Military Recruiting: Are Latinos Passing The Test?

Think of military recruitment as the bellwether-at-large. In a volunteer armed forces the recruits you get are what society produces.

Now think about the lead graph in a piece posted in the NPR web site:

“Nearly one of every four high school graduates can’t pass the basic military entrance exam, a new report shows.”

Add to that the rise in obesity rates and criminal records. What you have left is a seriously poor situation. But we knew that already.

We also know that as the country goes, Latinos fare worse. Again the NPR report, referring to test scores:

“African-American and Latino kids have higher-than-normal failure rates, the report says. That’s troubling, (Education Trust vice president, Amy)Wilkins says, because those two ethnic groups make up a big chunk of today’s armed forces.”

When our young people can’t answer basic questions like, “If three plus X equals six, what is the value of X?” it becomes a matter not only of education but of national security as well. I say that in the hope that flashing the national security card will get some hawks off their duff to do something about the dire state of our educational system and its unacceptable inequities.

Here’s the NPR piece: