Program Finances -- How should we cope with our success?

How should the cadet community cope with its record-setting successes?

Fabulous news! Cadet enrollment is at a 47-year high. Metrics for encampments, flying, quality cadet units, and other important markers are similarly high. General Curry would be smiling.

CadetInvest has removed huge financial barriers for many cadets. Those changes correlate with gains in enrollment. However, success in enrollment means that sustainability is now a challenge. With every new cadet, CAP incurs costs for textbooks, uniforms, encampment, flying, etc. While growth presents a wonderful problem, it is a problem. What should we do? Some options include:

Cut existing services to cadets and transfer funds to the Cadet Invest programs having the greatest need. None of our programs is obviously fat or waste, so this approach would not be easy. 

• Somehow increase the cadets’ share of CAP’s federal money by cutting expenses in other departments, and/or increase donations.
• Tighten need-based services to reduce the pool of eligible cadets, and/or require stricter rules where families must prove their eligibility.
• Adopt more cost-sharing practices, such as $5 per orientation flight and $25 per CEAP cadet. This approach complicates the accounting, introducing a “program income problem.”

What other ideas should we consider? Sound off by entering comments below. 

As we discuss this challenge, let’s remember that the Cadet Program is funded better than ever before, as shown in the table below.