Ending City Funding for the
Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps

The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) is a Defense Department program that is now in at least 19 NYC high schools. Despite being billed as an educational program, a principal purpose is to recruit high school students for the military.

Last year, approximately $2 million of the City's education budget went to pay for the JROTC program — the Federal government put in about the same amount. A similar appropriation is in this year's budget, currently being considered by the City Council. As the longstanding efforts by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity have shown, the City's schools are woefully underfunded. Whatever one may think of the JROTC program (and there are lots of good reasons to oppose it), at this time of fiscal stress, there's no good reason to be wasting $2 million of much needed educational resources on this program.

We ask you to:

1. Contact Robert Jackson, Chair of the Council's Education Committee, to ask him to hold hearings on the JROTC program with a view to ending the City's line item appropriation.
   Email: RJackson@council.nyc.gov
   Telephone: 212-788-7007
   FAX: 212-788-9190
   Postal mail: 250 Broadway, Rm. 1747, New York, NY 10007
   Here's our letter to Councilmember Jackson
    
   
2. Contact YOUR CITY COUNCIL MEMBER to ask her or him to eliminate the JROTC appropriation line item in the Department of Education (DOE) Budget for JROTC. Figure out who represents you in the City Council.
    
   
3. Have your organization (PTA, union, block association etc.) pass a resolution urging the City Council to eliminate JROTC funding from the NYC DOE budget