When America's warfighters enter military service, sometimes putting their lives on the line, the government makes a promise: It will care for those left behind. There's an explicit understanding that the nation will nurture and enrich soldiers' children in safe and secure educational environments — they are assured, in the words of a U.S. Army recruiting vow, "the best possible education and experience."
The 1978 Defense Dependents Education Act requires the military to provide "academic services of a high quality" to the children of soldiers on active duty. A 1988 Defense Department directive goes further, broadly guaranteeing military families "a quality of life that reflects the high standards and pride of the nation they defend" — including education. First Lady Michelle Obama touts the administration's vision of "an America where every military child has the support they need to grow and learn and realize their dreams." The White House, joining history's chorus of voices of support for sons and daughters of soldiers, is pledging to "ensure excellence in military children's education."
But an array of substandard conditions at many of the 353 schools for military children around the world undercuts such assurances. Three in four Defense Department-run schools on military installations are either beyond repair or would require extensive renovation to meet minimum standards for safety, quality, accessibility and design, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News has found. Those schools do not meet the military's own expectations, and – for lack of money from Washington – aren't likely to improve greatly any time soon.
Other priorities — including spending on wars at a rate of around $2 billion each week — have overshadowed the needs of students from military families. All told, the mounting number of fixes and new schools would cost nearly $4 billion — around the same amount being spent this year just on drone aircraft, or, measured another way, half the cost of NASA's Hubble Telescope, which observes distant galaxies from earth's orbit.
Where military children go to school depends on circumstances often beyond families' control. More than 500,000 children, the largest proportion, live off base, attending local schools in urban or suburban communities that often have significantly more resources. But families who live on military installations — either for economic, career or security reasons — send their children to one of 194 base schools operated by the Pentagon around the world, or 159 base schools in the U.S. operated by local school districts. These students — about 150,000 in all — are likely to attend schools with significant structural deficiencies. Many buildings are nearly a half-century old.
The Pentagon has placed 39 percent of its 194 schools in the worst category of "failing," which means it costs more to renovate than replace them,what are the symptoms of
Piles, reports to Congress show . Another 37 percent are classified in "poor" physical shape, which could require either replacement or expensive renovations to meet standards. (See the full list of poor and failing schools here)
Schools run by public systems on Army installations don't fare much better: 39 percent fall in the failing or poor categories, according to a 2010 Army report .
A Defense Department task force is evaluating the 159 military base schools operated by local public systems. Only nine months into its work, the task force already has found indications of the larger problem; summaries of preliminary assessments of 15 schools shared with iWatch News leave little room for doubt about the conditions. The summary for Geronimo Road,How is
TMJ pain treated? for instance, notes that it is in "failing condition" and "should be considered for replacement." The Pentagon declined to provide a copy of its assessments for all 159 schools.
In a written response to questions from iWatch News, the Pentagon's education agency, the Department of Defense Education Activity , or DoDEA, acknowledged that it "cannot keep pace with the types of renovations and maintenance needed when a school building goes beyond its useful life and the age of the building becomes a barrier to using these dollars wisely."
Makeshift classrooms, sweltering students
Visits by iWatch News to military base schools across the globe over the last four months, involving nearly 200 interviews with educators, parents and students from Tacoma, Washington, to Stuttgart, Germany, present a bleak picture of conditions endured by the sons and daughters of U.S. military personnel.
At Fort Riley in Kansas, Morris Hill Elementary School students drink water tainted brown from corroding pipes. Fort Campbell, Ky., schoolchildren endure "air outs" from faulty ventilation units, leaving them without air conditioning in sweltering Augusts. When winter temperatures drop below 50 degrees, classroom heaters break down.
In Quantico, Va., just 30 miles south of the gleaming temples of government in the nation's capital, students at Russell Elementary School tolerate the consequences of relic air units, busted water pipes, and only one handicapped-accessible bathroom, too small for some disabled children to navigate their wheelchairs. The classroom for students with severe disabilities, meanwhile, has a small restroom dating back to 1953, well before schools had to meet special education needs. It's a tiny space the size of a closet with little more than a toilet and sink with a dripping faucet. Parents say teachers have to undress children nearby and carry them inside.
In adjacent Prince William County, one of the country's more affluent suburbs, the schools are more modern. Over the last decade alone, the local district has built 26 new schools, some with dazzling campuses that stretch across former cornfields and cow pastures. It's an instance of the frequent inequities between the schools of military children and the nearby schools of everyone else. "Some of the new schools in town make our schools look like a prison," said David C. Primer, who uses a 1980s-era trailer at the much-heralded Marine Corps Base Quantico to teach his German classes. Storms are noisy affairs that jostle the temporary classrooms.
"We are at a huge disadvantage because of this facility," said Kistella Mitchell, an active-duty soldier whose son graduates from the Quantico high school this year. The base's older schools have been rigged with plastic "power poles" to support technology, and teachers say fire marshals have cited them for using extension cords.
Two miles outside Stuttgart, Germany, on an Army post known as Panzer Kaserne, children of American soldiers attend Boeblingen Elementary School — built 73 years ago by the Nazis. Erwin Rommel's tank division used it as a barracks. The school building, the military's oldest, is ill-equipped for modern education.
Younger students stay on the first of its four floors, and are consigned to trailers when classrooms fill up. Older students tolerate tiny classrooms with tiny windows on the third floor, where their desks are crammed side-by-side or shoved into corners, making it, as fourth-grader Sarah Tabbott describes, "really hot up there." Some modifications — such as adding fire escapes — took place only after the school was cited in 2006 for nine fire safety violations.
Conditions at other schools border on hazardous. At Fort Stewart, in Hinesville, Ga., two of the three elementary schools are beset by poor indoor air quality. Mold has grown on walls, sprouted through floors, and stained vents. Complaints have persisted for a decade despite inspections, tests and fixes involving a costly cast of architects, industrial hygienists, microbiologists and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Last fall, administrators cordoned off a library for a month so they could engage in a major cleanup that involved steam-blasting its rafters and sanitizing its books. That hasn't alleviated other troubles at the school: scurrying cockroaches; lights shorted by water leaks. On April 8, a disintegrating gas line ruptured in a cafeteria, sparking a small fire.
"The conditions are terrible," said Tina French, whose two autistic children attend Diamond Elementary School, where that fire erupted. Staffing shortfalls have left her son without an assigned paraprofessional, as prescribed by his psychiatrist. "DOD schools are supposed to be the best," French said. "We're not seeing that here."
Teachers at crowded schools find creative solutions. To escape commotion in the hallways, where she often tests students, Fort Riley Elementary teacher Kristi York would retreat behind the door labeled BOILER ROOM. Since being barred from the space — it was "not the best or safest environment,is the '
solar panel revolution' upon us?" said school principal Becky Lay — York has turned to a storage closet packed with rolls of colored paper, overhead projectors and a laminating machine.
The military's education agency said in a written response to questions from iWatch News that "none of our schools is unsafe and no school is a hazard to anyone." Administrators tend to portray their schoolhouses as "well worn" yet maintained — not neglected. Many exceed their planned lifespans. Half of the military's schools are at least 45 years old. "You fix things that are so old, they still look old," said Marilee Fitzgerald , DoDEA's acting director. The 19-year-old agency oversees the military's schools worldwide.
Pentagon officials contacted by iWatch News have recognized these substandard conditions for years. Robert Gordon , the Defense Department's top official overseeing family affairs, said the Pentagon has taken steps in recent months to address deficiencies — creating the task force to survey base schools,is the '
solar panel revolution' upon us? evaluating the quality of education, and finding money to replace aging schools over the next five to seven years. But the goal would require appropriations from a Congress increasingly wary of new spending. Gordon noted the Pentagon's current aim is to devise a blueprint for state-of-the-art,The same
Air purifier, cover removed. "21st century" schools, while acknowledging the lack of a commitment on Capitol Hill to spend the money necessary.
During an interview with iWatch News, Gordon, a former West Point political science professor and aide-de-camp to Colin Powell, pointed to an Obama administration focus on military families as proof of a commitment to improve education. He predicted "significant changes of which our community will be proud, and which will provide a world-class educational environment for our kids."
Leaders have sounded similar notes in the past. John Molino, a Gordon predecessor, sought money from Congress for "quality schools" in 2001. Molino touted "the Bush administration's commitment to the quality education of the sons and daughters of America's sons and daughters selflessly serving." Former congressman Edwards recalled urging the military to fix the schools during the four years he chaired an appropriations subcommittee.
Such efforts have hardly unleashed a flood of construction cash; in the decade since Molino's testimony, money for rebuilding the military's schools has risen only by $162 million — less than 1 percent of all military spending.
The Defense Department's primary business, of course, involves national security, not schooling kids. Weapons, wars and other budget priorities tend to overshadow homefront necessities. Public school districts, which educate nine out of 10 military children, often on military installations, also have had trouble finding the dollars to replace and repair foundering schools. This fiscal year, Congress allotted $750 million to fix some of the base schools' shortcomings — a fraction of the need.
Now, with President Obama signaling the start of a drawdown in troops from Afghanistan coinciding with political clamoring in Washington for reduced spending, some advocates wonder just how meaningful all the promises will be.
Joyce Raezer is director of the National Military Family Association , which for four decades has established itself as a respected voice advocating for families. "Building schools is really expensive," she noted. "So how many school districts and school buildings will actually benefit from this focus, we'll see."
