§2035 Flexibility in Authorities for Management of Programs and Units

Summary

If the Secretary of a military department is told by a local school agency that it plans to close a JROTC unit, the Secretary must offer the agency the choice to convert that unit into a National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC) unit instead of closing it. The military department Secretaries may, without following other rules in this chapter, try steps to make hiring and pay for JROTC instructors more flexible. Examples include dropping a waiver rule for hiring well‑qualified noncommissioned officers with a bachelor’s degree as senior instructors, allowing one instructor to start and run a unit, letting instructors do regular school duties at small schools, and paying some instructors on a 10‑month per year basis instead of 12‑month. They must also give regional JROTC directors at remote rural schools more leeway to use travel funds, and the Secretary of Defense must standardize JROTC data collection, including using the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) identification code for each school with a unit.