A recent report on federally funded colleges for more than 66, 000 military-connected children highlights unfavorable practices and calls for Congress to make sure that military parents stationed abroad have access to education freedom.
Open the Books, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing transparency in government spending, released” Schools for Radicals” last week, a report delving into an official Department of Defense Education Activity ( DODEA ) teacher training. The training demonstrated that school systems, such as Google Classroom and Pear Deck, has the skills to allow educators to track students ‘ emotions throughout the day and act as an archive for personal data, which is distinct from a person’s official history.
The report also reveals that, as the result of collaboration between the Modern Military Association of America and DODEA, institutions can release a gender-confused boy’s “affirmed” name, upon scholar request, in 24 hrs in Google Classroom, which activists have long claimed is required as a mental health treatment. Is it questionable whether or not this may call for parental consent.
Parents may wonder why DODEA appears to be expanding its scope beyond aggressive mental health interventions, which the review claims has consistently stymied filial and parliamentary inquiries into very basic information about policies and education. Many people would argue that DODEA has no business enraging children, especially as it continues to abate the obligations that parents have been demanding for decades.
Parents who spoke to the media anonymously about the treatment their children and their children had received from school staff at the Bahrain School, a DODEA school in the Middle East, were subject to congressional scrutiny last year. Other serious complaints included allegations that the schools ignored their concerns, that many teachers were unqualified, that special education students were denied accommodations, and that course requirements were lax and did not adequately prepare students for reentry after returning to American schools.
Decades of Concern About DODEA
I connected with a Korean military parent, who emailed me a link to a 1988 congressional hearing on military dependent schools. I was shocked to discover that many of the issues that military parents are identifying today are the same ones that were brought before Congress 36 years ago. Additionally, a witness from the National Military Family Association’s testimony ended her testimony by saying that she hoped that” the 20-year” close system” that has been [DODEA] will become the open and accountable system that military parents would have if they were living in the United States.
Yet the lack of accountability persists. And just as these issues spanned all schools in the world in 1988, they spanned the globe today. Parents from all over the world have shared stories about the serious issues they encountered in their DODEA schools, including child abuse, that were never resolved. And, though many may not realize it, child abuse at DODEA — child on child, teacher on child, and predators in the classroom and administration — is prevalent.
Families were confident that the issues would be resolved because service members were sacrificing and serving for our great nation. Finding out that little seems to have changed is disappointing. Indeed, as Open the Books, the Claremont Institute, and numerous articles over the past couple of years have shown, the problems have worsened with the advent of the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” ( DEI ) hydra, with its radical gender ideology, social-emotional learning, and critical race theory offshoots.
Pilot Program
However, parents in the military may soon find hope. Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind., included language in the House-passed fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ) that establishes a pilot program for school vouchers for military families and Department of Defense ( DOD ) civilians stationed overseas. The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel sent a delegation to Bahrain in January to meet face-to-face with parents.
The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, the two biggest teachers unions in the country, both think that voucher programs do n’t work and that international schools would be prone to fraud and abuse if taxpayer money is given to these institutions. However, many parents are willing to risk their children attending foreign schools, which are already being attended by State Department employees, especially after their negative experiences at intransigent DODEA schools. Additionally, organizations like Independent Women’s Voice and the Military Kids Special Education Alliance have voiced their fervent support. Parents I’ve spoken with in other DODEA locations around the world have also spoken out in support of the program, despite the fact that it would begin in Bahrain.
Since 1955, school choice has been a huge success and a powerful recruitment tool for State Department employees ‘ children. The State Department “did not want to limit employees ‘ freedom to educate their dependents as they pleased” during congressional hearings on the education allowance. And, oddly enough, neither the teachers ‘ unions nor the congressional Democrats have ever sought to stop State Department children from using this program.
The State Department’s tried-and-true program would be governed by the same rules that the Banks ‘ pilot program for 30 students uses. In fact, DODEA already uses these guidelines for its Non-DOD Schools Program, which provides financial aid to military personnel stationed outside a DODEA school’s service area. However, DOD only provides tuition for military and DOD children in Bahrain, while State Department employees ‘ children can enroll in any approved school there. The voucher is approximately$ 26, 000 for elementary school,$ 27, 000 for middle school, and$ 29, 000 for high school.
Families who are satisfied with DODEA, which the unions and DODEA claim are numerous, would be free to stay, but under the Banks pilot program, families who are aware that their children would thrive elsewhere would be able to use their vouchers to spend them at a private school of their choice. And the competition with international schools for their business might be the best catalyst for change if DODEA wants families to stay in their schools.
In the meantime, DODEA appears to be a fundamentally flawed bureaucracy. Our military families and children have been confined for far too long, and school choice, where the money follows the child, is a 21st-century remedy for a 20th-century relic that has shown itself either unwilling or unable to change. When the House and sure-to-pass Senate versions of the bill are scheduled to be reconciled, House and Senate negotiators must prioritize keeping Banks ‘ pilot program for education vouchers in the fiscal 2025 NDAA.
