Education Vs. Opportunity

No One under more control than the soldier
The Roots

John Kerry recently has been taken to task for a comment about Iraq and education. he said:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.''

Now Mr. Kerry has said that it was a joke on President Bush saying that he meant that Bush didn't do his homework and therefore "we" are stuck in Iraq. I really don't buy it. His explanation:

Kerry's office said later the Massachusetts Democrat had misread his prepared remarks that included the words ``Just ask President Bush,'' which he omitted.

It didn't look like he was reading anything when he made the comment, but that's not really important. What is important is that I think that he meant exactly what he said. Statistically speaking, those who possess higher education are more likely to be Democrats. It's a statistical fact that the likes of David Horowitz loves to point out. Democrats, and independents are more likely than not to be informed on the subject of Iraq and to be opposed to the Iraq war. Therefore one could say, with some kind of authority, that indeed if one was educated (though I would say informed) then one would be less likely to be in Iraq. But that doesn't really get at what is important about Kerry's statement. See the issue for many Americans is that many join the military because they do not see or have other viable opportunities. This is a fact. NewsMax reports that:

99.9 percent of the enlisted forces have at least a high school education, 73.3 percent have some college, 16.2 percent have an associate’s degree or equivalent semester hours, and 4.7 have a bachelor’s degree.

By newsmax's count only 4.7% of soldiers have a bachelors degree. MSN Encarta reports that:

The national college graduation rate is 27.2 percent...Data collected by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey shows that 52.7 percent of 25-and-over Seattleites have a bachelor's degree or higher, closely followed by San Francisco (50.1 percent), Raleigh, North Carolina (50.1 percent), Washington, D.C. (45.3 percent), and Austin, Texas (44.1 percent). These same cities ranked--in the same order--as the top five most educated cities in last year's Census Bureau data as well.


Thus, compared to the general population, the military is full of people who are not very educated. The problem here, highlighted by the recent picture from some of the military's finest, is that he's not saying they can't read and write, but that the military is where we find those persons who do not have many other options. The problem is that for many places where these high school graduates come from (and it is agreed by most that a high school diploma does not take one very far in the job market today) lack opportunities. Many recruits do not have the means to attend college and join up to get money for college (which is advertised heavily by the military and is a huge selling point for recruiters).

So by looking at the statistics John Kerry's "joke" is really no joke. It is actually the truth, If you are poor and can't afford college, if social conditions in your neighborhood leave job options such as "drug dealer" and "McDonalds at minimum wage" as the most one can hope for or you're an illegal immigrant looking for legalization, you can end up "stuck" in Iraq. It's too bad that in pandering to the ill informed electorate that makes up way to much of the country, one has to apologize for making a truthful statement and can't even take the time to explain it the way I just did.

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