Open Content As A National Security Issue
1 min read
According to the Education Trust, more than one in five recent high school graduates is not academically qualified to enlist in the US Army.
The Associated Press reports the same story with a marginally more dramatic headline: Nearly 1 in 4 fails military exam.
Both stories highlight that people of color do not score as highly as whites.
Neither story mentions any connection between test performance and socio-economic status, which is a curious oversight.
According to Secretary Arne Duncan (as quoted in the AP article):
"Too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career — and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP. "I am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by America's underperforming education system."
Given that graduating students with better math and science skills is now a matter of national security, why aren't all curricular materials developed with public funding equally accessible to all people?
