Parents Opposing Campus Military Recruiters Impact Enlistment Stats
by Jim Brown
November 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - - The U.S. Army says enlistment numbers are down and that this is due in part to parental opposition to recruiting being allowed in schools. More and more parents are expressing angst over military recruiters' presence on school campuses and withholding their children's information from the recruiters. Certain opt-out provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act allow them to remove their children's names from recruiting lists. Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, says the ongoing war on terrorism has definitely had an impact on the military's recruiting efforts.
"Parental concerns about their son's or daughter's safety have affected our ability to make our numbers, in terms of the numbers of recruits," Smith notes. "We think that may be one factor that made it difficult for us in fiscal year 2005," he says, along with "an improving civilian economy, with more job opportunities in the civilian sector."
California Congressman Mike Honda has introduced a bill that would require families to opt in rather than opt out of having their children's contact information released to recruiters. Smith acknowledges that parents have the legal right to withhold their high school-age children's information from recruiters, whether out of concern for their kids' safety or in protest of the Iraq war. However, the Recruiting Command spokesman points out, those parents who choose to opt their sons or daughters out make the Army's recruiting job even more difficult. "Part of maintaining that all-volunteer force is having our recruiters be able to speak to as many potential applicants as possible," he explains.
"We realize that not every high school student and not every person that our recruiters speak to may be interested in an Army enlistment," Smith continues, "but we've got to speak to as many people as we can in order to find those young men and women who do want to answer the call to service."
The U.S. Army failed to meet its Active Army and Reserve recruiting goals in fiscal year 2005, Smith notes, even though that military branch experienced an up-tick in Active Army recruiting during the last five months of the year.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
