Protect Student Privacy--Support Legislation HB 176

From Pat Elder:

In a few days we've generated several hundred letters to state lawmakers
from people across Maryland who are demanding the Pentagon be prohibited
from giving a four hour test for recruiting purposes to thousands of
Maryland school children without parental knowledge or consent.

We are building a formidable political coalition that is quickly
attracting huge numbers of legislators in very short order. Maryland
could become the first state to stand up to this foolishness. If you
haven't taken the 45 seconds to email your delegates our brief message
urging them to support House Bill 176, introduced by House Ways and
Means Committee Chair, Sheila Dixson, here's another chance:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/161/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2087

The legislation wouldn't eliminate military testing in Maryland's
schools. Educators throughout the state claim the test is a valuable
career exploration tool and that's O.K. with us, but military documents
clearly promote the test as a recruitment tool.

The US Army Recruiting Command's School Recruiting Program Handbook says
the primary purpose of the ASVAB is to provide military recruiters "with
a source of leads of high school juniors and seniors qualified through
the ASVAB for enlistment into the Active Army and Army Reserve." See
page 6: http://www.usarec.army.mil/im/formpub/REC_PUBS/p350_13.pdf

This legislation would allow continued testing but preclude test data
from being forwarded to recruiters; Pretty much a no-brainer, huh?

Jane Arabian, Assistant Director for Enlistment Standards for the
Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness has a different
spin. She says "Military officials try to keep recruiters away from the
test as much as possible. We try to keep recruiters at arm's length from
the test, because we are very careful about compromising the contents of
the ASVAB."

C'mon! Click on the link above and write your legislators.

Pat Elder
Maryland Coalition to Protect Student Privacy

Whose schools?

For more on the ASVAB: www.asvabtest.org