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| - The exact sentence of Project 2025's "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise" document, reads: "Improve military recruiters' access to secondary schools and require completion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery — the military entrance examination — by all students in schools that receive federal funding."
In September 2024, a rumor spread on social media (archived) that Project 2025 — a conservative coalition's plan for a future Republican administration — "proposes that all public high school students should be required to take the military entrance exam."
The rumor also spread online in August 2024. One Threads post read: "Did you know that Project 2025 would require that all public high school students take the ASVAB exam for entrance into the military? Private school students would be exempt. I can't imagine why…"
Similarly, in mid-July 2024, KXTV-TV shared a post on Facebook, reading: "Project 2025 recommends requiring students in high schools that get federal funding to take the ASVAB exam in an effort to combat military recruiting issues."
The claim spread also on Reddit and Instagram, where a user of the latter wrote: "By mandating the military entrance exam in public schools, MAGA is saying the quiet part out loud. It will not be the children of the rich or well connected who die in future wars, it will be working class American children born to working class families."
We have rated the claim true, because Project 2025's document, "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise," stated the project wants to: "Improve military recruiters' access to secondary schools and require completion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)—the military entrance examination—by all students in schools that receive federal funding."
(For further reading on Project 2025, we recommend our article, "The Facts About Project 2025: The Pro-Trump Proposal To 'Reshape America'")
Search results for "ASVAB" in the document showed it appeared once in its text (see screenshot below).
(Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise)
The paragraph regarding the military exam, found between pages 102-103, stated that to "rescue recruiting and retention," a "needed reform" was to require completion of the ASVAB exam by students attending schools receiving federal funding (emphasis in bold ours):
Improve military recruiters' access to secondary schools and require completion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)—the military entrance examination—by all students in schools that receive federal funding.
A footnote to the paragraph redirected to a document (also available here) with the title, "The Administration and Congress Must Act Now to Counter the Worsening Military Recruiting Crisis," authored by Thomas W. Spoehr. Similarly to the Project 2025 document "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise," it read:
Congress should:
[...]
Consider legislation improving military recruiter access to secondary schools and to require completion of the ASVAB Career Exploration Program (CEP) by all students in schools that receive federal funding;
While the ASVAB is focused on military enlistment, the ASVAB Career Exploration Program, mentioned above, is geared toward broader career exploration, including but not limited to military careers.
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, as its official website read, is "a multiple-aptitude battery that measures developed abilities and helps predict future academic and occupational success in the military. It is administered annually to more than one million military applicants, high school, and post-secondary students."
Furthermore, a candidate's scores on the ASVAB determine their eligibility for enlistment in the U.S. military. "Everyone who wants to enlist in the military must take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Each branch sets its own minimum score to join. Your score will help decide which jobs you can do after you enlist," USA.gov website explained.
However, as the military.com website underscored, one is not ever required to join the military after taking the ASVAB exam:
If I take the ASVAB, am I committed to joining the military?
Taking the ASVAB does not commit you to anything, but a military recruiter may contact you. The ASVAB can help you determine your own interests and aptitude, even if you are not planning to enter the military or are undecided. It can help you choose courses for college and make your personal career decisions.
We recently fact-checked other Project 2025-related rumors, such as:
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