Army Opens Preparatory for Dropouts

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by The Oyster Guy

The problem is this program stands to weaken the military by accepting recruits that aren't military caliber.
I'm sorry, but if you didn't have the discipline to finish high school, you're not the demographic we need in the military.

...that mean? Your whole argument is upside down. If the kids finish the GED program they've made themselves eligible. If you want to exclude legions of kids based on what they did or didn't do when they were 17, I think that is a mistake.

This offers kids a chance of a lifetime. Put down the spatula, hit the books with a purpose, with a goal, pick an MOS, then boot, then AIT, then at least two years serving in our armed forces. Throw in school money, enlistment bonuses, this could be the start to a whole bunch of good, productive lives.

This is a GREAT idea.

[The Oyster Guy]

Originally Posted by Xaquin44

but the point of the school would be so that they do finish HS ....

Also, it is for all intents and purposes nothing but training (I know it's more, but for the sake of this argument .... ) when you get there.

It's not like they just slap a uniform on you and pack you off.

You do get trained and educated while there, just so you are military caliber.

I understand your logic, but I question the ultimate benefit of lowering the bar for recruiting. What's next? Do we recruit from prisons? Maybe just the convicts that have the potential to be rehabilitated to military character?

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Their day begins in uniform at 5 a.m. with physical training. Then they attend about eight hours of academic review classes, followed by homework each evening. An hour of marching drills and military discipline is thrown in for good measure.
"It's a tough, structured day. Some of them have sat on the couch for 18 years, but I haven't heard any howling yet," said social studies instructor John Solis, one of 14 certified teachers on hand. "By and large, they are chomping at the bit; they are ready to go."

This is FANTASTIC!

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by The Oyster Guy

I understand your logic, but I question the ultimate benefit of lowering the bar for recruiting. What's next? Do we recruit from prisons? Maybe just the convicts that have the potential to be rehabilitated to military character?

...so unfair. Drop and the next step is convicted felons?

[The Oyster Guy]

Originally Posted by Larry Gude

...so unfair. Drop and the next step is convicted felons?

OK, maybe we'll do it like the good 'ol days - at sentencing, the judge (with the concurrence of the local recruiting office) will offer the felon a choice: either prison, or the military - that way, the recruiters don't actually have to go into the prisons.

edit: I forgot, the whole prison thing started with Thurley42, who said earlier:
"yeah....why bother with these people right? Let them run their eventual course that will find them in the prison system living off of tax dollars?"
...so according to Thurley, yes, the next step for high school dropouts is prison.

[thurley42]

Originally Posted by The Oyster Guy

OK, maybe we'll do it like the good 'ol days - at sentencing, the judge (with the concurrence of the local recruiting office) will offer the felon a choice: either prison, or the military - that way, the recruiters don't actually have to go into the prisons.

this is still being done....and we do take people into the army with a record..

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by The Oyster Guy

OK, maybe we'll do it like the good 'ol days - at sentencing, the judge (with the concurrence of the local recruiting office) will offer the felon a choice: either prison, or the military - that way, the recruiters don't actually have to go into the prisons.

edit: I forgot, the whole prison thing started with Thurley42, who said earlier:
"yeah....why bother with these people right? Let them run their eventual course that will find them in the prison system living off of tax dollars?"
...so according to Thurley, yes, the next step for high school dropouts is prison.

...I missed that part of the story. I was under the impression this story and this program is about kids who dropped out and who are now measuring up to the standard. I'll go read it again.

[thurley42]

Originally Posted by The Oyster Guy

OK, maybe we'll do it like the good 'ol days - at sentencing, the judge (with the concurrence of the local recruiting office) will offer the felon a choice: either prison, or the military - that way, the recruiters don't actually have to go into the prisons.

edit: I forgot, the whole prison thing started with Thurley42, who said earlier:
"yeah....why bother with these people right? Let them run their eventual course that will find them in the prison system living off of tax dollars?"
...so according to Thurley, yes, the next step for high school dropouts is prison.

I'm sorry....I guess it takes a special kind of person to sense sarcasm....

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Austin Swarner left high school to care for his mother while she fought a losing battle with cancer. Tony Brown wanted to begin supporting himself and left two classes shy of a diploma. Haelee Holden got tired of trying to make it through school while flipping burgers until 1 a.m.

...

Recruits must score in the top half of the Army's aptitude test to qualify for the prep school and get two tries at a General Educational Development certificate. If they still can't pass, the Army will release them from their contract, Sanderson said.

Holden, 18, of Medford, Ore., is racing through her first week of practice tests before taking a formal GED exam soon. She left home at 16, one of nine children of a mill worker, and wants to be a military police officer.

Swarner, a native of Baton Rouge, La., left school in the ninth grade. Now 20, he dreams of becoming a combat engineer.

I can't find the part about arrests, lawyers and judges and recruiters walking into solitary to pick up the dregs of the earth.

[The Oyster Guy]

Holy smokes! I was just googling the subject and discovered that:

By comparison, 11.2 percent of Army recruits were granted criminal waivers in all of fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30. The 2007 figure was the largest percentage of recruits admitted on waivers since the Iraq war began.

Because the Army has used different methods to track waivers, no one can say for sure if the current percentages are records. But recruiting officials believe that the percentage of recruits admitted on waivers is the highest the Army has seen in recent decades.

The data, which include active-duty soldiers as well as Army reservists, show that the percentage of waivers for recruits with criminal records more than doubled in the past few years, from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007.

Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems - The Boston Globe