COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Personnel Crunch
Group Objects To Military Recruitment Ads At Schools
Channel 3000, Local News
November 3, 2007
MADISON, Wis. -- Less than a year ago, the Madison School Board
approved ads at athletic venues to generate additional funding, but
one group is now protesting military recruitment ads.
The ads, which are located just under the scoreboards at four gyms
and two football fields, feature a logo and a phone number for the U.S. Army.
The recruitment ads are part of a three-year deal, with the Army
paying $17,000 Madison Metropolitan School District.
But some residents have questioned whether ads are an appropriate way
to recruit.
Will Williams' military service started in 1962, right out of the
high school. But the Vietnam veteran said he is concerned about the
recruitment ads surfacing on Madison's school grounds.
"That ad is more than what you see there. That ad is followed by the
bombardment of other material that the students deal with in the
schools, with the recruiters present," Williams said.
Williams is a member of the group Truth and Alternatives to
Militarism in Education, which wants the Madison School Board to take
down the ads.
"It's just inappropriate. The kids are getting just advertising all
over the place, everywhere they turn around, military advertising.
It's too much They're children -- let them alone," said David Hoppee,
organizer with TAME.
Madison School Board Treasurer Carol Carstensen said that budget
issues are forcing the board to turn to other resources.
"I was not, and still am not, enthusiastic about this whole idea of
advertising. But I had said we're really strapped, and I'm doing
things I wouldn't ordinarily approve of," Carstensen said.
But Williams said that students shouldn't base decisions on ads they
see at school.
"The best advice if they want to go, is to be informed about it --
ask the right questions and talk to vets, someone that's been there
that knows," Williams said. Carstensen also pointed out that legal
boundaries may not allow the district to prohibit military advertising.
TAME will hold a protest at the Madison School Board meeting at 5:30
p.m. on Monday.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts that receive
federal funds to provide the same access to military recruiters as
they would with other college recruiters. However, advertising is
something the guidelines don't address, WISC-TV reported.
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