Despite billions of dollars invested in educational benefits for veterans and active-duty military families under the U.S. Post-9/11 GI Bill, many prospective students are not forging pathways through public institutions of higher education, and funding is disproportionately spent on for-profit colleges. To reveal patterns of lack of access and opportunity, we propose a novel, robust analysis tailored to the situation of veterans and military families in the southern United States. This methodology delineates education deserts using fuzzy algorithms and multivariate spatial analysis to move beyond simple “hotspot” identification of distance from university locations. Results and comparisons of four models confirm different patterns for veterans versus nonveterans and show dynamic regional changes from 2005 through 2017 that reflect shifting demographics, economics, and educational offerings. These insights could inform a roadmap for outreach that accounts for shifting education deserts and potentially workforce opportunities through geographic analysis. This approach represents a potential first step for academic actors, especially in the public sector, who play a role in advancing science, technology, engineering, and math; geography; and geographic information systems to enable veteran and military families to better achieve equitable rates of educational attainment.

尽管根据美国 9/11 后退伍军人法案为退伍军人和现役军人家庭投资了数十亿美元的教育福利，但许多未来的学生并没有通过公共高等教育机构开辟道路，资金不成比例地用于营利性大学。为了揭示缺乏机会和机会的模式，我们针对美国南部退伍军人和军人家庭的情况提出了一种新颖、稳健的分析。这种方法描述了教育沙漠使用模糊算法和多元空间分析来超越简单的“热点”识别与大学位置的距离。四个模型的结果和比较证实了退伍军人与非退伍军人的不同模式，并显示了从 2005 年到 2017 年的动态区域变化，反映了人口统计、经济和教育产品的变化。这些见解可以为外展路线图提供信息，该路线图通过地理分析说明了不断变化的教育沙漠和潜在的劳动力机会。这种方法代表着学术参与者的潜在第一步，特别是在公共部门，他们在推动科学、技术、工程和数学方面发挥作用；地理; 和地理信息系统，使退伍军人和军人家庭能够更好地实现公平的受教育率。