1.         The JROTC program costs New York City taxpayers over $2 million

2.         The JROTC program is a major component of the military’s effort to recruit young people; nationwide, approximately 50% of JROTC cadets join the military, as opposed to less than 5% of other students

3.         Even with the Stimulus, the cuts in the Mayor’s proposed budget will mean teacher layoffs, program cutbacks, and deferred maintenance and construction. 

4.         Every dollar is precious, and $2 million is not “chump change”

5.         Through “don’t ask, don’t tell” the military is overtly homophobic, and JROTC follows this policy.  When one of the principal purposes of education in our City is to teach tolerance and an acceptance of difference, the JROTC program sends the wrong message.

You can also send this letter: 

Dear Councilmember:

            I write to urge you to support removal of the approximately $2.4 million appropriation for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) in the Council’s response to the Mayor’s proposed FY 2010 for the Department of Education (DOE). 

            The Mayor’s proposed budget for the DOE does not provide adequate funding to maintain the current level of educational services to the youth of our City.  Larger class sizes, teacher lay-offs, diminution of after-school programs and deferral of needed repairs and construction are the likely result.  Additionally, the State is proposing cuts in education aid, and the historical underfunding of the City’s schools, made clear in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s lawsuit, remains insufficiently addressed.  In this period of fiscal stringency, every taxpayer dollar is needed to make sure that appropriate educational priorities are met. 

            Currently in 19 High Schools, the JROTC program is an important component of the military’s recruitment efforts.  It is simply inappropriate, particularly at this time of extreme financial distress, for the taxpayers of New York City to be subsidizing the Pentagon’s program to staff our Armed Forces.  Our money is needed for our real educational priorities, not to promote militarism within our school system.

            Through its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the military overtly discriminates against LGBT people, and JROTC perpetuates this homophobia.  It is simply inconsistent with the fundamental educational purpose to teach tolerance and respect for the City to be funding an institution that overtly practices bigotry. 

            I look forward to a favorable response to this request.

                                                                                                Sincerely, 

February 24, 2009

Hon. Robert Jackson

250 Broadway

Rm. 1747

New York, NY 10007

Hon. David Weprin

250 Broadway

18^th Floor

New York, NY  10007

                        re: elimination of funding for JROTC in the FY 2010 budget

Dear Councilmembers Jackson and Weprin:

            The undersigned organizations write to ask that in its response to the Mayor’s Budget, the New York City Council, led by its Education and Finance Committees which you chair,  eliminate the approximately $2.3 million of taxpayer funds that will be used to support the JROTC program in the FY 2010 budget for the Department of Education.  At a time when the Mayor’s Budget calls for the laying off thousands of teachers, New York City’s resource-starved educational system can find far better uses for $2.3 million of taxpayer money.      

            While we have been unable to locate the precise budget line proposed for taxpayer support of JROTC in the FY 2010 budget, attached you will find information breaking out the $2,192,313 in the current FY 2009 budget and the $1,872,636 appropriated in the FY 2008 budget. Extrapolating the 8.5% increase from FY 2008 to FY 2009 to the FY 2010 budget leads to a projection of an expenditure of $2,379,536 in FY 2010. 

            As the attached indicates, the Federal government is paying slightly less than half the costs of this program.  We believe that this sets a dangerous precedent of having individuals who do not possess the requisite qualifications to be a New York State certified-teacher to be employed in the DOE. 

            But more importantly, JROTC should be just about the lowest priority for the NYC DOE in the current or any other budget.  You know better than most how under-resourced the City’s schools have been and continue to be, whether it be for classrooms, textbooks, teacher salaries, full time kindergarten - the list of desperate funding needs is long, and growing under the Mayor’s Budget, a problem that the Federal stimulus bill will not solve.  If the JROTC program is so vital to the Federal government, it should be willing to fund it, rather than making this yet another unfunded mandate on our municipality. 

            The overwhelming majority of NYC taxpayers have no idea that they are funding JROTC, and we submit that if they were informed of this fact, they would act to oppose such funding.  We understand that the Mayor has included funding for JROTC in his proposed FY 2010 budget.  The budgetary process allows the Council to make changes in the Mayor’s budget, and the undersigned organizations urge the Council to eliminate this line item in its response to the Mayor’s budget.  This unnecessary subsidy towards militarism should have no place in City’s FY 2010 budget, and we ask that you and the Council act promptly to recover these funds for far more important educational priorities.   

            We look forward to your, and the Council’s leadership on this significant educational issue.   This letter is being delivered to Speaker Christine Quinn and to all Members of the Council.

May we please hear from you.

                                                                                    Very Truly Yours

Lisa North

UFTers To Stop The War

Lucy Koteen, President

Central Brooklyn Independent Democats

Rosemarie Pace, Director

Pax Christi Metro New York

Barbara Harris, Chair Counterrecruitment

Code Pink NYC Women For Peace

Judy Lear, Convenor

Gray Panthers, NYC

Gloria Mattera, Coordinating Committee

Park Slope Greens

Leslie Kielson

United for Peace and Justice, NYC

Eva Lee- Baird

Granny Peace  Brigade

Joan Wile, Founder/Director
Grandmothers Against the War

Lillian Rydell, President

Westside Peace Action

Jim Moschella

War Resisters League, NYC

Molly Klopot, Chair

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, NY Metro (WILPF)

Abby Scher, Chair

Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture Social Action Committee

Cheryl Wertz, Executive Director

Peace Action New York State

David Tykulsker, Vice Chair

Brooklyn For Peace

Jessica Watson-Crosby

Black Radical Congress – NYC

Michael Hersh

Metro NY, Progressive Democrats of America

Perry O’Brien

Iraq Veterans Against War Chapter 2

cc:        Christine Quinn, Speaker

            all members of City Council

Individuals signing on:

Elaine Brower
Mother of United States Marine Corps. Reservist on 3rd tour of duty in Iraq
New York City Chapter, Military Families Speak Out

Our site offers lots of information about how to apply for college, pay for college and stay in college.  We have information about vocational training and internships and service programs.  And if you are thinking of enlisting, we tell you things to ask; if you have signed up, we can suggest ways to get out.

          But we don’t just want to give you information.  We want to know what you think –about the military in your schools and neighborhoods, –about the kinds of jobs and education you want,–about what your government is doing in your name. 

          So we have set up this blog.  We want to get you talking about what is on your mind.