More students living in rural, low-income areas of the United States would be able to benefit from the Junior ROTC leadership program under a bill introduced on May 16 by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).
The JROTC Opportunities through Transformational Change Act, S. 2867, also known as the JROTC Act, would increase funding to establish 100 new Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) units, particularly in poorer, rural and underserved areas of the country, according to a summary from Sen. Wicker’s office.
“JROTC units are proven to benefit schools, families and communities by instilling the values of citizenship, service, and personal responsibility in student participants,” said Sen. Wicker. “Too often these programs are out of reach where they are most needed.”
In fact, the nonprofit Arlington, Va.-based research organization the RAND Corp. has reported that JROTC programs consistently improve student outcomes across numerous academic and non-academic data points, including grade point average, high school graduation and college acceptance rates, standardized test scores, drop-out rates, discipline, and leadership skills, according to a statement from Sen. Wicker’s office.
However, RAND also reported that JROTC is significantly underrepresented in rural areas and at smaller schools, according to Sen. Wicker’s staff, who added that there’s currently a waitlist of more than 200 high schools that would like to host JROTC units.
In Sen. Wicker’s home state of Mississippi, there are seven high schools in the Jackson Public School system that host JROTC units. The JROTC students graduating from these schools this year received more than $7.5 million in total scholarship offers, while over 90 percent of the graduating seniors also were formally accepted to institutions of higher learning, according to his staff.
The JROTC Act also would authorize reforms to ensure the success of the newly established JROTC units, said Sen. Wicker, who plans to offer the JROTC Act as an amendment to the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
S. 2867 has been referred to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration.