Military Recruiting is Down So They Need Kids Unemployed and Uneducated

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Defense Dept. Youth Attitude Tracking Survey
finds that:

*Gradual changes are occurring in the racial/ethnic composition of the population and the educational and career aspirations of youth.

*Most youth indicate they hope to achieve at least a Bachelor’s degree.

*The number of high school graduates and the number of youth completing some college is increasing steadily while the
number of college graduates is hardly increasing at all.

*Employment trends for youth who have completed high school, but not completed college, have improved.

Propensity (likely to enlist) is related to several demographic characteristics:
· Is higher for men than women;
· Declines with age;
· Declines with educational attainment;
· Is higher for unemployed than employed youth;
· Is highest for Hispanic youth, followed by
Black youth, and lowest for White youth;
· Is higher for youth who are not married;
· Varies by region: higher in the South and
West and lowest in the North Central region.

The report concludes that: Services will have difficulty meeting recruiting goals. In particular, it will be increasingly difficult to meet enlistment goals without drawing either from the pool of non-high school graduates or the pool of those who have
completed some college.

In other words, If the military can't find enough unemployed high school dropouts to cajole into service they will not meet their enlistment targets. It looks to me like this administration, determined to make war our country's main endeavor, has no interest at all in increasing the number of kids who complete college or are gainfully employed elsewhere. This is an old report, but it is more relevant today than when it was drawn up because of the tightening job market and the increasing burden on kids who want to advance to college.

[Chicago Democrat]

1. Military Economy depends on keeping kids ignorant and desperate.

:puke:

[HockeyMom]

2. Kid down the street

All his life wanted to be a cop. Needs minimum of 60 college credits to be considered. Barely, got through HS. Flunked out of college. Joined the MILITARY. Why? Because they will take 4 years of military service in lieu of college credit. IF he makes it home alive that is.

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3. That's all Bush can muster

a military economy.

Every child must be encouraged to get as much education as he has the ability to take. We want this not only for his sake—but for the nation’s sake. Nothing matters more to the future of our country: not military preparedness—for armed might is worthless if we lack the brain power to build a world of peace; not our productive economy—for we cannot sustain growth without trained manpower; not our democratic system of government—for freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant.
- President LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The irony!