Lincoln’s ROTC
survives budget cuts

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

The boogie-woogie bugle boy can play reveille at Lincoln High School now that the city School Reform Commission has restored funding for the Air Force Junior ROTC program at Lincoln and other district schools.
Commission members, in adopting a $2.18 billion budget for the School District of Philadelphia on May 31, decided to restore the $1.9 million JROTC funding, thus reversing earlier plans to eliminate the support as part of $99 million in cuts to close a projected deficit.
The proposed budget had called for non-military schools wishing to retain their JROTC programs to pick up the school district’s $1.9 million share. That amounted to $58,800 for each instructor at schools involved in the program. The school district and the federal government will now continue to share the operating costs of the program.
Lincoln’s 30-year-old JROTC program wasn’t the only one in jeopardy. Programs operate in 16 city schools and had a collective enrollment of about 2,500 students at the start of the school year.
At Lincoln, more than 100 student cadets have been involved in JROTC, a diverse program that spans education in aerospace science and leadership to classes on military customs and drills.
The budget approved by the School Reform Commission has been greeted with criticism and anger from parents and school advocates who dread the pain likely to result from staff and program cuts.
It’s also a budget that relies on a lot of financial assumptions, said district spokeswoman Barbara Farley. The assumptions include $80 million in funding from the city and state and another $80 million projected to be found in cost savings.
For Lincoln, however, the latest developments brought happiness and relief. When principal Don Donley told his JROTC cadets the program would resume at the school, they sat dumbfounded, and he had to tell them again.
"The kids were really excited. It’s great when you see that energy level come back," Donley said.
The school district’s JROTC director, Lt. Col. Russell Gallagher, said that before it was known the commission would restore funding, Donley told him that he had negotiated and found the money to keep the program.
"I want to give him credit, he and the (district) Office of Secondary Education," Gallagher said.
According to Donley, the SRC’s decision to restore funding was a coincidence in timing. While he did not have the funds at Lincoln to cover the $117,600 for the JROTC instructors’ salaries, he had worked with the Office of Secondary Education to come up with the dollars needed to save the program.
"We couldn’t be any happier. We were going to (have to) take from Peter to pay Paul.," the principal said.
Donley also has been heartened by calls of support for the program, the oldest JROTC in the city and the second-oldest — behind Coatesville — in the state.
"They’ve shown through their calls how important the pride and the tradition of the program is and how important it is to the present students," Donley said.
That support went beyond phone calls to the school and letters sent to the Times. Two JROTC parents, Karen Hill and Jeanine Standen, testified before the School Reform Commission last week to plead Lincoln’s case.
Hill is a believer in the merits of the program.
"We basically reminded them that it’s not an extracurricular activity," she said. "It’s a credited course — the students would be in jeopardy of losing scholarship money, and any child going to boot camp from high school would leave with a higher rank. It’s a citizenship program that teaches respect, responsibility and accountability.
"I also stressed that, for some of the cadets, the commanding officers are the only positive role models they have in their lives," Hill added.
She has another reason to be pleased that the program will remain at Lincoln — come fall, her son, Cadet Col. Carl Sher, will be the unit commander.
It had been speculated that the Lincoln program could be revived at George Washington High School, which is in line to receive Air Force approval to institute a JROTC curriculum.
Gallagher said Washington High will remain on the waiting list for an Air Force JROTC program. He expects it to begin there in July 2008. ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com