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Good News in the Military: Homeschoolers Returned to Tier 1*

HSLDA received news from the Deputy Director of Accession Policy in the Pentagon, Captain Christopher Arendt, USN, that effective immediately, most homeschoolers enlisting in the military will be considered Tier 1. This new directive states that homeschoolers who score a 50 or above on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) will automatically be placed in Tier 1. The change in policy is the result of a decision by the Department of Defense to conduct a new pilot program to review the attrition rates of homeschoolers. This pilot program is scheduled to last four years, during which time DoD will analyze the data and determine if a new long-term policy is warranted.

Previously, due in large part to the efforts of HSLDA, the Department of Defense commissioned a similar five-year-study in 1998. This 1998 study also placed homeschoolers in Tier 1; however, in the end the study showed that homeschoolers did not have attrition rates comparable to traditional high school graduates. HSLDA challenged the Pentagon's findings, claiming that many of the people identified as homeschooled were actually not, thus skewing the results. Our assessment of the original study is that the data showed homeschoolers who scored 50 or above on the AFQT had a comparable or higher likelihood of completing their initial four years of service than their traditional high school graduate peers.

Although homeschoolers have been placed in Tier 2 for the past several years, we were able to convince Congress to give them a “preferred” enlistment status so that homeschoolers scoring above a 50 on the AFQT could enlist without limitations. However, despite our best efforts, some homeschoolers did not always receive the same benefits they would have gotten if they had been Tier 1.

We are excited that the Pentagon has taken this step to place homeschoolers back into Tier 1 where we believe they rightly belong. Until the new study is completed, Captain Arendt has assured us that he will work closely with us to resolve any problems.

* - The "Tier" Classification System is used to classify new enlistees based on attrition rates. Attrition rates are the rate at which new Service members complete their first tour of service, generally four years.

This is wonderful. It places homeschoolers on an equal footing with those of a standard public school diploma. Prior to this a homeschooler with a score 0f 50 was in tier 2 when a graduate of public school with a 50 was placed in tier 1.