“Unfit, uneducated and unscrupulous” was my summation at a recent news conference in Pittsburgh describing the unfortunate circumstances that bar most of the Steel City’s young adults from enlisting in the military.
Several other retired U.S. Army generals and I released a new Mission: Readiness report estimating that 80 to 90 percent of young adults in Pittsburgh — about 25,000 young men and women age 18 to 24 — are unable to join the military largely because they cannot meet the military’s education or fitness standards or have serious criminal records.
Nationally, about 75 percent of young Americans in the 18-to-24 cohort do not qualify for military service. Explaining the higher rate of ineligibility among city youth is the fact that high school students in Pittsburgh are 77 percent more likely not to graduate from high school after four years, compared with students throughout the country. And Pittsburgh’s violent-crime rate is more than twice the national average.
Unfortunately, military service remains out of reach for the vast majority of young adults across Pennsylvania, and poor educational achievement is a major factor.
New research by The Education Trust shows that more than one in five young people in Pennsylvania who graduate from high school and take the entrance exam for the military do not do well enough to enlist. Among the state’s black and Hispanic graduates, four of 10 do not score high enough on the military exam to join the armed forces.
These statistics show a looming skills gap among the next generation of Americans that will limit their ability to fill 21st century jobs, placing the economic and military elements of our national security at risk.
This was the focus of a recent U.S. Army report, “Strong Students, Strong Futures, Strong Nation,” that said “In the coming decade, the United States will face a significant workforce shortfall and both the civilian and military sectors may not have the skilled labor required to meet the demands of a knowledge-based economy. The effect on our ability to compete globally will be devastating if we do not act immediately and forcefully to reverse the impact.”
One of the most effective ways to close this skills gap is to prevent it from ever happening by continuing to invest in high-quality early care and education.
Pennsylvania’s investments in early education, such as Pre-K Counts, state supplemental funding for Head Start and educational child care are yielding impressive results.
For example, third-graders who participated in the high-quality Harrisburg Preschool Program, the city’s publicly funded pre-k program, scored significantly higher on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests than did a matched group of students who did not take part in HPP.
The Pre-K Counts program has been shown to reduce disruptive problem behaviors in early childhood that often can progress to high levels of anti-social and delinquent behavior and even violent crime later in life.
The need for these programs throughout the commonwealth remains substantial. Publicly funded, good quality early-education programs serve only a third of Pennsylvania’s young children — many of whom are considered “at-risk for educational failure.”
In his proposed 2011-12 state budget, Gov. Tom Corbett upheld his campaign promises by preserving most of Pennsylvania’s early-learning programs, like Pre-K Counts, state funded Head Start, Keystone Stars and other educational childcare programs.
In the present state budget deliberation process we face the possible elimination of the Accountability Block Grant Program, which provides funding to school districts for evidence-based programs including early-childhood education. More than 500 at-risk kids in Pittsburgh and many more across the commonwealth would lose their spot in preschool if this block grant is eliminated.
It is my hope that Pennsylvania’s legislative leaders will work with the administration to restore the Accountability Block Grant and continue our other investments in the front end of public education that close this skills gap.
Early Childhood Development Programs lower the risk of a continuing education crisis and reduce the threat to national security. It’s an investment of scarce tax dollars in programs than have shown positive returns to participants, taxpayers and communities.
Maj. Gen. John E. Stevens, U.S. Army (retired), is a former assistant deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command and former director of the Master of Professional Studies in supply chain management at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. Readers may write to him at stevens.john.e@gmail.com.Mission: Readiness is the nonprofit, bipartisan organization led by senior retired military leaders ensuring continued American security and prosperity into the 21st century by calling for smart investments in the upcoming generation of American children.
