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The Army aims to have at least 90% of all recruits possessing their High School diplomas. Unfortunately, with the continuing wars, the prospects of war with Iran, and an amazingly competative business world, the best they were able to come up with this year was roughly 70%. Of course, when paired with the increases in other allowances the Army has been making for new recruits, such as increases in waivers for criminals, the result- is a fighting force that will struggle to maintain it’s strength and quality.
The National Priorities Project said that Defense Department studies have shown that a high school diploma is an indicator of future success in the military, with about 80 percent of those with high school diplomas finishing the first term of enlistment and about half of the others making it that far. When recruits are unsuccessful in the Army, the service loses on its investment in training and has to recruit again.
Of course, the Army itself is still hopeful.
The Army previously acknowledged that it has not met the 90 percent mark since 2004, and yesterday officials at U.S. Army Recruiting Command disputed the group’s numbers but not the trend. They said that 79.1 percent of its active-duty recruits in 2007 had a high school diploma, down from 87 percent in 2005.
“It’s really an indication of the difficult recruiting environment we’re in, both with the impact of the ongoing wars, an economy competing for high school graduates, and a decline in the percentage of students who graduate from high school,” said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the recruiting command. “But we’re not putting anyone in the Army that we don’t feel is qualified to serve as a soldier.”
I guess how it bodes for the Army in the long run remains to be seen.
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