The Best American Schools for Working Class Children are Run by the Military

The US military's school system has long been a high performer among US school systems, but according to data published by the NY Times, pandemic declines in the test scores at all of the high performing state systems have left the military's schools the best in the country. This is despite having some unusual problems, such as students who move from school to school more frequently than those in any state and parents who are often away from home for long periods.

Their schools had the highest outcomes in the country for Black and Hispanic students, whose eighth-grade reading scores outpaced national averages for white students.

Eighth graders whose parents only graduated from high school — suggesting lower family incomes, on average — performed as well in reading as students nationally whose parents were college graduates.

Etc.; lots more numbers at the Times.

How do they do it? The Times offers these suggestions:

1. The schools are well-funded. The costs are hard to compare, because the military spends a lot supporting schools in places like Okinawa and Germany, but it looks like military funding is on par with the top spending districts in big cities and rich suburbs. I know two teachers who switched from DC suburban schools to military schools because the pay was better, and the difference is even bigger in the rural areas where many military schools are located. A place like Fort Moore in Alabama has their pick of local teachers.
2. All of the parents are employed. Not that military families don't have their share of dysfunction, including a high divorce rate, but by definition at least one of the parents has a career. 
3. Everyone has a home and medical care.
4. Mixing of social classes; in military schools the children of privates sit side-by-side with the children of major generals.
5. Mixing of races with less racism than in the rest of America.

I would add another factor that I think is important:

1. A bedrock belief that with the right kind of disciplined environment even very troubled young people can achieve stability and success.

Liberals often find it baffling or irritating when conservatives hold up the military as the model for solving our social problems. But there are ways in which the military does better than the rest of the country in dealing with issues, especially poverty and racism. But, and this is a big qualifier, the military brings a lot of very trouble young people in line by 1) offering tangible rewards in terms of pay, job security, and opprotunities for advancement, and 2) being able to throw out those who won't toe the line. Hard for a country to throw people out.