In recent years, the military and its supporters have been promoting the idea of a substantial increase in the number of high schools with JROTC—up to 6,000 in one proposal. In the context of this possible expansion of the program, Project YANO felt it was time to take a look at textbooks that are currently being used in JROTC classes. To accomplish this, a team of 15 volunteer reviewers was recruited. The reviewers have backgrounds in either classroom teaching or education activism, or special knowledge of subjects that JROTC claims to address in its curriculum (examples are U.S. and world history, geography, civil rights, violence prevention, sexual assault, leadership methods, etc.). The team included current and retired high school teachers, a documentary film producer, military veterans, and several educators with PhD credentials.

The bulk of this report consists of a compilation of selected excerpts from Army, Navy and Marine Corps JROTC textbooks, along with reviewer comments. Eleven textbooks were reviewed, three of which were being used by the Army in digital format for remote instruction during the pandemic-affected 2020-2021 school year.

In this publication, QUNO questions the presence and influence of the military in primary and secondary education from a peace and human rights perspective. Concerned at the military’s involvement in schools and the militarization of education, QUNO draws attention to relevant international human rights standards that promote education for peace./ Quaker United Nations Office

Author: Emily Graham

The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), in collaboration with Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities - Project YANO,, has developed a new resource called, Guide to Removing Marksmanship Training from High Schools. This guide documents the process and strategies learned by the Education Not Arms Coalition comprised of students, teachers, and parents that successfully lobbied the San Diego California City school board for the removal of Shooting Ranges from eleven high schools in 2009 and adopting a zero-tolerance policy for marksmanship training in their school district. 

NNOMY recommends this proven strategy for organizing a campaign for the removal of marksmanship training on a school district level thus accomplishing an important aspect of school demilitarization.

Here are some of the accomplishments of the Education Not Arms Coalition strategy:

• School Board Votes to End Weapons Training in their school district.
  
• Marine Corps JROTC at one San Diego school fell so low that the unit was eventually forced to leave.
• Shooting ranges from eleven high schools in the San Diego school  district were closed in 2009

An Alternative Report to the U.S. Government Initial Report to CRC OPAC scheduled for review by the Committee on the Rights of the Child during its 48th Session in May - June 2008. Submitted by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – U.S. Section - Nov. 15, 2007

Despite constituting the formal mechanism by which states and militaries persuade and enrol their personnel, military recruitment is poorly understood in the social and political sciences. Tied either to a normative and partisan sociology which aims to provide applied solutions for recruitment and retention programmes, or subsumed under a broad banner, by critical scholars, of a global ‘cultural condition’ of militarisation, studies of recruitment lack the rigour they should be afforded. In exploring these issues, the paper offers a vision of critical military studies which takes seriously the efforts of counter-military recruiting activist and protest movements in the US and UK. Counter-recruitment activism is billed as the most practical way to resist policies of militarism and militarisation. In promoting locally situated, practical solutions to the effects of militarised cultures (often as part of activism in schools), it aims to expose the relationship between, and acts to correct, both local and global injustices. In reviewing the practical and conceptual basis for counter-recruiting strategies, and speaking to broader movements in feminist scholarship on militarisation, the paper demonstrates the importance of critical studies of military recruitment, and in so doing, argues for a critical military studies which is situated amidst the people and places militarism affects.

WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MILITARY RECRUITING, MILITARY LIFE, AND VETERAN AFFAIRS BEFORE ENLISTING.

A Report Prepared by The Constitutional Litigation Clinic Rutgers School of Law-Newark October 2011

The decision to join the military is a very serious one. Enlisting in the Armed Forces is an irreversible commitment to spend at least three years at war. Teenagers considering enlisting should do so based on an honest and straightforward appraisal of the facts, rather than on glossy advertising campaigns that glamorize military service without acknowledging its dangers. Parents and children considering enlistment should be aware that: The military uses aggressive recruiting tactics and spends billions on advertising firms to convince students to sign up for military service. - submitted by yayanetnyc

A Report Prepared by The Constitutional Litigation Clinic, Rutgers School of Law-Newark, November 2008

This report presents facts about military recruitment and military service to help parents and students determine whether joining the military is appropriate or necessary. This Executive Summary of the report summarizes the detailed information contained in the rest of the report.

This article offers a case study of the militarization of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
First, we portray the landscape of militarization of education through the example of Chicago Public Schools. Second, we situate the militarization of schools within the current charter school movement. Third, we explain the impact of militarization on youth and critique the view that military academies and military programs are appropriate as public education models. Fourth, with a lengthy appendix, we provide readers with tools to work against the militarization of public schools within their communities.

Confronting Unregulated Military Recruitment in New York City Public Schools (2007)

As the United States military intensifies its recruitment activities inside public high schools to meet wartime quotas, careful oversight of military recruitment tactics in schools is critical. The federal No Child Left Behind Law of 2001 grants the military wide access to public high schools and students’ personal information. While United States Army statistics list New York City as a top source for enlistment, the full extent of military recruitment efforts in New York City public schools remains unknown.

Source: New York Civil Liberties Union