The Eagle – Aimee Breaux
“The military needs quality candidates, the organization argues, and quality candidates are the product of quality early education. The group specifically points to the Department of Defense’s statistic that 73 to 74 percent of Texans ages 17 to 24 do not reach the standard to join the U.S. military. Namely, they either don’t have a high school degree, are not physically fit enough or have a disqualifying criminal record. “Those are alarming figures for those of us who have served, who understand what it means to have a fully trained and capable force that goes out and does the things we ask them to do every day,” Ramirez said at a roundtable discussion following the reading session.” (more)