Popular youth boot camp latest victim of budget cuts

NEVADA, Mo. -- Rather than close National Guard armories in Missouri to trim his budget, Adjutant General Dennis Shull has instead decided to close a popular boot camp for high school dropouts.

The move has upset graduates of the program, their families and some elected officials.

More than 800 cadets have graduated from the ShowMe Challenge program since it opened four years ago at Camp Clark in Nevada, Mo. Missouri was one of 26 states with the National Guard-operated program, and there are 15 other states on a waiting list to receive federal funding to begin the program.

When Shull, the commander of Missouri's Air and Army National Guard, was ordered to trim the state portion of his budget for the third or fourth time this year, he had little choice but to cut the Challenge program, a Guard spokeswoman said.

"From his perspective, he didn't have a lot of choice," said 1st Lt. Tamara Spicer, a Guard spokeswoman.

Options such as closing armories would have impacted the Guard's ability to fulfill its state and national duties, she said. The Challenge program had little to do with those efforts.

"I understand that we have to protect our country, but good Lord, our children are our most important commodity," said Grain Valley resident Ken Cook, whose son graduated from the program in 1998.

Missouri will have to return about half of its federal funding for this fiscal year, a National Guard spokesman in Arlington, Va., said. The state also will move to the bottom of the waiting list if it decides to resurrect the program.

When the Missouri program started four years ago, it operated on 75 percent federal and 25 percent state funding. The mix gradually shifted to a 60 percent federal, 40 percent state funding formula.

That equates to $1.68 million in federal funds and $1.09 million from the state.

All 44 staff members will lose their jobs and the closure will affect more than 100 teens who had enrolled in the session that was to start Jan. 18.

Voluntary program

The voluntary, 22-week program gave cadets the chance to earn their general equivalency degree in a military-style environment that included classwork, physical conditioning and community service. Many graduates advanced to college, a job or the military.

A grass-roots effort to save the program began Monday, but supporters say the odds of coming up with the $500,000 needed to keep the program going are long.

Lee's Summit Mayor Karen Messerli faxed a letter Monday asking Gov. Bob Holden to find a way to save the program. A spokesman in the governor's office called her back with the message that this is a time of difficult budget decisions.

"It is truly unfortunate," Messerli said. "I know there are kids this program has kept out of jail."

Matt Roof, of Excelsior Springs, said without the program his life would be far different now. Roof tried three times to run away from the program, yet he graduated in the original class with top marks. Today, he is an Air Force security controller stationed in New Mexico.

"It really turned me around," Roof said.

"I had no ambition. They taught it to me. I would be a drain on society right now if I hadn't gone through that program."