The Princeton Review has named the US Air Force Academy one of the nation’s top 50 public colleges for 2009 in terms of value, based on surveys of administrators and students at hundreds of schools. “The Air Force Academy is honored to earn this distinction,” said academy dean Brig. Gen. Dana Born in a USAFA release Jan. 8. She continued, “It is further recognition of the great effort we are making in providing cadets not just with a world-class education, but a full spectrum of learning experiences.” (Link to list; requires free registration.) The Princeton Review has also crowned the academy the nation’s No. 1 college for professor availability for the past four years and has highlighted its academic strengths, such as a student-faculty ratio of 8:1.
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to modernize and ditch certain platforms.…