"I'm grateful to the schools for letting us come on to their campuses," he said during his Jan. 10 visit. "Not everyone will have the means to go to college, so this might be a good option for them."

Recruiters such as Holzer are a common sight on many high school campuses. And now, as part of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, schools are required to make student contact information available to military recruiters, who then try to get high school students to enlist after they graduate.

But some high school students and parents don't want to meet with recruiters and don't want the military to have access to their contact information.

To deal with this, students and parents do have an "opt-out" option if they don't want their information shared. But just because the option exists does not mean it's being used.

"We're concerned that the opt-out form is usually buried under a stack of papers that parents need to look through, and because of the severity of the issue, we think it should be front and center," state Assemblywoman Sally Lieber said.

In response, Lieber wrote AB 1778, which seeks to get the opt-out form put onto school emergency contact forms to make sure parents see it.

The inspiration came from smaller efforts in Santa Cruz, where city schools now include a box for parents or students to sign to prevent information from being shared.

"From what we've seen, when the opt-out form is put on emergency forms, the number [of people who opt-out] jumps from single digits to over 80 percent," Lieber said.

At Sunnyvale's Fremont High School, the opt-out form is part of the packet sent out at the beginning of the year, a packet that Career Center liaison Karen Hamilton said is a considerable stack of information.

Hamilton said many students do chose to opt-out, and that information is put into their personal file on a district-wide database. Recruiters must request information from the Fremont Union High School District office, which then asks schools for the list of available students.

Recruiters can then call students or send them information on military involvement.

The ease of the opt-out process varies among schools in the South Bay.

"In some districts it works fine, and the legislation will not lessen the policies in districts that have them, but we do know that some districts don't have these policies," said Lieber consultant Harry Adams. "This bill is not taking a stand on should military recruiters be allowed on campus; by law they're allowed to be there. All we are saying is 'Make it a simpler process.' "

The opt-out process is not a mystery to Fremont High School, because Principal Peggy Raun-Linde and her staff keep close watch on who is coming onto campus as well as what visitors are saying while they are there.

"Our job is to get kids ready for their future and give them all their options," Raun-Linde said. "We want to get kids to go to college because that gives them the most options, but some of our students are interested in a career in the military."

District policy dictates that Holzer cannot wander the campus during lunch, and he can only speak to the students who approach him. Holzer and Raun-Linde both said that the arrangement is beneficial, because it means that only interested students will pursue the information.

"They don't want to recruit someone who's going to drop out at the last minute," Raun-Linde said.

Holzer--who has been recruiting for two years--says that he visits 15 South Bay schools, and rarely feels unwelcome or unwanted. For the most part, he said he is there to talk about the educational opportunities the Air Force offers, especially for soon-to-graduate students.

"Most of the time we get the ones who want to give something back to their country," said the 17-year Air Force member. "I just want to see if I can bring that opportunity to another man or woman."

Holzer said he doesn't think that making the opt-out process easier will hurt military recruiting because there are still students with a desire to join the military or students who don't see college as their "next step."