Top Air Force Officials Secretary Barbara M. Barrett and Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein … [+]
Highlighting the importance that local public schools play in military retention, the Air Force is now formally including the quality of K-12 schools around military facilities into its calculus for future basing decisions.
The service made the announcement in February, prior to the coronavirus outbreak, and it is likely to come into play in a big way over the next several months as the Air Force selects a locale for a permanent headquarters for U.S. Space Command. Communities from California, Colorado, Florida, Alabama and other states are vying to host the facility.
Air Force Barbara M. Barrett said that the basing decision criteria for what will be the 11th U.S. combatant command may include “things like the quality of schools and the ability of spouses to get jobs.” The Air Force will use nine separate indicators to help evaluate whether a community has adequate schools. They include graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, availability of universal pre-kindergarten, student to teacher ratio and more.
Why the high-level focus on school quality?
Because it is intended “to mitigate factors that negatively impact readiness and retention for Airmen and their families as they transition from one duty assignment to the next,” the new Air Force basing guidelines say. Retaining servicemembers and incentivizing them to stay in the military is an essential aspect of military readiness.
School performance around military installations has been a simmering issue for military families for years. It is likely to be even more front and center for military families once the coronavirus abates, travel restrictions are lifted and anxious parents enter new school districts that have been shuttered for weeks or months. But military leaders now recognize it as a major quality of life factor that impacts whether service members continue in national service.
The Air Force’s top officer, Gen. David Goldfein, the chief of staff, stressed this point to local leaders concerned about the viability of their bases. “As I visit installations, the number one quality of life issue of airmen with children is access to good schools,” he said last year. “They’ll say, ‘hey, chief, you can deploy me, you can send me to tough locations, you can make me live in small rural communities…we’re in. But once you start affecting the quality of our children’s education, that’s when we’re going to make difficult decisions.’”
Goldfein said that “as we make future basing decisions…we’re going to start at some of those quality of life issues because of retention. Airmen are not going to stay in the United States Air Force if I’m moving them between school systems that are all over the map.” As if to underline the point, he added that local investment in school quality around bases “are resources well invested.”
Similarly, the military service secretaries – the top civilians in the armed forces — asked the nation’s governors to pay specific attention to school quality. They said in a letter that “the quality of schools near bases” will be a key factor “when evaluating future basing or mission alternatives.”
The Air Force framework is a solid start and an important step in considering school quality in basing decisions. But it could be improved by adding some key indicators of school quality like the rigor of a state’s standards and assessments, school accountability rankings and scores from the National Assessment of Education Progress (also known as the “Nation’s Report Card”).
Given the economic infusion military bases provide, it’s no wonder that local communities want to host the new military command. The Department of Defense contributes billions of dollars each year to state economies through the operation of military installations. A report from the agency found that in 2017 alone, the military spent $407 billion on contracts and payroll in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The states topping the list with the most largesse were: California; Virginia; Texas; Maryland; Florida; Washington; Connecticut; Georgia; Pennsylvania and Alabama.
Military facilities pay huge dividends for localities around the country. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that “this spending helps sustain local communities by creating employment opportunities across a wide range of sectors, both directly and indirectly. Active duty and civilian employees spend their military wages on goods and services produced locally, while pensions and other benefits provide retirees and dependents a reliable source of income.”
Local school quality is an important issue for all American communities. And for those regions seeking to attract the economic largesse of the U.S. military, or inoculate their local bases from the impact of any forthcoming base closure effort, it is now more important than ever.
