When high school student Trevor Reed was automatically enrolled in a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) class in 2020, both he and his mother objected.Reed, a member of a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Local School Council, which approves curriculum and budgets, started looking into the JROTC program’s reach in Chicago and discovered JROTC was being made mandatory beyond her son’s school.The Department of Defense told CNN: “The Department strongly maintains that participation in the JROTC program is a voluntary elective.” A recent New York Times investigation found that requiring students to enroll in JROTC reaches far beyond Chicago, where CPS JROTC leaders proudly state they have “the largest JROTC program in the country in number of cadets and total programs.” The Times’ extensive investigation found automatic enrollment into JROTC and at least 75% of participation by a single grade happening in dozens of schools in multiple states, affecting thousands of students.Some schools cite funding as reason As part of his work with Quaker organization American Friends Service Committee, Jesus Palafox Valdovinos was pulling data on JROTC enrollment practices in Chicago at the same time as Reed, the mother from Chicago.It makes no sense,” Mejia told CNN, calling it “indoctrination.” “What country makes kids take military classes in order to graduate from high school?” The appeal of the military Adalberto Aguirre, chair and professor of sociology at University of California Riverside, sees the program as a way to recruit service members, following the end of the draft in the 1970s."