MHS backs JROTC study

The Marianas High School Dolphin Battalion gave credence yesterday to an independent study attesting to the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps as an effective program that molds disciplined and proactive youths.

A study conducted by a private, nonpartisan policy research institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, claimed that JROTC builds self-discipline, motivation, and confidence among young people.

As such, the study said, funding allocated by the U.S. Armed Forces to support the high school students involvement in the JROTC program is well spent and should be increased.

The U.S. Dept. of Defense spent some $166.48 million for JROTC in the current fiscal year.

The Washington-based organization’s investigation further cited that in schools where there is JROTC in place, a decrease in discipline problems has been noted. In numerous cases, the program is somewhat a substitute for parents who are working or not there when the students come home.

“JROTC picks up slack — it is a haven,” the organization’s senior vice president William J. Taylor was quoted as saying.

The U.S. Congress established the Junior JROTC program with the National Defense Act of 1916, was expanded in 1964, and is now taught as an elective course at more than 3,000 high schools nationwide.

Scholars have documented the success of the program in public schools in Chicago, Washington, and El Paso, Texas between Nov. 1997 and April 1998.

Students in Washington, for instance, have been found to gain higher grade point averages and SAT scores, fewer absences and infractions, and a lower drop out rate than their peers.

In El Paso, students active in the program also committed fewer infractions and so has participants from a Chicago public high school, according to a report.

The report also added that JROTC programs benefit poor and minority students.

Despite the program’s benefits, its future in America is said to be “uncertain.” Expansion plans for the program have reportedly stopped in 1996 due to lack of funds. The latest study has pointed to funding problem as the main drawback to any strategies of improvement for JROTC.

But the Dept. of Defense has conceded to the importance of JROTC for the well-being of the youths. The agency has then unveiled plans to employ expansion programs not only in JROTC but also in armed services. (MM)