Retired military officers push for Va. preschool funds

NORFOLK

A group of retired military flag officers called on state lawmakers Thursday to support a proposed funding increase for subsidized preschool programs, framing the issue as a matter of national security.

Speaking to reporters aboard the battleship Wisconsin, the officers - two former Air Force generals and a former Coast Guard admiral - pointed to research that shows more than a quarter of Virginia high school graduates who seek to join the Army can't pass the service's basic entrance exam, and roughly three-quarters of all Americans ages 17 to 24 aren't even eligible to try, either because they are too overweight, they dropped out of school, or they have criminal records.

"It's not only regrettable for those young people who are unable to gain the benefits that come with service in our military - the work ethic, the discipline, the pride, the awareness of self," said Gen. Richard Hawley, the former head of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base. "It also weakens our capacity to recruit, train and retain a strong military to keep America safe."

All of the relevant research points to one key solution, Hawley said: quality early childhood education.

The retired officers are three of about 300 who belong to a nonprofit group called "Mission: Readiness." Founded in 2009, the organization aims to increase the percentage of young Americans who are eligible for military service. It has focused its early efforts on trying to recast the issues of childhood obesity and soaring high school dropout rates as threats to national security.

In an interview, the group's national director, Amy Dawson Taggart, said their main goal is not boosting military recruitment. Rather, she said, it's about keeping open a door to the middle class for all those who want it.

She said the military itself has recognized the seriousness of the problem for years, but the service branches can't take it on alone, especially because of its ongoing nature. With government funding for early childhood education programs, for example, the threat of cuts can re-emerge with each new budget cycle.

One of the organization's biggest successes to date, she said, was the role its members played in framing nutrition in school meals as a national security issue. Mission Readiness was one of several groups that lobbied hard for a new law that gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to set nutritional standards for all foods regularly sold in schools.

Besides meeting with policymakers and testifying at state and federal legislative sessions, Mission Readiness members advocate for their cause through the media. They send letters and op-eds to newspapers, and they hold news conferences.

The funding increase they backed Thursday was proposed with the governor's budget. It would give an additional $5 million to the Virginia Preschool Initiative, which distributes state funds to schools and community-based organizations to provide pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk 4-year-olds.

Dawson Taggart acknowledged that the increase is modest - about half as much as Mission Readiness had hoped to see. Still, she thinks it would go a long way.

"We hope Richmond will listen," she said.

Corinne Reilly, (757) 446-2949, corinne.reilly@pilotonline.com