Diploma Important if considering Army Service
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The Robesonian
Johnny Hunt
02/09/2011
When a school year comes to a close, we always take note of various things that were accomplished during that year. Among them is to acknowledge the number of students who have graduated and what they look forward to in the future. There are those who intend to further their education at either a two- or four-year college and those who choose instead to either enter the military or the work force. During their stay in our school system, we have made the effort to prepare them for whatever they choose to do.
At graduation time 2007, there were 305 who fit the latter designation with roughly a fourth of those choosing the military. For those students who feel that the military is their best fit, it apparently is a matter of feeling that further education is not something they feel is worthwhile for them. Keep in mind that we're not talking about dropouts here. We're talking about people who have completed their formal public education and simply choose not to go further.
The reason that we bring up this subject is because of a report recently released by a research group known as the National Priorities Project. After analyzing certain federal data, the Project found that about 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school during the 2007 budget year. Should you wonder why such a figure might be important, it's simply this.
The Army has a goal of 90 percent high school graduates, which means that, when the number of graduates declines, the pool of acceptable potential recruits likewise declines. That 90 percent figure has not been met since 2004. Since that year, the number of recruits with at least a high school diploma has been decreasing. According to a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command, one of the reasons for that could be that graduation rates generally are declining.
Because the Army believes that all troops must have a high school diploma or an equivalent degree, it has paid for some recruits to take GED preparation classes and take the test. The reason the Army prefers that a recruit possesses a high school diploma is that studies indicate that those recruits are more likely to finish an enlistment term.
Beyond that, the Army is committed to having every recruit being qualified and the National Priorities Project is concerned that the percent of high quality recruits who have high school diplomas and who scored in the top half of the military's qualification test declined from about 61 percent to nearly 45 percent during the budget years 2004 to 2007.
Young people in Robeson County who are thinking about joining the Army upon graduation, should not let up on their studies because of a feeling that getting a diploma is not as important as it would be if they were considering pursuing higher education. Obviously, the Army also values the importance of a high school diploma and good grades. There, conceivably, could be more offered to the diploma holder in the future.
