The booming economy is creating a major headache for military recruiters charged with signing up qualified applicants for America’s all-volunteer force, and a good number of U.S. high schools are making the problem worse, according to Pentagon leaders.
Last week the Navy Secretary Richard Spencer complained to Congress that local school districts containing more than 1,100 high schools have banned recruiters from campus, thwarting access to a prime target group: 18-year-olds with a high school degree and no immediate job prospects.
This makes it all the more frustrating that hundreds of high schools see military recruiters as a danger to high schoolers, rather than a help to find a rewarding career in service to their country.
“There’s an excess of 1,100 schools in school districts that deny access to the uniformed members to recruit on their campuses,” Spencer said in testimony before a joint session of two Senate subcommittees.
“They’re all throughout the country; preponderance up in the Northeast and Northwest,” he said. “Whatever help anyone could do in helping us get the message out would be greatly appreciated.”
The Army failed to make its recruiting goal this year for the first time in more than a decade, falling short by 6,500 soldiers. The other services made their goals, but they are finding it tougher.
“Any time you have a unemployment rate below 4.1 percent, historically, trouble looms on the horizon for both recruiting and retention,” said Adm. William Moran, the vice chief of naval operations at the same hearing. “It’s at about 3.8 percent, I think, now, so we are all expecting this market to get more difficult than easier.”
The economy isn’t the only problem. Many high school seniors have no interest in enlisting in the military, and of those who do, 70 percent aren’t physically fit enough or are otherwise unqualified for military service.
“It’s getting harder. We used to make [our recruiting goal] before the third week of the month was out, now some places you’re making it the last day of the month,” said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller. “[It is] not just the propensity of young men and women — do they want to serve in the military — but the percentage that are qualified for us to even talk to them, and that number is right around, or slightly below, 30 percent.”
In response to a request for the “naughty list” of school districts where recruiters are not welcome, the Navy declined to specify which schools Spencer was referring to.
“The Navy values its relationship with the various educational institutions around the country to include those cited in the numbers you queried about,” said Lt. Christina Sears, a Navy spokesperson at the Pentagon. “Because their decision to allow recruiters on campus is part of ongoing discussions, it would be inappropriate to provide a list of these schools.”
