By Carol Chmelynski
01/20/04 -- The Department of Defense (DOD) is considering a proposal to close some or all of the 58 K-12 schools it operates on military bases in the United States.
A decision to close the DOD-run schools would have far-reaching effects on the more than 30,000 students these schools serve and on the surrounding public school districts that will be asked to absorb the students.
Base commanders, active-duty military parents, and students have all voiced fierce opposition to the idea of closing the schools. They say the DOD schools understand the special needs of children who move frequently as their parents are transferred across the country and the world to meet their military obligations. Classes at these schools tend to be small, with sometimes fewer than 12 students, which encourages newly enrolled children to become active participants.
But perhaps most important, the schools have a standardized curriculum that allows a student to transfer in the middle of the year from Germany to Georgia without changing textbooks.
The schools cite high performance on standardized tests and graduation rates greater than 95 percent.
But the schools are expensive for the military -- the cost comes to $363 million a year -- which is concentrating on its fight against terrorism and reconfiguring itself for high-tech warfare.
The $1.6 million study, called the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005, analyzes the physical condition of each school and the cost of bringing each facility up to local standards.
A decision to close schools isn't expected until the spring, and no schools will actually be closed before 2005. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will make the final decision.
Defense officials have sought community input. At a meeting in Peachtree, Ga., in October, top officials from base schools expressed strong opposition to the proposal.
Col. John Kidd, garrison commander of Fort Steward, Ga., called the proposal a "betrayal," according to a report in the Army Times. "As a commander, I will fight this tooth and nail," he says. "Folks down there are not just militant on this issue. They will march on Washington."
Democratic senators Edward Kennedy (Mass.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), and Patty Murray (Wash.) sent Rumsfeld a letter Nov. 6 asking him not to close any of the DOD schools.
"Closing these schools would force the sons and daughters of our military personnel to commute long distances to attend schools that may not have the capacity to absorb [them]," the letter says. "Our men and women in uniform have enough to worry about in Iraq, without throwing their children's education into chaos."
Officials from nearby local school districts are not embracing the idea, even though the federal government might pay them as much as $8,000 for each student they absorb from a DOD school.
"I would be a team player, but it's not something I would go out and advocate for," says Richard Hughes, superintendent of the Hardin County (Ky.) school system. "We know how strongly the people at Fort Knox feel about holding on to their schools and we respect them for that."
Hardin County serves 13,500 students, and if the schools at Fort Knox close, it could gain about 2,500 students. "We would need to negotiate with the federal government to use their buildings and their teachers," Hughes says, "and also we would ask for at least as much money -- $6,000 per student -- that we receive for other students."
Lucy S. Beauchamp, chairman-at-large of the Prince William County, Va., school board, says, the school closing plan is "just not in the best interest of the military families and their children, and our existing students."
She is concerned about overcrowding in district schools if the school at the nearby Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Va., were to close, adding 900 to 1,500 new students. The district already enrolls 63,000 students this year, which is about 1,700 more than anticipated.
With the schools already filled to capacity, she says, "we would have no option but to build new schools." The district would need two new elementary schools at a cost of $13 million for each, a new $20 million middle school, and a new $45 million high school. And that doesn't count the cost of the land, which would be more than $110,000 per acre, Beauchamp says. An elementary school would need 20 acres, while a high school would need 80.
"It's a sad state of affairs when the Department of Defense takes care of the students in its military schools so well and then turns around and decides it wants to unleash these children on the neighboring public schools," says John Deegan, executive director of the Military Impacted Schools Association and superintendent of the Bellevue, Neb., school district, which serves Offutt Air Force Base.
"God help these children and the neighboring school districts when they fall under the funding structure of the U.S. Department of Education for military children. Currently it's funded at only 60 percent of the entitlement under federal law," Deegan says.