San Francisco Board of Education removes JROTC programs because of “don't ask, don't tell” policy
The San Francisco Board of Education has voted 4-2 to phase out Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) programs in the city’s public schools because of the Pentagon’s "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay service members. The board resolution passed says the military's ban on openly gay soldiers violates the school district's equal rights policy for gays. The programs will be phased out over the next two years. The school district and the military currently share the $1.6 million annual cost of the program. About 1,600 San Francisco students participate at seven high schools across the district. Many JROTC cadets and instructors spoke in support of the program at the board meeting preceding the vote, contending that the program teaches leadership, organizational skills, personal responsibility and other important values. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter says he is unaware of any other school district having barred JROTC from its campuses.
Mayor Gavin Newsom believes severing ties with the JROTC is "a bad idea" that penalized students without having any practical effect on the Pentagon's policy on gays in the military. "If people want to participate in it and their families want them to participate, I think they have a right to participate without putting them in the political peril of being in this ideological debate," he says. Leaders of a national effort to overturn anti-gay policies in the armed forces have invited JROTC backers to join in a united effort to abolish don't-ask don't-tell and point out that no gay groups have targeted JROTC, which unlike the Pentagon has policies that include tolerance of anyone who may be openly gay. The mayor's schools liaison, Hydra Mendoza, who won a seat on the school board in the last election, says there appears to be no clear grounds to file legal action against the board, which some have suggested. The mayor says he is certain the vote is an embarrassment to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, but the national politicians seem to be essentially powerless, too, when it comes to changing such a decision by a local school board. The mayor, battle-scarred, tried to buck up the disappointed high school kids, but later said, "I feel more powerless than I've been feeling lately. It's frustrating, very frustrating."
Boston Globe
By Associated Press
[Full story]
San Francisco Chronicle
By Carl T. Hall
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: Can another attempt to reduce the discretion of local school boards be long in coming?]