Educational Opportunity for Military Children

For half a decade now, Congress has failed to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, better known as No Child Left Behind. The principal stumbling block has been how to rewrite the law's accountability requirements for student achievement. That's certainly a debate worth having. But the continuing disagreement has had an unfortunate consequence. It has foreclosed an opportunity to help one the most neglected populations in public education: military students.

The vast majority of the 1.2 million school-aged military children attend public schools. While there are schools that are models of how to support military students, most are still not equipped to help these students manage the stresses of military life: adjusting to new schools year after year because of their parents' changing deployment orders; dealing with a revolving door of friendships; handling the possibility of a parent's death. Worse, many school districts, including some near military bases, have no idea if there are military students in their classrooms, let alone how many. How can schools support military students if they don't know who they are?

Such neglect may affect many military students' performance in public school classrooms. A Rand study released last year focused on military students' achievements in North Carolina and Washington state, both home to big military bases. It found that the reading and math scores of these students were significantly lower than those of their civilian peers, and that the achievement gap was greater the younger the student was.

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is the best way to nationally address the academic struggles of military students. Remarkably, their needs have not been included in previous large-scale education reform efforts, such as Race to the Top. This oversight must end. The good news is that the specifics of how to support these students are already available. They are outlined in the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, which has widespread support.

The compact spotlights the obstacles military students face in school and offers remedies. For example, these students frequently lose credits when they transfer to schools in other states, forcing them to retake courses. The compact encourages schools to waive course requirements if students have already completed similar coursework in another state.

Organizations such as the Military Child Education Coalition, the Military Impacted Schools Association and the National Military Family Association have worked tirelessly to get states to adopt the compact, and most have agreed that following its recommendations is the right thing to do for military families. But even in those states, implementation and follow through can vary widely at the school-district level.

None of this is to suggest that military students are strictly on their own in the nation's schools. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden have spotlighted the many public schools that have gone the extra mile to support military students, and the Department of Defense Educational Activity continues to build partnerships with public schools serving military families. California has developed semi-annual anonymous surveys for districts to learn how many students from military families are in their classrooms. Maryland's Harford County schools have taken the additional step of tracking military students' academic achievement. And in tracking students with parents on active duty or who are deployed overseas, South Carolina schools know when to intervene to offer extra support, whether during times of stress over a parent's fate on the battlefield or on a student's first day at a new school. Military students, on average, will attend up to nine schools before graduating from high school.

Members of Congress love to tout their support for our nation's military families. But so far their rhetoric is largely empty -- especially at a time when our country has been at war for over a decade, and Congress' support for our service members does not extend to their families back home. With tens of thousands of warriors returning home, states, local communities and hundreds of organizations are mobilizing to help them and their children readjust. Congress could provide invaluable support if it reauthorized the education bill and included in it the compact's recommendations for military children, along with incentives and penalties to ensure its implementation.

The question is, when will Congress stop ignoring the education of the children of military families who have sacrificed so much since the war on terror began?

 

Comments

[Eyecre8]

05:21 PM on 04/01/2012

Military families are some of the heroic, unsung heroes of our society. They sacrifice much to provide for the whole and yet are basically neglected and glossed over in military budgets in favor of defense contractors. These people may not be soldiers, but they are part of our military all the same. It is the common soldiers who are most depended upon to represent and defend our country, yet it is they who are least appreciated and rewarded for their service, and thus their families suffer not only separation in deployment, but actual deprivation in the lack of compensation bestowed upon them by the government which employs and controls their loved ones.

[Ron Avi Astor]

10:36 PM on 04/01/2012

you raise such an important issue. The contractors have very few supports. More should be done for these families as well.

[Bobbi Taylor12]

08:50 AM on 03/31/2012

I find this very hard to believe. We are a military family of 15 years, with three children. Public schools receive seperate funding for every military child that the school has in attendance. You cannot possibly tell me that, (schools) "..have no idea if there are military students in their classrooms.." I wonder why the RAND study used WA and NC, when here in VA, there are a a multitude of bases, from all branches, including the world's largest Navy Base. There is a whole lot wrong with our public and private educational systems, including continuing educational facilities who, as quoted by Bill Gates, cannot provide the kind of knowledge needed to keep up with technilogical advancement rates. Our education system ranks 34th in the world. NCLB left a whole genre of students behind, special needs students. And there's more special needs students in our public schools than military ones.

[Ron Avi Astor]

12:52 PM on 03/31/2012

It is hard to believe-- but true if you look at public schools across the USA-- you are right to a degree. Some school districts know how many military kids are in their school districts, especially near bases and in those districts that apply for military impact aid. But even these districts agree that MIA numbers are underestimates because not everyone fills out the MIA card. Plus, the current formula's created are so complicated that many schools with smaller numbers of military kids don't bother to recount every year because it is a labor intense process and costly. Some districts like San Diego Unified have each family list their military family status when they register. They have a good knowledge and are able to get ample grants, services and supports to the right schools that need it. But if you go around the country, many school districts and schools even just a bit away from bases don't know how many or if they have military kids. There are a large number of guard and reserve, coast guard, and now families that have left the military in public schools that no one knows are there. It's hard to provide supports in those situations. National policy should learn from those existing best practices in model districts and schools (and there are many model places) that do the right thing by being aware and providing wonderful services. This should happen in all public schools across the USA that have military kids.