Why JROTC Matters And Why Congress Must Get Serious About Growing It

For more than a century, the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps has done something that few institutions in American life can claim: it takes young people who are still figuring out who they are and gives them structure, purpose, and the confidence to lead.

I've seen it firsthand — as a military officer, as a business owner serving JROTC programs nationwide, and as someone who believes deeply that this program is one of the most undervalued investments the United States makes in its youth.

Today, I want to do three things: make the case for why JROTC is irreplaceable, show why the program's growth has been a mirage despite years of congressional intent, and explain why I fully support the bipartisan JROTC POWER Act introduced by Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) and Congressman Mark Alford (MO-04).

What JROTC Actually Does

The statute says JROTC exists "to instill in students in U.S. secondary educational institutions the values of citizenship, service to the United States, and personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment." That language is dry. The reality is not.

JROTC is currently serving roughly 488,230 cadets across 3,475 units in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, plus Department of Defense Education Activity schools overseas. The Army alone runs 1,744 units with 285,000 cadets. The Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force round out a program that is the third largest youth program in the country.

What those numbers don't capture is what happens inside those classrooms. Retired 1st Sgt. Cinnamon Chambers, an instructor at Scarborough High School in Houston, puts it plainly: "They've taught me more patience and they keep me on my toes. They make me a better person, a better mom to my own kids, and a better wife for my husband because they keep me well-rounded." That's not a recruiting pitch — that's a veteran describing a two-way exchange of growth.

The research backs it up. Multiple studies have found positive correlations between JROTC participation and graduation rates, school attendance, improved test performance, lower rates of disciplinary action, and higher self-esteem — particularly for female students. The RAND Corporation's 2023 study found that JROTC participants are more likely to graduate, maintain better attendance, and pursue STEM careers. And approximately 25% of JROTC cadets go on to join the military — a pipeline that has become critically important as the DoD faces its worst recruiting environment in a generation.

The Gap Between Congressional Intent and Reality

Here is the problem that not enough people are talking about: Congress has been trying to grow JROTC for years, and the program is essentially not growing.

The push began in earnest in 2018, when the Army fell short of its recruiting goals — reaching only 480,000 soldiers in FY2020 instead of the planned 492,000. Congress commissioned a RAND study, started issuing annual JROTC reports, and began allocating more funding.

By FY2022, the JROTC and ROTC education budget had expanded by close to $1 billion. In 2020, the congressionally mandated National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service recommended expanding JROTC to 6,000 units by 2031.

Congress has since acted aggressively on paper:

• The FY2023 NDAA expanded instructor eligibility to recently separated officers and NCOs with at least 10 years of service, opening the pipeline beyond retirees for the first time.
• The FY2025 NDAA enacted the most aggressive expansion mandates in program history: lowering the minimum student threshold from 100 to 50, extending JROTC to Job Corps centers for at-risk youth aged 16–24, and requiring mandatory waiting lists for schools seeking new units.
• Beginning October 1, 2026, the statutory minimum number of JROTC units rises from 3,400 to 3,500 — with a ceiling of 4,100.

And yet in FY2025, the program stood at 3,475 units — barely 75 units above the old floor. Not 6,000. Not even close to the trajectory required to reach 6,000 by 2031. The gap between congressional ambition and operational reality is enormous, and it has a concrete cause: instructor shortages.

The 2018 RAND study identified instructor availability as one of seven key factors affecting whether programs can start and sustain themselves. That problem has not been solved. Schools across the country continue to face instructor vacancies that freeze programs in place or force them to close. And here is the kicker: as I detailed in my earlier analysis The JROTC Crisis: When Congressional Expansion Meets Military Budget Reality, the military services have actually been requesting funding cuts to JROTC even as Congress mandates expansion.

The Department of the Air Force's FY2026 budget request proposed dropping Air Force JROTC funding from $74.7 million to $0 — a complete elimination that would have gutted federal support for 815 Air Force units serving 91,280 cadets. Every service branch requested JROTC reductions in FY2026. Congress intervened, but the underlying tension remains.

The problem isn't ambition. It's execution. And execution starts with instructors.

Why I Support the JROTC POWER Act

That's exactly why I am fully behind the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Pay Oversight for Workforce Evaluation and Retention Act — the JROTC POWER Act — introduced by Congresswoman Escobar alongside Congressman Alford on June 23, 2026.

This legislation was born from a Government Accountability Office finding that the Department of Defense lacks consistent, comprehensive metrics to evaluate JROTC instructor recruitment and retention, and has no formal plan to determine whether the recently implemented JROTC Standardized Instructor Pay Scale (JSIPS) is actually working. In plain terms: Congress allocated money for a new pay system to attract more instructors, and no one is tracking whether it's doing anything.

The JROTC POWER Act fixes that. Specifically, it requires the Secretary of Defense to:

• Develop an evaluation plan to assess the impact of the JSIPS on instructor recruitment and retention
• Establish standardized metrics for measuring outcomes across all military services
• Track workforce indicators including instructor vacancy rates, time-to-hire, retention trends, geographic recruiting challenges, and applicant drop-off throughout the hiring process
• Submit annual reports to Congress for three years

This is basic management accountability. You cannot expand a program without instructors. You cannot fix an instructor shortage without data. And you cannot act on data you're not collecting.

Congresswoman Escobar represents El Paso, home to a prominent JROTC community with programs across numerous local high schools. She understands what's at stake. Her bill is practical, bipartisan, and long overdue.

The Real Stakes

Cadet Angel Montelongo, a senior and the commander of the Scarborough Armed Drill Team, said of his JROTC instructors: "Sometimes things can be rough in life, but they have taught me as long as you keep your head up and keep a positive slate on your mind that you'll accomplish anything." Cadet Valerie Matha at North Crowley High School in Fort Worth credits JROTC with helping her find herself: "I really appreciate them for helping me find the person that I am. Now I have such big goals for myself that I never thought I would have."

These are not anomalies. They are the program working exactly as intended — and the program can only keep working if it has qualified instructors in every classroom.

Congress has been trying to grow JROTC since 2018. Eight years later, the numbers barely moved. The October 1, 2026 deadline for new unit requirements is approaching fast, and the instructor pipeline remains broken. The JROTC POWER Act gives Congress the visibility it needs to finally hold the DoD accountable — and to understand whether the pay reforms are helping or whether more action is needed.

I'm for it. Schools are waiting. Cadets are waiting. Let's get this done.