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DoDEA reaches out to civilian schools

Defense education officials have a new mission: to help improve educational opportunities for all military children, not just those who attend schools operated by the Defense Department.

But it’s not a one-way street. They’re also getting ideas from civilian schools that might be used to improve the education of kids in military-run schools, said Taffy Corrigan, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity’s new Educational Partnership Directorate, which launched Oct. 1.

Last year, Congress authorized DoDEA to work with civilian schools, at a time when base realignments and closures, and force structure changes — both at home and abroad — are moving military children from school to school.

Officials encourage military families to voice their concerns through school liaisons and installation commanders. The directorate will communicate to families as well, Corrigan said.

“Sometimes, military families don’t want to go to an installation because they hear things through the military grapevine about the school system,” Corrigan said. “We need to be the advocates and get the word out that things have changed. We’ll be working with some school districts that have had a chance to turn that around ... and families will want to go there because they feel comfortable their kids will get a good education.”

The directorate is contacting school districts that are gaining children through base closures and realignments and force restructuring to help them prepare. But help is not limited to these schools; even districts with small populations of military children can still have challenges.

They have also scheduled a meeting with service officials to determine their needs and concerns about education.

“While we have a phenomenal school system, it only impacts a small amount of children,” said Susie Johnson, an Army wife and former Army assistant deputy for education and transition who is now the directorate’s associate director for legislation and policy.

“The vast majority [of military children] are educated by our phenomenal public schools, and we have a role in meeting that mission,” Johnson said. “It’s a good-news story for military families to recognize that the Pentagon knows that and is going to do something about it.”

Requests for help are coming from different quarters — school districts as well as installation officials.

Each area has different needs and challenges, Corrigan said. School districts are also bound by local and state requirements and funding.

“We have to be very sensitive,” Corrigan said. “We’re not here to put down any school district. They’re all working as hard as they can.”

She noted that sometimes an “outside eye” is helpful to a school district in a variety of ways. “We try to build rapport before we go in with the assistance,” she said. “We’re all educators and want the best for kids, especially military kids who transition and it becomes a difficult issue for them.”

Offering help with grants

“Quite a few commands are concerned” about the quality of education for their military children, Johnson said.

“But one thing we’ll be able to do is assist districts in applying for grants,” she said, providing information about available grants to help address some of their issues, and helping them write grant requests.

Corrigan said the directorate is seeking extended legislation for grant authority — allowing the directorate to give grants to schools.

John Deegan, superintendent of the Bellevue Public Schools near Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and executive director of the Military Impacted Schools Association, supports giving them grant authority. “They don’t want to be a hollow force,” he said. “They want to be able to recognize needs and put resources” toward those needs.

Charter schools have come up in talks already, and are one of many options the directorate might explore when requested by local school district officials as well as installation officials.

The directorate is looking at other broad ways to help military families, such as assistance in home schooling.

Rather than duplicate the work that has been done by nonprofit organizations like the Military Child Education Coalition and the Military Impacted Schools Association, the new directorate will work closely with those organizations.

Deegan sees an attitude change at the Defense Department. “They have been separatists before, but with BRAC and restationing, they’ve stopped to look at what we are doing,” Deegan said.

“I feel there’s a real spirit of cooperation now.”