During the debate, McCain suggested that the government has a special interest in getting retired soldiers into teaching positions:

MCCAIN: We need to encourage programs such as Teach for America and Troops to Teachers where people, after having served in the military, can go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations which -- or have the certification that some are required in some states.

He didn't give much explanation here, but he has gone into more depth previously:

The sense of heightened responsibility and duty to a cause greater than themselves that veterans were taught in the discipline and code of conduct of the armed forces make many of them excellent candidates to impart those virtues to our children, and help them see the value of learning as a means to self-improvement and much nobler ends,

 All together, this strikes me as plan for systematically introducing militaristic indoctrination into our schools. McCain is asserting that military veterans have special character traits that they should pass on to Americas children. Bullshit!

Before anyone accuses me of hating soldiers, let me say that I have no problem with soldiers or with them taking up teaching after retiring from the military. What I have a problem with is a government program to stack the schools with people from a particular background, especially one that correlates with particular moral and political values. I also have a problem with the notion that soldiers are somehow better than the rest of us "regular" Americans, and that they should be given special treatment outside of the benefits associated with their military career.

In a society with a volunteer, professional military, a military career is equivalent to any other professional career (medical, legal, technical, educational etc.). The dangers and stresses of military service do justify certain special benefits (good insurance, early retirement) but do not make them superior role models than anyone else.

Given that the military is not a life long career, it makes sense that it may provide job-placement services to soldiers that are transitioning to another career. If many soldiers are attracted by teaching, then the military should be adept at aiding those soldiers, but it should not have any special program initiated by politicians.

On the flip side, there's an argument to be made that schools benefit from hiring teachers who have spent some time outside of the classroom. If our schools adopted such policies, we very well may find that veteran soldiers would gravitate towards teaching -- but they should not be given any advantages that are not also extended to others who have proven themselves outside of the classroom.

These comments by McCain are just part of his repeated glorification of soldiers, and the broader conservative tendency towards soldier worship. In light of how conservatives constantly harp about the ideological composition of the teaching profession, McCain's proposals can reasonably bee seen as an attempt to use government to reshape the ideological influences on the next generation of Americans.