Benjamin Luxenberg : “Military recruiters and top brass like to repeat the refrain that the average member of the armed forces is better educated than the average American… These statistics, though, involve a bit of self-selection: Most officers have a bachelor’s degree because becoming an officer generally requires one, though this prerequisite appears increasingly anachronistic.”  

“Instead of mandating that officers have college degrees, the military should expand alternative avenues to officership… If aspiring officers must demonstrate commitment and responsibility, completing a four-year enlistment should suffice. If they must prove raw intellectual aptitude, high scores on the military’s own General Classification Test should be enough. If they must have general knowledge and the ability to think and write coherently, an exam akin to the State Department’s Foreign Service Officer Test would work.”