Freshmen JROTC enrollment plunges after overhaul by Chicago Public Schools
After an investigation found students were enrolled in a JROTC high school class “without any choice in the matter,” CPS ended automatic enrollment.
By Alex Ruppenthal
Freshmen JROTC enrollment plunges after overhaul by Chicago Public Schools
After an investigation found students were enrolled in a JROTC high school class “without any choice in the matter,” CPS ended automatic enrollment.
By Alex RuppenthalFreshmen enrollment in a controversial military-run training program plummeted this academic year at some Chicago high schools after district leaders cracked down on schools that were effectively forcing first-year students to participate, according to a report from the district’s watchdog released on Thursday.
Chicago Public Schools pledged last spring to end automatic enrollment in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, a daily class on military science and leadership taught by retired military officers that requires students to dress in uniforms weekly, march in drills and adhere to the program’s grooming standards.
The move followed an investigation by the district’s Office of Inspector General, which found that nearly all freshmen at some South and West Side high schools were placed in the program “without any choice in the matter,” often as a substitute for physical education. Some of the schools’ principals told the OIG they lacked the money to hire enough physical education teachers to offer PE to all students.
The OIG probe was prompted by a Chalkbeat investigation in 2021 that revealed that hundreds of Chicago students at 10 predominantly Black and Latino high schools were being enrolled in JROTC by default. The practice drew backlash from some parents who described it as a way of shepherding teens from under-resourced schools toward military careers and away from other educational or job opportunities.
In its annual report, the OIG found freshmen enrollment in JROTC had decreased “dramatically” at eight schools where automatic freshmen enrollment was most widespread. Freshman enrollment at those schools fell by more than two-thirds — from 639 to 211 — between the 2020-21 school year and the current academic year. That decrease far outpaces the drop in overall freshmen enrollment at the schools.
One principal told the OIG this is the first year in which freshmen at the school can decide between physical education or JROTC.
“The majority chose gym,” said the principal, whom the OIG did not name.
Another new CPS policy announced last school year after the OIG investigation requires every high school to offer physical education to all students. Five schools told the OIG their JROTC enrollment declined after they added a physical education teacher or class.
The decreasing enrollment figures are certain to worry military leaders, especially as the Army fails to hit recruitment goals. Although JROTC participants are not required to serve, the military relies on the program to introduce service careers to roughly 550,000 students nationwide each year. The Army found that students at high schools with Army JROTC programs are more than twice as likely to enlist after graduation.
CPS claims to have the nation’s largest JROTC program, with more than 7,000 students across 43 high schools enrolled last year. The drop in enrollment among CPS students comes as JROTC faces intense scrutiny in Chicago and nationally. The former head of CPS’ JROTC program resigned last year after the OIG found he failed to report sex abuse allegations against a military instructor at a North Side high school, as reported by WBEZ and Chalkbeat.
Last summer, The New York Times identified nearly three dozen JROTC instructors across the country who had been criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving students, prompting federal lawmakers to investigate the program.
A recent Times investigation found that in addition to in Chicago, thousands of students in dozens of high schools across the country were being placed in JROTC automatically, with the trend mainly occurring in schools with large numbers of nonwhite students and students from low-income households.
In Chicago, parental written consent is now required before students can participate in JROTC.
“That has helped,” said Wiley Johnson, former chair of the local school council at King College Prep, which had in past years enrolled all freshmen in JROTC. “It has made a huge difference.”
The OIG’s new report shows the decline in freshmen enrollment has been steep at several schools, dropping from between 90% and 100% in 2020-21 to less than 20% this school year.
The OIG did not publish school names, but WBEZ used past JROTC enrollment data to identify the school with the biggest freshmen enrollment drop as Julian High School on the Far South Side. All 120 freshmen were in the program two years ago compared to just 10 freshmen — or 9% of the class — this year.
One school that previously enrolled 95% of freshmen in JROTC placed only a slightly lower percentage — 93% — of freshmen in the program this year, according to the OIG report. CPS told the OIG it would investigate the enrollment situation at the school, identified by WBEZ as Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School in Austin.
Messages to Clark’s principal were not immediately returned.
The OIG also said one school recently dropped its JROTC program after a “decision initiated by the school” and approved by its LSC. WBEZ identified the school as Benito Juárez High School using past enrollment figures and meeting minutes from the school’s LSC.
Juárez had 97 students enrolled in JROTC in 2020-21, CPS data shows.
Johnson, the former King LSC chair, said that while he was glad the district has taken steps to ensure students are not being “forced” into JROTC, many CPS schools still lack the funding to provide the range of career and extracurricular programs found elsewhere, including at some of the city’s North Side schools.
Johnson said King added a JROTC program several years ago primarily for “financial reasons,” given that the program is subsidized by the Department of Defense.
“That issue hasn’t gone away,” he said. “Until that is addressed, you’re still going to see JROTC programs across the nation, not just in Chicago, in primarily minority or poor communities. And that’s problematic.”
Alex Ruppenthal is a freelance journalist based in Chicago. He can be reached at Alex.Ruppenthal@gmail.com.