San Francisco Does It Again

San Francisco just took a bunch of scholarship opportunities away from their high school students.  The school board, or somebody, banned JROTC.

JROTC is short for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.  It is the high school equivalent of college ROTC.  A kid that does pretty good in JROTC has a really good shot at getting an ROTC scholarship.

Here's what you get with a ROTC scholarship-

Full Tuition

Book Allowance

Approved Campus Housing Paid

Monthly Stipend-starts about $250, goes up to $400 per month.  I'm sure there is more but can't remember all the stuff right now.  But these are the basics my son (and I) got from his ROTC scholarship.

In return, the student does four years minimum in the armed services.  A pretty good deal with the risk of getting killed.  But everything has risks.  And you probably won't get killed but you will defend your country.

The debate over whether ROTC should or should not be on campus is tiresome and been around since I was in college so prefer not to beat a dead horse right now.  Plus the rhetoric is so '60's--big corporations going to war.  Please.

Let's talk economics and financial planning.  Unless you are a star athlete or a off the charts SAT brainiac the chances of a full ride to the college of your choice are pretty slim.  Slim like in zero.  You can patch together a bunch of little scholarships and tons of loans but a full ride paid for--forget it. 

Plus, when you get out you have a job.  A second lieutenant straight out of school makes about $40,000 when you throw in things like housing allowance, food allowance and clothing allowance.  Two years out you are making about $55,000.  Plus free medical and insurance. 

The key to getting this is JROTC.  Do it in high school, do it right and chances are that you will get the scholarship.  My son didn't know about JROTC so didn't get his scholarship till completing his freshman year.  Plus the scholarships are harder to get while in school as opposed to getting it before college starts.  The delay cost me $25,000.

But the folks in San Francisco said the hell with it.  So if you go to public school in San Francisco and want a full ride scholarship, you better be one hell of a football player.

They'll also miss the thrills of being in the military--my son's B-52 blew an engine on take off yesterday, they aborted the flight, punched the drag parachute.  Scared the hell out of me but just another day at the office for him.