Yes, Project 2025 recommends requiring military entrance exams for public high school students

Project 2025 is an initiative launched by a conservative think tank called The Heritage Foundation to provide a plan for the next conservative president to transform the federal government.

VERIFY has fact-checked multiple viral claims about Project 2025. We found that it does not propose eliminating Social Security benefits and it does not recommend tracking people’s menstrual cycles with “period passports.” We also answered questions about whether foundations connected to three major companies have financial ties to the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.

Other viral posts shared across social media claim Project 2025 recommends requiring students attending public high schools to take a military entrance exam.

“Project 2025 will require all PUBLIC SCHOOL student (sic) to take a military entrance exam…… BECAUSE THE RICH DON’T SEND THEIR KIDS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!!!!  They look at our kids as peasants that will do their fighting for them.  Make no mistakes..their children will be exempt!!!” one of the viral posts says. 

Multiple VERIFY readers, including Stephan and Susan, asked if that’s true. 

THE QUESTION

Does Project 2025 recommend requiring public high school students to take the military entrance exam?

THE SOURCES

• “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” published by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025
• USA.gov, the federal government’s official website
• Army, Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Space Force websites 
• Military.com, a military news source 

THE ANSWER

Yes, Project 2025 recommends requiring public high school students to take the military entrance exam. 

WHAT WE FOUND

"Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative Promise," which outlines the plan for Project 2025, recommends requiring students in public high schools to take a military entrance exam called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). 

The proposed requirement would extend to schools that “receive federal funding,” the document says. That means the requirement would apply to students attending public schools and any private schools that receive federal funds.

In its chapter on the Department of Defense (DOD), the “Mandate for Leadership” outlines reforms aimed at addressing military recruitment and retention issues, including the ASVAB requirement.

In 2023, the U.S. military services collectively missed their recruiting goals by 41,000 recruits, the Department of Defense said in December. A strong economy that has resulted in more options for young people and a smaller population of those eligible to serve in the military are among the causes of recruiting challenges, the department said. 

The plan recommends that the next conservative presidential administration should “improve military recruiters’ access to secondary schools and require completion of the Army Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) – the military entrance examination – by all students in schools that receive federal funding.”

Everyone who wants to enlist in the military has to take the ASVAB and each branch sets its own minimum score to join, USA.gov, the federal government’s official website, explains. The ASVAB exam is available to high school students in grades 10, 11 and 12, according to a DOD-sponsored website. 

VERIFY also checked the websites for all six branches of the military and confirmed that they all list taking the ASVAB as one of the requirements to join.

The Army describes the ASVAB as a standardized test on science, math and language that helps identify which careers may be a fit for someone who joins the military.

Anyone who takes the test is scored in ten different subject areas and they receive two types of scores – an Armed Forces Qualification Test score that determines their eligibility to join and category scores that determine job opportunities.

People who take the ASVAB exam aren’t committed to joining the military, but a recruiter may contact them afterward, Military.com, a military news source, says.

The ASVAB requirement isn’t the only recommendation in “Mandate for Leadership” that’s tied to improving military recruitment. The plan also recommends increasing the number of Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) programs in secondary schools. 

You can read more about Project 2025’s policy recommendations here and visit the Project 2025 section on our website for all of our latest fact-checks.