Military recruiters have been kept out of Portland Public Schools for six years. (AP File Photo)

Schools' Military Recruiting Ban Might End

December 15, 2001, 10:45 AM

E-mail this story    Print this story

By AP Staff

The Portland School District's six-year-old policy of banning military recruiters on high schools would likely end under an amendment to a national education bill that passed the House this week.

The two-paragraph amendment was inserted in the 1,100-page education reform bill, which will make sweeping changes to the nation's schools including testing in every grade and money to tutor students.

The bill passed the House on Thursday and is expected to clear the Senate next week and be signed by Bush before Christmas.

The amendment requires any school district receiving federal money under the act to allow military recruiters the same access to schools as college or business recruiters.

They must be given the names, addresses and telephone numbers of high school students for recruiting purposes, unless parents object.

The penalty for failing to comply would be loss of federal funds, at the discretion of the U.S. secretary of education.

Portland school board members said they would comply with the law, although some aren't happy about Congress sticking its nose into their affairs.

The district gets about $35 million a year from the federal government, much of it through Elementary and Secondary Education Act grants. About $11 million goes toward helping disadvantaged students.

Board member Marc Abrams wrote the ban against recruiters in 1995 because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays.

"It's disappointing that a congressman in Louisiana can dictate policy to a local school board," Abrams said. "I guess there is local control only when they agree with what you are doing."

Rep. David Vitter, R-La., was the House member who led the original charge to fight the ban. He and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, put the prohibition on the ban in the House version.

"We consider this a major victory," said Vitter's spokesman, Martin Baker. "It means that you take both college recruiters and military recruiters, or you take none at all."

Vitter wrote the ban after hearing of several school districts that made recruiting difficult for the military. But it was the Portland ban "that stuck out like a sore thumb," Baker said.

"My boss thought it was absolutely ridiculous that a group of liberal extremists could bar students from hearing about a legitimate option for their future," he said.

School district spokeswoman Ann Snyder said the board might have to institute a districtwide policy on access by military, college and business recruiters so everyone is treated equally.

Currently, each high school decides when and under what conditions recruiters can visit the campus.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)