Time To Abolish The Service Academies

The Naval Academy, where I have been a professor for 23 years, has lost its way. The same is true of the other service academies. They are a net loss to the taxpayers who finance them, as well as a huge disappointment to their students, who come expecting reality to match reputation. They need to be fixed or abolished. The service academies are holdovers from the 19th century, when they were virtually the only avenue for producing an officer corps for the nation’s military and when such top-down institutions were taken for granted. But the world has changed, which the academies don’t seem to have noticed, or to have drawn any conclusions from. Instead of better officers, the academies produce burned-out midshipmen and cadets. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/opinion/21fleming.html?src=me&ref=general