Minorities underrepresented in service academy nominations Richard Blumenthal Connecticut West Point Congress Senate Armed Services Committee

Minority students are significantly underrepresented when it comes to getting nominations from members of Congress to attend the nation’s military service academies, according to an analysis released Wednesday.

The study by the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School included nearly 25 years of admissions nomination data from the Military Academy at West Point the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy involving members of the current Congress.

Members of Congress have awarded 6% of their total nominations to Black students and 8% to Hispanic students, according to the report. White students received 74% of the nominations. Currently, about 15% of students in public schools nationwide are Black and 27% are Hispanic.

To be considered for admission, all service academy applicants must receive a nomination from a member of Congress, the president, the vice president, a secretary of a military service, or an academy superintendent.

“Because many general officers graduate from the service academies, the congressional nominations bottleneck ultimately impacts diversity at the highest levels of military leadership,” said Liam Brennan, the executive director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center. “While some congressmembers are making good-faith efforts to promote students of color, the data point to a clear and urgent need for improvement across Congress and in the academy admissions process at large.”

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