General News
Delegates vote to oppose supplying military recruiters with student information
Aug 9, 2007 5:37 PM
Debate at the June 13 Delegate Assembly centered on a proposal to put the union on record opposing the linking of federal school aid to the release of personal student information to military recruiters.
The February 2007 Delegate Assembly had already put the union against military recruiters visiting the schools, and this resolution was meant to reinforce that stand by both opposing releasing information to recruiters and “oppos[ing] any legislation that makes the payment of federal government educational support to school districts, including Title I funds, contingent upon the release of personal student information to armed forces recruiters.”
Aviation HS Chapter Leader Jerome Froehnhofer, who said he had a son stationed in Iraq, opposed the resolution, arguing that the United States “relies on volunteers” and “needs an effective military force, and the way to do that is through military recruitment.”
In response, UFT Special Representative Leo Casey argued that the resolution did not prohibit recruiting, but argued that Title I funding should no longer be contingent on turning over student information. Casey argued that military recruiters often are pushed to fill quotas and make promises they can’t keep, and that the practice “hurts our kids.”
The resolution’s initial language committed the UFT to oppose the release of student data only “for the duration of the war in Iraq,” but after New York City Museum School Chapter Leader Jonathan Lessuck argued that military recruitment disproportionately targets low-income students both in wartime and in peacetime, the phrase was dropped and the resolution as amended passed overwhelmingly.
In other resolutions, the Delegate Assembly unanimously and without debate agreed to:
- Work to improve the cost-of-living allowance (COLA) for retires by seeking legislation to base COLA increases on 100 percent of one’s pension and on the full consumer price index, as well as to eliminate the waiting period to receive COLA while enhancing inflation protection for older retirees;
- Oppose the Bush administration’s proposal to tax health insurance benefits;
- Strengthen gun control legislation by making the same stringent rules applicable to all the states and territories;
- Support Project Arts by keeping its funding dedicated in the city budget and opposing the reduction or diversion of arts education funding in city schools;
- Demand that Congress and the Bush administration guarantee regular veteran health-care funding by making the funding mandatory rather than discretionary; and
- Create a UFT task force to study the needs of the city schools’ large number of English Language learners and “make recommendations that will help teachers and guide UFT policy.”
