Friday, May 13, 2011

Study: 90% of Pittsburgh's young adults unfit for military service - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Study: 90% of Pittsburgh's young adults unfit for military service - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Study: 90% of Pittsburgh's young adults unfit for military service"

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Anonymous said...

Pittsburgh's young adults are so physically unfit and uneducated that up to 90 percent of them can't get into the military, according to a scathing report to be released today by a consortium of 200 top retired military officers and several nonprofits.

The "Unable to Serve" study found that about 25,000 of the city's young men and women between the ages of 18 and 24 are dogged by obesity, asthma and other health issues, poor academic performance, criminal records, drug addiction and eyesight so poor that they couldn't enter the military even if they wanted to do so.

Although Pentagon studies show similar problems nationwide bar about 75 percent of America's young adults from enlistment, the report contends Pittsburgh's problems are noticeably worse. The city's crime rate is higher than much of the rest of the nation, the report notes, and most high school students here fail to graduate on time.

When they do graduate in four years, the report said, they often flunk military entrance exams that test basic math, logic and language skills.

The solution? High-quality state programs designed to educate at-risk nursery school children who otherwise might become worthless to an all-volunteer military by the time they reach adulthood, the report says.

"From my perspective, I want to talk about the fitness of these kids," said retired Air Force Col. Edmund Effort, 61, a dentist who screens local nominees for the Air Force Academy. "Are they physically and mentally fit to serve in our military?"

Effort is slated to speak today when the report is presented at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. The Pennsylvania chapter of the Washington-based "Mission: Readiness" organization wrote the report. Pennsylvania's chapter includes 10 retired generals or admirals and numerous former officers and senior enlisted personnel.

Analysis of military testing data by the Washington-based nonprofit The Education Trust shows that one out of every five Pennsylvania high school grads who take the military test flunks it. For black and Hispanic graduates, the failure rate doubles.

In Pittsburgh city schools, 48 percent of 11th-graders in 2009 failed to score above basic levels in reading and 57 percent scored below basic levels in math.

May 13, 2011 8:56 PM
Anonymous said...

Research on pre-school initiatives in the military's Child Development Centers and similar preschool initiatives in Ypsilanti, Mich., Chicago and Pittsburgh's Pre-K Counts program suggests that early investments by taxpayers in disadvantaged tots could aid the Pentagon by producing solid students a dozen years later.

According to the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning, however, about 45 percent of Pittsburgh's children aren't served by early education programs.

"From the earliest stages in preschool and Sunday school, you learn core values. We need to put some money into those early childhood development programs. Education is going to be a salvation. We need to invest in these kids because we'll see the results later in our military," said Effort, who served in the Air Force more than 30 years.

Effort and the other retired officers are quick to say that the problems bedeviling Pittsburgh's at-risk kids already are rippling across the larger economy. They point to an Army report in 2009 that warned 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."

Although the Army was hurt by a recruitment crunch after the invasion of Iraq in 2004, the service and the rest of the Department of Defense report solid enlistment rates today.

Thanks to a lingering recession and large enlistment bonuses, the nation's 15,000 military recruiters will sign up about 168,000 recruits this year. But the retired officers and Pentagon officials agree that today's pool for non-college enlistees comprises only about 15 percent of the young adult population nationwide -- and it's considerably smaller in Pittsburgh.

The efforts by the retired officers to create high-quality pre-kindergarten classes haven't been without controversy. Peace groups and those opposed to military recruiting in schools have praised the social initiatives, but not the reasons behind them.

"It's deeply disturbing that our government has failed to provide decent health care and education for young children, leaving the private sector and groups like Mission: Readiness to pick up the slack," said Scilla Wahrhaftig, the Pittsburgh program director for the American Friends Service Committee.

"That is to their credit. But we must carefully monitor these programs, to avoid inculcating militarism in even young children," Wahrhaftig said. "The military is growing embedded in our schools, even as these failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue."

Read more: Study: 90% of Pittsburgh's young adults unfit for military service - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_736843.html#ixzz1MHejOp5t

May 13, 2011 8:56 PM

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