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Altes: Grant drop-out vets automatic GED Tuesday, Jun 3, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A Fort Smith legislator wants the state to automatically grant a high school equivalency diploma to Arkansas military veterans who never finished high school. Honorably discharged Arkansas veterans who served at least 18 months of active duty or were disabled in the line of duty would qualify under the proposal by Republican Sen. Denny Altes. Altes said Monday he filed a request last month asking the Legislature to study his proposal to automatically grant General Educational Development diplomas as a way to honor Arkansas troops. "Oklahoma recently started giving GEDs to their troops returning and I thought that would be very nice," Altes said in an e-mail. The Legislative Council is scheduled to consider the study request later this month, but preliminary research suggests such a program would be difficult to implement in the state. In an e-mail to Altes on Monday, Sarah Ganahl of the Bureau of Legislative Research said she could not find a program in any state in the nation that automatically awards GEDs to honorably discharged military personnel. Several states, including Oklahoma, New Jersey and Texas, allow school districts to offer honorary diplomas, as long as the veterans meet specific requirements, Ganahl said. She also noted such a proposal would apply to just a few people since, in most cases, recruits already are required to have a high school diploma or GED before entering the military. "I need to do a little more research," said Altes, who provided a copy of Ganahl's e-mail to the Arkansas News Bureau. "I understand several National Guard and Reserve units do not require a GED and, like I said, I need to do more study on it." According to the Arkansas National Guard's Web Site, applicants must either be in high school or have a high school diploma or GED to join. A spokesman in the Guard's public affairs office did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday afternoon. Under Altes' proposal, the state Department of Workforce Education would award GEDs to military veterans and also would be responsible for developing rules for the program in conjunction with the state Department of Veterans Affairs. |
