High Schools Aid Military

A little-noticed provision in a new federal education law is requiring high schools to hand over to military recruiters some key information about its juniors and seniors: names, addresses and phone numbers.

The Pentagon says the information will help it recruit young people to defend their country. But the law disturbs parents and administrators in some liberal communities that aren’t exactly gung-ho about the armed forces.

Some say the law violates students’ privacy and creates a moral dilemma over the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy concerning gays.

“I find it appalling that the school is sending out letters to do the job of the military,” said Amy Lang, the parent of a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where Coca-Cola was once banned in a protest against the soda giant’s investments in apartheid South Africa.

The No Child Left Behind law, signed in January, pumps billions into education but also gives military recruiters access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of students in 22,000 schools. The law also says schools must give the military the same access to their campuses that businesses and college recruiters enjoy.

School systems that fail to comply could lose federal money. The measure also applies to private schools receiving federal funding. But Quaker schools and others that have a religious objection to military service can get out of the requirement.

Students and parents who oppose the law can keep their information from being turned over to the military, but they must sign and return an “opt-out” form. The Boston school system, which has 7,500 juniors and seniors, included the opt-out notice in a take-home student handbook, but fewer than a dozen parents opted out.