Gomers: What's going wrong

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW, NOT: The military doesn't take just anyone who enlists. The Education Trust's analysis of the Army's vocational aptitude test scores, announced last week, shows that 22.6 percent of applicants from 2004 to 2009 failed to meet the minimum, and Iowans didn't fare much better at 18.6 percent. Nationally, people of color fared much worse: 38.7 percent of African-Americans and 29.1 percent of Hispanics didn't pass. Iowa's numbers, respectively, were 33.1 and 30.6 percent. Other branches of the military use the same test but have higher thresholds than the Army. Applicants must be high school graduates, so this report does not reflect well on our K-12 education system. Might it also reflect declining family support for education?

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SEAT LOST: Iowa's relatively slow rate of population growth over the past decade, 4.1 percent compared to the nation's 9.7 percent, will cost the state one of its five congressional seats. And to think we once (1910) had 11 seats.

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RISING DEBT: Outstanding debt obligations for state and local governments in Iowa rose 11.2 percent in fiscal 2010 to nearly $13 billion. Cities ($4.6 billion) and schools ($2.5 billion) are the most indebted.