Military-backed public schools on the rise

updated 4:01 p.m. ET June 4, 2009

ATLANTA - The U.S. Marine Corps is wooing public school districts across the country, expanding a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it's a recruiting ploy.

The Marines are talking with at least six districts — including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas — about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes, said Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines.

Those schools would be on top of more than a dozen public military academies that have already opened nationwide, a trend that's picking up speed as the U.S. Department of Defense looks for ways to increase the number of units in Junior ROTC, which stands for Reserve Officers Training Corps.

"Many kids in our country don't get a fair shake. Many kids live in war zones. Many kids who are bright and have so much potential and so much to offer, all they need to be given is a chance," McHenry said. "If you look at stats, what we're doing now isn't working."

Last year, Congress passed a defense policy bill that included a call for increasing the number of Junior ROTC units across the country from 3,400 to 3,700 in the next 11 years, an effort that will cost about $170 million, Defense Department spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez said. The process will go faster by opening military academies, which count as four or more units, McHenry said.

Other military branches also are aiming to increase their presence in school hallways, but the Marines are leading the charge.

Parents protest in Atlanta
In DeKalb County, which includes part of Atlanta, protests by parents and threats of lawsuits began almost as soon as the school board announced last year that it planned to open a Marine Corps high school. The district wanted to open it this fall, but the approval process in Washington has delayed that. The district hopes to open the school in fall 2010.

Critics like Mike Hearington, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran whose son attends Shamrock Middle School in DeKalb County, say the schools are breeding grounds for the military.

"To pursue children like they are is criminal in my mind," Hearington said.

Between 5 percent and 10 percent of graduating seniors from the nation's public military schools end up enlisting, according to an Associated Press review of the majority of the schools' records. About 3 percent of all new high school graduates join the military, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Proponents say the academies aren't recruiting tools but focus on discipline, ethics and civics, giving at-risk teens a place where they can flourish to help battle the country's high school dropout rate of one in four kids.

"The whole notion behind this is that there is so much literature out there and myth that kids from low socio-economic levels can't learn and won't learn," said DeKalb County schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis. "We are partnering with the Marines to show if we come together and do this right, we will debunk that whole stereotype."

The first public military school in the U.S. opened in Richmond, Va., in 1980. Since then, about a dozen have been added with the number increasing over the last five years as struggling districts look for innovative ways to meet federal No Child Left Behind standards.

District would get $1.4 million
In DeKalb County, the school district would get about $500,000 a year plus $1.4 million in startup funds from the Marines, Lewis said. The school would open with 150 cadets, growing eventually to about 650 drawn from a pool of low-performing students who have high test scores and want to attend, Lewis said.

The academy would be much like a typical high school, except students would wear ROTC uniforms and start each day with a military formation and inspection. Besides Spanish club and debate team, students can sign up for military drill team and color guard. The school's principal likely will be a retired Marine.

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