A small group in opposition to the jrotc program attend the meeting of the San Francisco School Board which is deciding whether the JROTC program, which was just recently upheld, will be eligible for physical education credit.
Posted on 06/10/2009 7:50:04 AM PDT by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO -- After three years of emotional debate and back-and-forth votes, the San Francisco school board Tuesday night hit the reset button on the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, restoring the program to nearly its original condition before the 2006 effort to kill it.
The board voted 4-3 to allow the JROTC program to satisfy physical education requirements - something needed to maintain enrollment numbers that financially justify the program at seven district high schools.
The measure gives JROTC students the option to earn P.E. credit through independent study.
The vote is the latest in a nearly three-year battle over the fate of the military leadership training program, starting with the 2006 vote to phase it out and another in 2008 to stop giving participating students P.E. credit.
For years, students took JROTC in lieu of gym class, exempting them from a requirement to take two years of P.E. The board stopped that practice a year ago, saying it was unclear whether the courses met state physical education requirements, making the district vulnerable to a lawsuit.
JROTC enrollment dropped to 500 this year, down from about 1,600 students the year before. Students said they didn't have enough time in their schedules to take both P.E. and JROTC.
A dozen JROTC students spoke during the meeting, urging the board to adopt the resolution.
"Without (JROTC), I wouldn't be as physically fit as I am," said Lowell High School sophomore Richard Kuan. "I think this program is working."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
A small group in opposition to the jrotc program attend the meeting of the San Francisco School Board which is deciding whether the JROTC program, which was just recently upheld, will be eligible for physical education credit.
American’s best and brightest . . . with too much time on their hands
I always wonder what the peaceniks think we should do in a dangerous world if attacked. We did not start the “overseas contingency operation” which shifted into high gear after Sept. 11th. Do these masked people want to go teach peace to Bin Laden?
San Fran. had disputes about JROTC also because of the whole gays in the military issue. The very very liberal people in SF wanted to make a political statement about that issue through the JROTC protests.
proud to say that my son attends a hybrid homeschool/classroom school that provides a JROTC program.
I pretty familiar with the JROTC program in San Francisco.
I hire most of my summer help from the program. Good kids, hard workers, more discipline and manners than your average teenager, and they want to get ahead in life.
Almost all of the kids in JROTC are Asians and Latins. Most are immigrants.
When I’ve gone to meetings to support the kids, I noticed every one of those against JROTC were white.
All of them came from “nice” neighbourhoods, not the barrios,slums and working class neighbourhoods like the JROTC kids.
I told the Board that, “This is just another racist plot to keep brown kids down and the white protestors just wanted to impose their Eurocentric views.”
LOL.
I thought I was going to be lynched but it did get a raise out of them.
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