Published Thursday, November 19, 2009

Obesity, bad health troubling sign of times

The Newnan Times-Herald

An apparent cultural shift may mean that fewer young people are fit for employment than ever before -- at least according to top military brass.

The poor state of the nation's education system and the worsening obesity crisis have led to a situation where about 75 percent of the country's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for military service, a new report announced this month.

Local members of the Coweta-Peachtree City Area Employer Committee said Wednesday that the report, while discouraging, bears out what they're seeing from many of today's job seekers.

The Associated Press reports that the young are unqualified largely because they are poorly educated, overweight and have physical ailments that make them unfit for the armed forces.

Other factors, such as drug use, criminal records and mental problems, also are contributing factors.

It's not just the military that has no use for these folks, committee members said. Employers are also turning them away.

"Seventy-five percent ... that's a lot," said Peter Ludlow, director of the Georgia Department of Labor's Newnan Career Center.

"That's not something you fix in two to three years," said Ludlow. "That's a cultural phenomenon. That's going to take a while to fix. And what does that mean for our economy?"

To combat the problem, a group of retired military leaders has joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan to call for greater investment in early education, which advocates say helps boost academic achievement and social development.

"We are very concerned," retired Army Maj. Gen. James Kelley, a member of Mission: Readiness, the Washington-based nonprofit organization that issued the report, told Associated Press. "We do have the greatest military in the world -- we have the greatest planes, the greatest tanks, the greatest ships -- but the key goal is having great people. Right now, we're attracting very highly qualified folks but that could change over time."

One of the main reason recruits don't qualify for the service is inadequate education. One in four between the ages of 17 and 24 does not have a high school diploma, according to the report. And many who do still fail the military's version of the SAT, known as the Armed Forces Qualification Test.

Asthma, eyesight and hearing problems are also factors. But about a third of all potential recruits can't join because they're too fat and out of shape.

"When you get kids who can't do push-ups, pull-ups or run, this is a fundamental problem not just for the military but for the country," said Curtis Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accessions policy. Many kids are not "taking physical education in school; they're more interested in sedentary activities such as the computer or television. And we have a fast-food mentality in this country."

A nation of obese, functionally illiterate kids doesn't bode well for the future of the country, local committee members said Wednesday.

Some job applicants from rural areas don't even have a third grade reading level, committee members said.

"In some areas, education just isn't valued. It's a cultural thing," said committee member Judith Carr.

It's not just young people, said Ludlow. Many older job seekers also need to bolster their education if they're going to compete in today's job market.

"Over the last year-and-a-half, we've gone from dealing with folks who had a high job turnover rate to employees who haven't had to look for a job in 15 to 25 years because they've always been employed," said Ludlow. "Some of these folks have never had to write a resume."