Help keep a AFJROTC program at Foster High School

[Robert Hartigan]

I am posting this here in hopes that CAPTalkers will help.

I was asked to sign an online petition by Patricia L. Jackson. Patricia's passion for effective leadership and organizational success is reflected in her writing, consulting and speaking. As the author of the book, "Doing the Opposite"; Insights for New Leadership Success, Patricia understands that effective leadership requires more than a title and a corner office. Patricia is the founder and president of Xpect Results, a management solutions firm focused on helping organizations maximize their leadership and organizational strategies. As an entrepreneur, consultant and sought after speaker and facilitator, Patricia has worked with hundreds of senior leadership executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 to Fortune 50 corporations, colleges and nonprofits.

She asked me a personal favor... She created a petition to try to save her daughter's high school Jr. ROTC program scheduled to close on June 30th. I am personally asking you to sign the below petition to help her garner support and hopefully keep this very worthwhile program alive.

Please help us save Foster High School's Jr. ROTC program http://www.change.org/petitions/gene-tomas-save-foster-s-high-school-jr-rotc-program#. Gene Tomas: Save Foster's High School Jr. ROTC program

As you know from your own experience with cadet programs, albeit in CAP,  the students currently enrolled in Fosters Jr. ROTC program are passionate about the leadership skills they have developed because of this program.  Fosters Jr. ROTC students should not have to choose between continuing in a program that encourages leadership and community service and seeing their program come to an end at their school on June 30, 2013 due to the lack of school leadership support and low enrollment numbers.  The objectives of the JR. ROTC program is to promote  citizenship, community service, responsibility, and build character, all the things that we want for our children.   Foster administrators must find a way to allow this program to continue at Foster High School and meet the enrollment needs to sustain it.

[LGM30GMCC]

While this is certainly a noble effort, keep in mind the following from the AFJROTC brochure for schools: "Based on program experience, the average cost borne by the host school for the instructor team (one officer and one NCO) is $30,000 to $34,000 annually"

That is not an insignificant cost in this day and age of generally tight budgets, especially for what essentially amounts to an 'optional' program.

Best of luck to the program and finding a way that works for the cadets and the school.

[Eclipse]

How are anonymous people who aren't even remotely connected to this school going to influence this?

Further, the petition itself says the decision to terminate the program is because of low enrollment, which means that the
students themselves aren't interested.

I'm also not clear what the commercial for Ms. Jackson's company has to do with JROTC.

[Private Investigator]

If the AFJROTC program is dying at a public high school. Let it be. I have always thought CAP would be a better program for teenagers, JMHO.

[Garibaldi]

If the AFJROTC program is dying at a public high school. Let it be. I have always thought CAP would be a better program for teenagers, JMHO.

Would we then get ABUs?
/runs

[Майор Хаткевич]

If the AFJROTC program is dying at a public high school. Let it be. I have always thought CAP would be a better program for teenagers, JMHO.

Would we then get ABUs?
/runs

Nice!

[Rick-DEL]

If the AFJROTC program is dying at a public high school. Let it be. I have always thought CAP would be a better program for teenagers, JMHO.

Would we then get ABUs?
/runs

Nice!

Ok, ABU thread number 2,451. Nice. So, when are we getting them?  (sorry, had to do it)

[EMT-83]

You do know that on-line petitions aren't worth the paper they're written on, right?

[a2capt]

Sometimes they can be

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/isnt-petition-response-youre-looking

[Dad2-4]

Since neither the OP nor the petition made mention of where this school is, I was able to find out from one comment on the petition page. My youngest son attended Foster High School near Richmond, Texas for 2 years. I find it interesting that the program would be closing due to lack of enrollment. It'a fairly large school with students of mostly middle to upper middle income families from bedroom communities west of Houston. Being in SW Texas, football and other sports are a big deal. It makes me wonder why JROTC enrollment is so far down that the school would be closing the program. AFAIK most Fort Bend County Schools have JROTC.

[LGM30GMCC]

I think to some extent after 11 years of being at war, the military has lost some of its appeal. Kinda the whole 'Holy crap, I could go over there and come back seriously hurt mentally and/or physically?'

Additionally, the idea of service at all has given way even more to the power of the almighty dollar. Teens are being told that money is important above all things, and the military certainly isn't a great place to make a lot of money.

Finally our culture has become even more about 'me' versus 'us' regardless of the level of income. It's all about getting ahead, and being on top, no matter if that's your own little trash heap or being the most powerful of a huge multi-national corporation. A lot of cultural pushes are about being about 'me' and my 'individuality' and 'independence'

People talk about a fear of 'indoctrination' or 'socialism' or 'authoritarianism', and all three of these are prevalent in a military environment. In many ways both sides of the political spectrum have made aspects of the military extremely unattractive to people.

[SARDOC]

If the problem is anything like the cancellation of the JROTC from the High School I attended it's because the Sponsoring military services have less funding available to help pay instructors, textbooks, uniforms, activities, etc...making the school districts come up with the balance of the money to operate the program IAW standards.

My School District that I attended relatively rural in nature does not have to tax base or financial ability to accommodate the program so they've decided to close the JROTC program although the enrollment was very high.

JROTC Alumni for the last Twenty years and cadets currently enrolled in the program wrote letters testifying how the program gave them the opportunities and the success they have become today and ultimately it came down to the fact there was not enough money for them to just meet academic requirements not withstanding the JROTC elective.

The program was cancelled last year.

[FARRIER]

Quoting Rahm Emanuel, "Never let a crisis go to waste". Where ever this school is located, if I were the Wing Commander, I would be getting ready to absorb these cadets. I'm not saying don't fight the good fight, but have a plan "B", CAP .

[Dad2-4]

Where ever this school is located, if I were the Wing Commander, I would be getting ready to absorb these cadets. I'm not saying don't fight the good fight, but have a plan "B", CAP .

That would be Group IV, TXWG. There are squadrons just north and east of this school that could benefit from a good influx of cadets. TX179 Thunderbird Squadron, and TX360 Sugar Land Composite Squadron. Anyone in that area should give the commanders a heads up. Maj. White at Thunderbird (according to the TXWG website), and LtCol. Radford of Sugar Land. Wing CC is Col. Cima who is from Katy, not far from this school as well.
Mod to my last posting: "Lamar School District", not Fort Bend County Schools.

[Patterson]

I spent time going through the AFJROTC curriculum recently, reading the texts and speaking to current Cadets that are dual enrolled in my Squadron.  I was expecting the ROTC curriculum to be either on par with CAP or better.  How disappointing it was to really explore the material.

JROTC as a whole is on a downslope.  Granted there are great units, but that is merely attributable to the current instructors. A search online will provide both GAO and USAF reports that detail a multitude of failings of the AFJROTC program. 

Furthermore, Air University has briefing papers on thier .mil side that propose shutting 30-40% of all JROTC detachments in an effort to meet the DoD budget demands.

Uniforms, computers and new text books each year are by no means cheap.  AFJROTC sends near $300,000 worth of new uniforms to DLA each year for disposal.  It is such a wasteful program in whole, so much so that it will be forced to change its entire operation for it to survive in th years ahead.

The military no longer needs to recruit through the schoolhouse environments, especially when enormous personnel cuts are on the near horizon.

[FARRIER]

I spent time going through the AFJROTC curriculum recently, reading the texts and speaking to current Cadets that are dual enrolled in my Squadron.  I was expecting the ROTC curriculum to be either on par with CAP or better.  How disappointing it was to really explore the material.

JROTC as a whole is on a downslope.  Granted there are great units, but that is merely attributable to the current instructors. A search online will provide both GAO and USAF reports that detail a multitude of failings of the AFJROTC program. 

Furthermore, Air University has briefing papers on thier .mil side that propose shutting 30-40% of all JROTC detachments in an effort to meet the DoD budget demands.

Uniforms, computers and new text books each year are by no means cheap.  AFJROTC sends near $300,000 worth of new uniforms to DLA each year for disposal.  It is such a wasteful program in whole, so much so that it will be forced to change its entire operation for it to survive in th years ahead.

The military no longer needs to recruit through the schoolhouse environments, especially when enormous personnel cuts are on the near horizon.

Out of curiosity, why are they not reissuing the used uniforms?

[SarDragon]

Yeah. When I was with my last composite squadron, our major source of uniforms was a local AFJROTC unit. They would call us at the end of each school year, and someone would go pick up a crap-ton of stuff, sign the receipt, and get everyone fitted out. The blue shirts were frequently trashed, but that's the cheapest item, anyway.

[Patterson]

JROTC (especially AF) is extremely wasteful in terms of resources and funding.  The only two pieces of clothing allowed to be reissued are dress shoes and boots and only to those Cadets that have reenrolled for the next school year.

The report which will be made public by the Air Force on the future of the Reserve and Guard (and the ROTC/ JROTC Programs) within two weeks will be a huge blow to those programs. 

CAP is correctly positioning itself to replace those JROTC detachments that will be shuttered in the years ahead.

[Private Investigator]

Yeah. When I was with my last composite squadron, our major source of uniforms was a local AFJROTC unit. They would call us at the end of each school year, and someone would go pick up a crap-ton of stuff, sign the receipt, and get everyone fitted out. The blue shirts were frequently trashed, but that's the cheapest item, anyway.

Years ago we got 150 pairs of mens uniform shoes and two pair of women's uniform shoes, size XL and XXXL. We had so many shoes that we offerred them to anyone who would come and get them including senior members.

[abdsp51]

WIWAC in both programs I got a lot out of AFJROTC.  The only uniform items we kept was our belts and shoes if we were coming back the following year and everything was issued and reissued.  If the AFJROTC is failing in any regards it is due to the poor caliber of instructors hired and or the lack of support from the community and the schools. 

I participated in far more activities as AFJROTC cadet than  I did in CAP.  Either way if we can use it to recruit and procure uniform items then great but we need to make sure that the unit has the desire to and is capable of it.