Military challenges described
Kirtland general wants more STEM students, easier transfers
In a speech Tuesday, a general at Kirtland Air Force base stressed the need for more students to take courses in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Other challenges facing the military, he said, include providing reciprocal licenses for spouses of military members as they move from one locale to another; and getting schools to accept credits as students transfer from school to school.
Maj. Gen. Shaun Q. Morris, commander of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland, talked about how to ease the transition for military families in the keynote speech for the Kirtland Partnership Committee’s 2018 annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Albuquerque.
Morris also gave an overview of the mission and structure of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center and talked about how the nuclear weapons landscape has changed.
The Kirtland Partnership Committee is a nonprofit coalition of local businesses, and military and support organizations located on the base. The committee’s mission is to “grow Kirtland Air Force Base by helping enhance existing missions and attract appropriate new missions,” as well as supporting legislation at local, state and national levels to help realize these goals.
Getting a qualified workforce to stay in New Mexico has long been problematic, but there are well-paying jobs available within the military in the STEM fields.
“STEM is a big deal, and if you don’t start kids early in this area, if they’re not interested in elementary school or middle school, and if it can’t be stoked in high school, they are not going to enter a STEM degree in college and go into a STEM career,” Morris said.
“So how do we get them into the right STEM job, into the right STEM degrees, into the right universities and the right programs, so I can then bring them out the other side and put them to work in nuclear weapons?” Morris asked. “These are things that are challenges to us. We’d love to have a pipeline that develops that workforce here locally and that requires the continuing engagement with universities to make sure they have degree programs that are good feeders into what we need.”
Accepting reciprocal licenses for spouses would make relocating for military families easier. For example, in the case of a spouse licensed as a nurse in another state, “how do we get it so that if they move they don’t have to start completely over?”
Likewise, how easy is it for the children of military families to transfer course credits so they don’t fall behind in school?
Earlier this month, Gov. Susana Martinez ordered changes to the occupational licensing process to make it easier for out-ofstate professionals to practice in New Mexico. Some changes, such as fee reductions, can be accomplished through regulatory changes; however, legislation is required to change the reciprocal licensing laws that govern many of the occupations and trades targeted by Martinez’s executive order.