Can I decline being promoted to Corporal?

Take this opportunity!

I'll not bash you but I will give you a little bit of advice.
Throughout your life you will find yourself in a position to where you'll have to provide a service that's not necessarily your responsibility.

That's life son, man up and get all the knowledge you can as corporal and when the time comes for Sgt. You'll excel at that rank.
I can almost Guarantee that you'll be the 1st on the promotion list just because of your knowledge and work ethics..

Having been laterally promoted to Corporal is not a bad thing. You should not be looking at this merely for the extra pay as this means that you are actually above your peers.

Personally if someone that was under my leadership was being recommended for this lateral it was because the leadership that he or she served under felt that it was the right thing to do considering several things such as awaiting schools for Professional Development.

In addition, by having this lateral promotion will afford you the opportunity to be in leadership roles, receive evaluations that are based on your leadership potential .
You should never turn down any promotion at any rank as if the system is working correctly you should only be promoted when you meet all the requirements and also have the merit to have that next rank.
.The only exception might be if you are the point that you are ready to ETS or retire and do not want to take that promotion and commit the required time as you would be only hurting another person s opportunity that might of been willing to put in that effort.

I am going to play devil's advocate. Many people are saying this is what an NCO does, you should take the leadership role without the pay...yada..yada...yada. How about the fact it is no more than a cost savings factor for the Army. If the Army says you can't be a Sergeant until you have graduated BLC, how can that same Army put you in a leadership position without the proper training to hold such a position? One could look at this as a way, taking care of the Army's needs without regard to troop welfare. How about reversing the role? By giving the troop the pay and benefits for the rank Sergeant while wearing CPL stripes and upon graduation of BLC he/she then pins Sergeant.

You will likely be the only NCO at BLC. I was promoted to Corporal 2 weeks before I attended PNCOC. I was the only hard stripe E-4, there, out of 60 soldiers, and was made an example of, every day. So, get your feces together, and understand the pressure is going to be on you.

You don't really want to decline. You may never get another chance.
The school cadre will be focusing/testing your leadership skills.
That falls in with "Lead by example". It will be tough getting used to having a little authority.
even though it doesn't matter much in school where everyone is treated equally.
Stand tall ! Learn from your mistakes. Don't let the authority go to your head.

Airborne Rangers !
Go get it !!!

If you are more worried about the $ than doing the best you can as a soldier, perhaps you should consider another line of work. It's not about a pay scale. No one should volunteer to serve in hopes of getting rich.

Is this question about you or someone else? Your icon lists SGT which last I knew was a higher rank than CPL, yet in your question, you list yourself as a SPC.

Are you a SPC that just passed your board to CPL or are you a SGT?

It’s CPL that classification won’t even follow you to your next duty station. It’s an honorary NCO rank take the stripes and suck it up. The lower ranking soldiers won’t listen to you anyway and lord help you when you try to mess with that spec 4 that can recite the UMCJ. Why ruin your career over this classification of rank CPL. does not outrank Spec4 that’s why there is no pa y raise.

If thatbis how you view it, from a pay point of view, finish your contract and find another line of work.

If you truly enjoy Soldiering, take the promotion, be a leader and lead. Being a leader sometimes involves sacrifice. Take it or leave it, but there it is.

This makes no sense. First off I see Sgt in your profile, so either there's some kind of glitch there or my army ranks memory has failed me in some way. You say you're getting meritoriously promoted to Cpl so now I'm perplexed. Second, if you have been selected in this way due to a board, which you participated in then there is a level of confidence and trust in your abilities, which is expressly detailed in your promotion warrant, then it would be foolish to even explore this possibility. You're telling all those people who put that much confidence into your abilities you don't value their assessment of you. This should have been sorted out before you went to the board. Last, this is a thing again this should have been explained to you during this process by an NCO before you went to the board. Albeit, it is part of the step to get you into the NCO ranks, it is done this way because you passed the board, you have to wait till the regular pay cycle takes effect for your promotion, otherwise it would be set up along a routine method, you'd be getting paid in kind. Your leaders want you to lead, they feel you have that ability and they are confident you'll do well by it, prove they are not wrong, and stop doubting yourself! Especially if your going to Ranger School too? Soak it in this is a chance of a lifetime!