JROTC Expansion at US High Schools Eyed as Part of Bill to Boost Recruiting

JROTC is a good program and I supported it as an AROTC PMS in Boston - but, it is a citizenship program, and not a recruiting platform.

High school students whose campuses do not have a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program would be able to join units at another school under a bill being introduced in Congress.

The bill, dubbed the Service Enlistment and Recruitment of Valuable Engagement, or SERVE, Act, would specifically direct the Pentagon to create a policy that allows high schools to have "cross-town" affiliations with schools that host JROTC units so students can "enroll in the JROTC program of the host unit and participate in activities at both campuses without dedicated staff," according to bill text obtained exclusively by Military.com.

In effect, the bill would make JROTC more akin to the college-level Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which easily allows students from one university to commission through an ROTC of another school. Still, in practice, it's unclear how much this would open up JROTC since high school students could face hurdles, such as not being able to drive and having more rigid schedules than college students.