No on V: Military Out of Our Schools

It is time for JROTC to go.

San Francisco School Board
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 – 6:00 pm
555 Franklin Street at McAllister

The San Francisco Board of Education voted over two years ago to phase out the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. JROTC is run by the Pentagon and their hand-picked military instructors. It is scheduled to end this June.

But the Pentagon and their allies are trying to overturn the school board decision and preserve their beachhead in our schools. At next Tuesday’s school board meeting, Jill Wynns is introducing a resolution to keep the military program.

The school board voted to phase out JROTC because San Franciscans do not want the military in our schools, a military that preys on working class youth, particularly from communities of color. Nor do San Franciscans support a program that won’t hire openly LGBT instructors in line with the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. JROTC targets children as young as 14 and 15.

JROTC costs school district taxpayers one million dollars per year. Why should we fund a military program when teachers are facing mass layoffs?

Last November, downtown and military money funded the “Yes on V” campaign, supposedly aimed at supporting JROTC, but really aimed at creating a “wedge issue” to defeat progressive candidates for the Board of Supervisors. They poured $200,000 into this campaign, gained a small victory with Prop V, but lost every Supervisor campaign. Despite being out-spent 15 to 1, the anti-JROTC and pro-people forces got nearly 150,000 votes.

Come to the School Board meeting on Tuesday, March 24, and help give the boot to the military!