Southerners Most Affected by War

From the Institute for Southern Studies comes this:

Number of 16-25-year-olds in the Pentagon's military recruitment database: 30 million
Percent of schools receiving No Child Left Behind Act funding that must give personal student information to the military unless student opts out: 100%
Annual military recruitment budget: $3 billion
Amount this represents per enlistee: $11,000
Percent of enlistees that don't receive funding for college: 66%
Minimum number of years new enlistees must serve: 8
Of 16 states providing the most Army enlistees aged 17-24, number in the South: 7
Number of students that have opted out of the military recruitment database: 13,000

All sources on file at the Institute. Read the complete report (pdf).

According to a huge billboard on I-40, NC is "America's Most Military Friendly State," and now I know why this just makes me sad: the statistic I highlighted above. So often we hear that people enlist in the military for college funding, which infuriates me, because educating onseself should not have to be a life-or-death proposition. That small point aside, 66% don't receive funding for college??? I know people join the military for a whole host of reasons, and I won't pretend to understand them all, but why are 2/3 of them not receiving college funding? Doesn't that seem contrary to the accepted recruitment wisdom?

In other news, there were about 40,000 high school dropouts in 03-04 in NC. I wonder how many of those kids went into the military. I wonder if this contributes to a lack of college funding on the other end. I live in an ivory tower bubble town, and here it's difficult to get a job w/o three PhDs, because every other candidate has two. What's happening to 40,000 kids w/o high school diplomas? That's a lot of kids.

P.S. The Institute for Southern Studies has a blog, also listed on the sidebar.

Comments

[Seth]

Hi! I just wanted to say that I found this post interesting, and that I'm enjoying reading your blog...I'll look forward to stopping back by!

[ae]

Hi, Seth. Thanks for dropping by and for your kind words. I look forward to seeing you again! =)

[David]

FYI: The military does not accept high school dropouts. For many years now, the minimum education is a High School Dipoma.