Last night, the Rochester School Board revised its three-year-old policy on� military recruitment.

Essentially, board members Melisza Campos, Allen Williams, Cynthia Elliott, and Malik Evans capitulated to pressure that is being passed down from the Pentagon to state education departments: Give us access to your kids and we'll give you money.

That about sums up Title I federal funding, which tends to be the lifeblood of poor urban and rural school districts.

Well-off suburban districts, including our own Fairport Central School District, can afford to, and indeed have told the feds to take their money and stick it.

Urban school districts like Rochester don't have that luxury, and the racist implication of the federal government's policy is unmistakable. The policy allows the federal government to neatly skirt public resistance to a national draft.

Meanwhile, students - many of whom are African American or Latino - are vulnerable to military recruiters. These students may work hard and do well in school, but they don't have the financial resources to pay for college tuition.

What's most unfortunate is that aside from the policy, the RCSD drew the attention of military recruiters because it had failed to implement its "opt-in" policy after it summoned the courage to pass it.

The policy basically asked parents to inform district officials if they wanted student information shared with recruiters, but a less-than-proactive district coupled with unresponsive parents is not a winning strategy.

The idea that inept school practices combined with uninterested parents is financially rewarded is simply astonishing.

School Board member Willa Powell worked for months on a revision to the district's military recruitment policy, which, she says, would have satisfied the government's goals for new military recruits. The Montclaire Public Schools in New Jersey have had a similar policy since 2003.

And despite the threats of funding losses, the No Child Left Behind Act - the legal boot used to implement the government's threats - has expired. And there's no sign that lawmakers are ready to reauthorize it.

It's hard to blame board members for complying. Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard and board members received a letter from Johanna Duncan-Poitier, New York's senior deputy commissioner of education, warning of the consequences of noncompliance.

The fear of being fingered as the school official who forfeited money was pervasive last night.