National guard ged plus program arkansas

Pennsylvania's GED program is a retention tool aimed at soldiers who joined in high school while in good academic standing, then failed to graduate. The National Guard takes it another step and offers participants classes at an education center it runs in Arkansas. The Army pays the cost of qualified recruits taking GED preparation classes and the actual test. So far, more than 13,000 recruits have earned GEDs through the program, started in 2005. In a wider initiative known as Education Plus, the Army and Army National Guard have also been reaching out to dropouts - some of them years out of school - with a promise of helping them get their GEDs if they enlist. 1st Class John Walton, 32, who started the Pennsylvania program and says it is not about filling quotas but helping the troops. We have the ability to stop another bad action from happening - them getting discharged from the military,' said Sgt. 'Something happened in that soldier's life that was bad. It's a strategy that is potentially risky for the military as it strives to maintain the quality of its force, but one that's clearly giving dropouts like Vojta a second chance. Straining to fill its ranks with the Iraq war in its fifth year, the military is taking on an ever-bigger role providing basic education to new recruits. In an old barracks at Fort Indiantown Gap, the 18-year-old Cleveland woman and other dropouts spent three intensive weeks in class this summer to help them pass their GEDs - so they would meet the minimal educational requirement to remain in the Guard. So the National Guard ran her through a program it started this year in Pennsylvania for privates who drop out of high school after having joined the military. Military widens door for dropouts NPP Pressroom

National guard ged plus program arkansas