Homeschoolers enlisting in the military

The Washington Times newspaper published an article on 11 Apr 05 lauding HSLDA for being at the forefront of leveling the playing field for military enlistment by homeschoolers through gaining Tier I status for them.  The fact that is left out is that all military recruits are separated into ‘tiers’ because of your tax dollars.  Each person who leaves military service before the enlistment contract is completed takes with him, or her, the costs for food, housing, clothing and training up to that point.  And then, that person's replacement has to be trained.

The GED and the U.S. Armed Forces

Attrition is costly to both the military and the taxpayer--estimated at $18,400 per premature separation in 1987 dollars (Laurence 1987).

Because of complaints that homeschooled recruits were labelled Tier II, the military spent your tax dollars for a five-year study (Final Analysis of Evaluation of Homeschool and ChalleNGe Program Recruits) to find out how well homeschooled enlisted recruits do in terms of completion of enlistments, and re-enlistment.  Keep in mind that this applies only to personnel who enlist without a college degree.  Homeschooling-through-highschool doesn't affect entry into the military if a person has graduated from college, regardless of whether that person enlists or is commissioned as an officer.  If a person has 15 college credit hours, then he, or she, can enlist with Tier I status.

The survey results weren’t as good as were hoped for, but still, in an online article titled Army Opens Doors Wide for Homeschool Graduates, HSLDA said, A recent Defense Department survey conducted in 2004 analyzed homeschool enlistees attrition rates and performance in the military. Homeschool graduates serving in the Army scored high marks. 

I don't understand why this is asserted, but my guess is that the statement refers to how well the recruits tested. That viewpoint is deceptive and ignores the point of the survey: completion of terms of service and retention in the service.  A recruit can max tests left and right, but if that recruit doesn’t complete a term of enlistment, he or she represents a net loss to the service in both money and time.  Test scores aren't a holy grail.

From the survey:

page 40:  Both homeschooled and ChalleNGe recruits have higher attrition rates than traditional high school graduates. This is true for all four Services combined at the 12-, 24-, and 36-month points, and for the Army at 48 months . . .”

page 49:  “Homeschooled recruits have uniformly higher attrition rates than traditional graduates. This is true for 12-, 24-, and 36-month attrition, and for 48-month attrition in the Army (the Army is the only branch with enough observations to measure 48-month attrition).”


Another assertion by HSLDA was that, Also, just 1.8 percent of all home-school Army recruits who left the Army received less-than-honorable discharges. Sounds good, but the survey said, starting on page 46:  In each Service, more homeschooled recruits than traditional high school recruits receive ‘Less than honorable’ discharges.

This is confirmed elsewhere.

APPENDIX - U.S. ARMY MILITARY JUSTICE STATISTICS

Report Period: FISCAL YEAR 2000

PART 1 - BASIC COURTS-MARTIAL STATISTICS (Persons)

For 2000, the Army listed the following number of less-than-honorable discharges.  The homeschool survey was in progress at that time so the homeschooled recruits with less-than-honorable discharges will be included in these numbers, as well as the homeschooled recruits who served honorably in the "average active duty strength."
NUMBER OF DISHONORABLE DISCHARGES (+ dismissals) 149
NUMBER OF BAD-CONDUCT DISCHARGES (General courts martial) 378
NUMBER OF BAD-CONDUCT DISCHARGES (Special courts martial) 232

The document also lists: AVERAGE ACTIVE DUTY STRENGTH 482,176

So if we take 759 discharges divided by a total strength of 482,176, we get .0015741, or 0.16% which is about 1/10^th of 1.8%.

I am not trying to make homeschooled recruits out to be the bad guys, they aren’t, especially those who have integrated well into the military.  Some people fit well into military life, others don’t.  This is no crime (unless, of course, that’s what caused the less-than-honorable discharge).  The hoop-jumping preparation of attending a public school with all its standing-in-line, following orders, and playing ‘hurry up and wait,’ seems to be a good training ground for young people to learn to put up with all the military's own hoop-jumping.  If a young person wants to join the military as a Tier I recruit, attending public school is the way to do it.

The problem I have with this news article, and with HSDLA’s web page, isn’t how tough it is for homeschoolers to enlist.  What I can't fathom is why, in contrast to the survey's published results, HSLDA asserts that homeschooled recruits are doing wonderfully, when a statistically significant portion of them aren't.  This seems to be a disservice to the homeschoolers, the services, and eventually, the country.  It would be better to swallow the bitter pill, and then provide information on correcting the situation, rather than pretending that all-holy homeschooling triumphs again.

Valerie Moon

Comments

[Valerie_Moon]

It was pointed out to me that I used the wrong numbers in questioning the 'good' percentage of less-than-honorable discharges for homeschooled recruits. I'm not math whiz, and finding the 'right numbers' online is . . . a challenge. Still, my mistake shouldn't stand.

[Editing the original piece didn't work. I was informed by the program that the text was either too complex or malformed, and I was presented with a screen of alphabet soup. I'm also not a programmer, so I'm attempting to correct my error with a Comment.]

I went back to the Survey and found 'more numbers.' Unfortunately, from an enlistment completion standpoint, homeschooled recruits still didn't do as well as publicly schooled recruits.

http://www.cna.org/documents/D0009351.A2.pdf
p. 39, (the chart is best viewed at the above URL)
==============================================
Table 12. Attrition rates over time, FY96-FY02

Attrition rates (discharges)......6-mo 12-mo 24-mo 36-mo
.............Tot. # of accessions
.............(this means the # of recruits)

Trad. high schl. grads..1,082,278 12.6 16.4 23.1 28.7

Homeschooled graduates .....2,845 18.7 26.1 35.9 42.7

ChalleNGe graduates ........3,059 14.6 21.9 38.0 49.2

GED holders............... 75,075 21.4 27.9 39.7 47.6

In general, the attrition rates of both homeschooled and ChalleNGe recruits over time are quite similar to those shown in tables 8–11. In particular, both homeschooled and ChalleNGe recruits have higher attrition rates than traditional high school diploma graduates. This pattern generally holds for each year, although attrition rates for homeschooled recruits seemed to be somewhat lower before FY99.20
==============================================

Making percentages out of those numbers still doesn't equal HSLDA's figure of 1.8%, and if it were 1.8%, that is still below the percentage for publicly schooled recruits.

I don't provide this information to denigrate servicemembers who were homeschooled as children. If they're still in, they must be doing great. The point, though, regarding enlistment, is to define the problem with how to enlist (if that's what's wanted), find the solution (which I don't perceive as special treatment gained by lobbying congressmen), and just do what it takes.

See the hill. Take the hill.

This may not be the lawyerly way to do things, but it's often the military way. And if joining the military is the goal, then speaking to recruiters in the language they understand might make the job a little easier.

Valerie