Friday, May 13, 2011

The military and homeschoolers

Cyber-school students: Pentagon snubs our service is an article about how the military will only take 10% of recruits from a non-traditional high school.


The armed services has a policy of limiting those they accept from non-traditional high schools. I guess this makes sense for alternative high schools which often graduate those who can't read or write, but it makes no sense for those who are homeschooled or graduate from online schools, because homeschoolers have a much better education that those in government schools.

The article starts:

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Students graduating from the growing ranks of online high schools are running into a hurdle if their goal is to join the military: The Pentagon doesn't want many recruits with non-traditional diplomas.

Many would-be soldiers like Ryker Packard, 17, of Fassett, Pa., say they weren't aware the armed services have a policy of not taking more than 10 percent of recruits with a non-traditional high school diploma. Critics, including some in Congress, say the military is behind the times and point to the growth on online teaching and testing at all levels of education, including college degrees.

"It just grinds my gears," said Packard, who wants to become an Army diesel mechanic after graduating from Pennsylvania's Agora Cyber Charter School in June.

Packard said his conversation with an Army recruiter came to a brusque end after he told him he was due to graduate from a virtual school. "He just wouldn't talk to me," said Packard.
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Hat tip: Spunky via Facebook

2 comments:

Vonnie said...

This happened to my friend Bryan when he graduated in 2004 from a cyber school. His recruiter, however, requested he take his GED as proof of his standard knowledge.

Henry Cate said...

It sounds like that with the GED the recruiter took him, correct?