The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is Bush’s educational reform act.  It has a lot of problems, one of which is that it forces schools to give recruiters a direct line to all students.  Under the Act, schools receiving federal funding are required to give recruiters secondary school students’ names, addresses, and phone numbers.

The only way out of this is if students or their parents fill out an “opt out” form, saying that they don’t want recruiters to get their info.  Kind of backwards, right?  The hitch is, many schools don’t make the opt out forms easy to find and use, if they even have one at all! 

Here’s the official text of the act:

Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001
(No Child Left Behind Act of 2001)

•    ACCESS TO STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION - Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide, on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings.

•    CONSENT - A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone listing not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.

•    SAME ACCESS TO STUDENTS - Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as is provided generally to post secondary educational institutions or to prospective employers of those students.