Instead of ranking military academies with other colleges, U.S. News leaves them unranked in the special category of “military specialty schools.” As a taxpayer, I think we deserve to know how well our service academies compare against the best private schools.

The effect of segregating the academies on potential applicants is that thousands will not consider service academies as an option each year simply because they are not on the U.S. News list. In addition, I suspect the dirty secret that the U.S. News non-ranking is hiding is that the service academies would compare very favorably against the “best” Ivy League schools.

By not making this known in their rankings, U.S. News and World Report is helping to perpetuate the myth that military service is only a choice of last resort for those not smart enough to do something “better.”