them IBM, Procter and Gamble, General Motors, PNC Bank and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. Making Your College Search Count has been presented to millions of students in thousands of high schools.
An oil industry ad in the booklet reads: “The People of America’s Oil and Natural Gas Industry” invite students to “Make the Earth Your Office…and Hold the Future in Your Hands.” Below the ad we find the logos of Shell, Chevron, BP, Halliburton, Marathon, ExxonMobil, and other corporations.
The final page asks students “What Did You Think?” Students are asked to check a box if they want more information about the University of Phoenix, the U.S. Navy, the Army ROTC, the Marines, the National Guard, Bank of America, or careers in the oil industry.
Why Turn to Corporate Military Counseling?
Why have thousands of schools turned to a corporate-military program to advise their students about college? Low school budgets, the failure of school levies, the lack of adequate personnel in general and of counselors in particular may be one of the reasons that schools go the corporate route.
Some public schools such as Walnut Hills have made efforts to limit military recruiting and to restrict recruiters to specific areas on campus. A program like this turns college prep into military recruitment and into business for Bank of America.
Haliburton? The oil companies? The Army? The Marines? Don’t worry. They’re just helping kids get into college.
*Reed La Botz is a junior at Walnut Hills High School, a Cincinnati Public School. Dan La Botz is the parent of two students who have attended Cincinnati Public Schools. Reed is a web designer and Dan an independent scholar and writer.
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If you are not familiar with our rules for leaving comments, click here! The Cincinnati Beacon is not responsible for the contents of any comments. Comments do not represent the views of the moderators of The Cincinnati Beacon.
07 Feb 2008 at 12:27 pm | #
JFD, please stop with your scary delusions of being in an armed militia and marching through the streets of Clifton Heights.
You know an independent scholar and writer, as in someone that has written several books and taught at different Universities. Is Dan a know it all? No, but he sure has put out some thought provoking work which is quite refreshing compared to the useless drivel we get from smart ass blog trolls like you. Is that really the best you can do Bill?
07 Feb 2008 at 02:22 pm | #
JFD’s response is off-topic and a personal attack on the author, and thus in violation of the rules. Delete it.
Then maybe he will address the content of the piece.
07 Feb 2008 at 03:27 pm | #
Good point anon. Bill Landeck/JFD shouldn’t be making off-topic petty personal attacks and we shouldn’t post them. He has a bad habit of this and he has been warned many times about this in the past, therefore I will delete his off topic attack.
I doubt he will actually address the content of the peice, but that’s just fine too. I think this is another fine peice by Dan and it’s great to see his son becoming so engaged at a young age.
I’d like to thank Reed and Dan for sharing it and you for reading the Cincinnati Beacon.
07 Feb 2008 at 03:30 pm | #
Way to go, Walnut Hills. You just submitted students to a mandatory 50 minute commercial under the auspices of providing information about negotiating the college decision process--information probably best provided by counselors, teachers, and parents without the quite obvious purpose of recruiting for the military.
More to the point, you encouraged your students to provide, without parental consent, their personal information on paper or online to strangers, some of whom are known stalkers and predators. I am outraged that you would endanger children in this way.http://www.yayanetwork.org/dep
http://yayanetwork.org/recruiters_school
I wonder how many credit card offers these students will now receive from the banks and oil companies? Are you offering classes on managing debt? How many years will they have to be harrassed by recruiters if they change their minds?
What is your next mandatory assembly? Making Consumerism Count? “Give us your name and address and we will sell it to direct mailing lists. Your Victoria’s Secret, Ambercrombie and Fitch, book/cd club, gardening, and adult material catalogs will arrive soon!”
No Child Left Behind legislates that schools must provide military recruiter access to students equal to that provided to colleges and university or lose federal funding. The same section of that legislation specifies that parents may “request that the student’s name, address, and telephone listing. not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.”
The CPS opt-out form explicitly states that parents, legal guardians, or students OVER THE AGE OF 18 may ask that their information be released to the general public or the military. http://www.ijpc-cincinnati.org/truth/opt_out_form.htm
Are there other counter-recruitment policies in CPS? The courts have rules that the subject of military service is controversial and political in nature, and schools must allow students access to counter-recruitment information. http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/militarism-in-schools/equal-access.htm
Were these materials handed out at the assembly as well?
BTW Thanks for providing the information as to some of corporations benefitting from the continuing war.
07 Feb 2008 at 06:24 pm | #
Let’s see NOW…
The military got my 33 year old brother with a Master’s degreee. You are wondering why and how would an educated liberal young man with a family fall for this crapola?
All in a letter notarized and sealed:
1. No deployment for first 3 years- He is now in Iraq- just 15 months into his first 3 years!!! LIE #1.
2. We will pay off all your student loans at the end of your first 3 years. - This has been changed to read- We “might” be able to pay off your student loans with your NEXT 3 year re-enlistment! LIE#2
3. We will only send you to a base that is located near a major metropolitian city that has close access for your family to travel for visits.- Well if you want to consider 2 air transfers and or an 11 hour drive and the fact that there is only 1 grocery store within a 20 minute drive of their house and the only other place to go shopping for clothes is 2 hours away major metropolitian- OK- LIE#3
4. You will never have to learn how to fire a weapon. You are considered medical corps. - 6 weeks of military training including 1 weeks of weapons training and 2 week of logistics training. And he is thanking God he really was an Eagle Scout for that one!- but LIE # 4
And the best one yet- Don’t worry- you will be promoted to Captain within your first year due to your degrees. LIE #5.
All of this is in writing and when he challenged it- was told it doesn’t mean a thing.
So much for their word.
RUN STUDENTS RUN THEY ALL LIE!!!!!!
07 Feb 2008 at 07:07 pm | #
I remember when I turned 18. I got quite a few calls from “Sgt. Slaughter” trying to recruit me for the armed forces. One “No, I’m not interested didn’t seem to be enough.”
What I found most interesting was that “Sgt. Slaughter” was a character on the fairly popular Saturday morning cartoon “G.I. Joe”. I’m pretty sure the recruiters name wasn’t really Sgt. Slaughter.
07 Feb 2008 at 07:19 pm | #
That said, here is an interesting article on bankrate.com about 7 alternate ways to pay for college.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cheap/20030528a1.asp
10 Feb 2008 at 07:00 pm | #
What is wrong with the Walnut students? Where is the Ghost of Jerry Rubin and the spirit to get them to walk out of something like this? Are they all now corporate little snots like Mommie and Daddy? How embarassing!
11 Feb 2008 at 02:46 pm | #
When I was at Walnut, Jerry Rubin came to speak across the street from the school. He chastised the kids who came to get back into school and start applying themselves to learning.