THE SENATE

S.C.R. NO.

70

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING HAWAII'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO REEVALUATE THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ENLISTMENT POLICY FOR HOMESCHOOLERS.

 

WHEREAS, the existing policy established by the Armed Forces of the Department of Defense discriminate against those Hawaii homeschoolers who readily desire to enlist in the military; and

WHEREAS, in the past, the military would allow the enlistment of tier one homeschooler candidates with an Armed Forces Qualifications Test of fifty and above, but it now appears that the Armed Services will no longer enlist homeschoolers above and below an Armed Forces Qualifications Test score of fifty; and

WHEREAS, the homeschool graduates who scored above fifty on the Armed Forces Qualifications Test had nearly identical attrition rates with both private school and public school high school graduates; and

WHEREAS, homeschool graduates with Armed Forces Qualifications Test scores of fifty and above are slightly less likely than high school diploma graduates to leave early for misconduct and failure to adapt; and

WHEREAS, a home school graduate with an average Armed Forces Qualifications Test score of 59.3 is identical to a public school graduate, and research has found that homeschoolers do better than public school graduates on a variety of achievement tests; and

WHEREAS, a youth attitude tracking study indicated that homeschoolers are twice as likely to take a college entrance exam as the general youth population and that homeschoolers are more likely to pursue postsecondary studies than regular high school graduates; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature believes that homeschool graduates have qualities that would assist them in becoming contributing members of the military, especially in view of the current need for military recruits; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that Hawaii's congressional delegation is requested to petition the Department of Defense to facilitate the enlistment of homeschool graduates by permanently placing all homeschoolers who score fifty and above on the Armed Forces Qualifications Test in tier one and the rest in tier two; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Hawaii's congressional delegation is also requested to support allowing each military service to petition the Department of Defense to move education credentials to a different tier and to monitor the attrition levels of all groups periodically for possible historical changes that warrant a tier change; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation; the chairperson of the Board of Education; the Superintendent of Education; the Home School Legal Defense Association; and the Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Homeschoolers; Reevaluation of Department of Defense Enlistment Policy