Boosting Education for Military Children
Rosemarie Kraeger and Marcus Lingenfelter |
May 12, 2017
Approximately 13,000 active duty U.S. military members are stationed across New England, with 3,159 based here in Rhode Island, according to the latest figures from the Department of Defense. Their dedication to ensuring the nation’s security creates a conflict with a central responsibility of parenthood: ensuring their children’s access to consistent and high-quality education.
As these military members move from assignment to assignment, their children attend as many as nine schools during their K-12 years. For generations, military families cobbled together ad hoc support systems to manage cross-country moves and find the best schools for their children.
In recent years, the federal and state governments have recognized the unique challenge for military service members in New England and across the country. They are taking important steps to ensure that roughly 1.2 million school-age children of active duty service members don’t have to sacrifice their education for a parent’s service to the nation.
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