{"id":47074,"date":"2018-06-08T18:02:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T18:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/06\/08\/should-school-quality-and-spouse-employment-help-decide-where-troops-are-based\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:48:19","slug":"should-school-quality-and-spouse-employment-help-decide-where-troops-are-based","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2018\/06\/08\/should-school-quality-and-spouse-employment-help-decide-where-troops-are-based\/","title":{"rendered":"Should school quality and spouse employment help decide where troops are based?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A high-level Defense Department council has elevated the issues of military spouse employment<\/a> and quality of education for military children<\/a> to the attention of Secretary Jim Mattis, recommending that these factors be important considerations when making strategic basing or mission alignment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DoD Military Family Readiness Council,<\/a> which voted Wednesday to include the recommendation as one of six being sent to Mattis, echoes comments by the service secretaries in a joint letter<\/a> sent to the National Governors Association on Feb. 23. The secretaries encouraged state leadership to look at the quality of schools near bases and whether reciprocity of professional licenses is available for military families. They also noted that they will encourage leadership to consider these issues when making future basing or mission alignment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to get a \u201cline in the sand,\u201d said one official, and create quantitative measures of these two facets, then use them in making strategic basing decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis discussion has come to sort of a head here,\u201d said Carl Buchanan, a policy analyst for the Air Force Airman and Family Readiness program. He was sitting in for council member Air Force Brig. Gen. Kathleen A. Cook, director of Air Force Services, who submitted the recommendation. Buchanan cited the service secretaries\u2019 letter.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family council and multiple other groups have been examining the issues of spouse license portability and quality of children\u2019s education for years, and trying to make changes which could improve the lives of military families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recommendation would be \u201ca separate checkpoint that says, OK, we\u2019ve reached a certain decision area here. All the service secretaries agree we still haven\u2019t come up with a perfect solution or the best solution for our people in the field that helps us retain them,\u201d Buchanan said, noting that family issues are a big part of a service member\u2019s decision on whether to stay or leave the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There would some measure of the quality of efforts related to spouse licensure portability, and the quality of public schools, \u201cwhen we look at where to put our people when we ask them to go serve there,\u201d Buchanan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t