Powerful Opportunity to Head Off Recruiting Shortfalls Needs a Boost
Jim Cowen
August 12, 2025
The emerging problem is that the data the Department of Defense plans to send to states is insufficient.
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The emerging problem is that the data the Department of Defense plans to send to states is insufficient.
The Purple Star School Program, a successful state-sponsored effort that military families rely on when moving from one installation to another and that also plays an important role by bolstering military readiness, needs an upgrade.
Military readiness is much more than the effective training of forces for deployment. As one community in central Missouri demonstrates, it includes ensuring that military-connected children have an excellent public school experience, giving their parents peace of mind that a career in the military doesn’t have to mean sacrificing a child’s education.
The data will offer a new and much-needed lens for high schoolers and their parents on what a career in the military could mean – financially and in potential career skills and upward workforce mobility.
Education provides the foundation for pluralism. Without it, you can’t have a democracy, with a populace prepared for the challenges and the critical thinking required to make the right decisions.
The lowering of educational standards for Navy recruits adds fuel to a national effort that would provide state-level educators with Defense Department data that could help address the recruiting crisis.
Schools and communities lack the data from the armed forces to demonstrate to their students that upon graduation they are well prepared to succeed in the military.
Ukraine is fighting to retain its freedom from the grips of Moscow while at the same time trying to approximate a K-12 education for the nation’s 5.7 million school-age children. It highlights the resiliency of Ukrainian children.
