Should your high school tell the military where you live? The 2002 education law requires that schools give military recruiters student-contact information--or else lose federal funds.

• Author: Vitter, David
• Position: Opinion

YES

Students deserve to be informed about all of the options available to them as they decide what their post-high-school ambitions hold. Unfortunately, many never learn about the career and educational opportunities available to them in the United States military.

According to the armed forces, there were nearly 19,000 instances in the year 2000 when military recruiters were denied access to schools across the country. The Pentagon estimates that 2,000 schools have policies banning military, but not collegiate, recruiters. In some cases, the military is barred from school campuses solely because of an administrator's personal bias or act of protest.

Students shouldn't suffer because of their administrators' beliefs. They and their parents should be able to decide what information they want at their disposal as they evaluate their plans for life after graduation.

That is what the military-recruiter provision in the No Child Left Behind Act enforces. If a school receives federal funds, then it must grant the military the same access to campus that it would give to colleges, universities, and other post-secondary institutions.

The law also requires schools to share student data with the military, but it includes important opt-out dames. If parents do not want their child's information shared with the military, that request will be honored. Schools are obligated to inform parents of this right. Second, if a school (like a Quaker school) has a faith-based objection to the military, then it does not have to provide its students' information to them.

Our country is protected by an all-volunteer military. It is critical that we at least give the option to our talented young men and women to consider a career in the military. It's challenging enough maintaining an all-volunteer force without having recruiters denied access to schools that receive federal funding.

Allowing the military the opportunity to recruit on school campuses is not only in the best interests of America, but it is in the best interests of our students as well.

CONGRESSMAN DAVID VITTER (R-Louisiana) NO

High schools should not give military recruiters access to student information--not unless the student or his or her parents specifically say it's OK.

In 2002 Congress passed a law requiring school districts to provide student names, addresses...