State balks at effort to ease military kids' transitions
By Kathy Adams
The Virginian-Pilot© October 11, 2008
Kaléa Leverette, the daughter of a Navy commander, went to sixth grade in Florida, crossed the globe for seventh grade in Japan, then moved to Virginia for eighth grade. Each school had a different curriculum, a different grading system and a different set of standardized tests. She ended up taking pre-algebra twice and world history three times, but missed U.S. history altogether. She also had to make up several Virginia Standards of Learning tests. On top of the academic obstacles, she lost the opportunity to become a cheerleader during the fall of her eighth-grade year, she said, because she arrived in Suffolk too late for the August tryouts.Kaléa, now 15, is one of more than 60,000 students from military families in Hampton Roads who face extra academic, social and emotional challenges because of the frequent moves and separations that are part of military life. “The transition is probably the hardest part for me, transitioning to a new neighborhood, to a new house, to a new school, to new friends,” said Kaléa, who is a straight-A student. “It’s hard for military kids to be caught up with all the students who have lived here all their lives.” A new interstate agreement seeks to make school transitions a little easier for military children like Kaléa by standardizing how states deal with a host of issues, including record transfers, enrollment, graduation requirements and extracurricular activities. Eleven states have signed on to the Interstate Compact on educational Opportunity for Military Children so far. But Virginia, which has the second-largest military population in the country, has not.
Del. Mark Cole, a Republican from Spotsylvania, sponsored a bill in the last legislative session that would have added Virginia to the compact. By joining, the state would earn a seat on the commission that will craft legislation addressing how the member states handle military children’s school transfers. It also would agree to rules set out in the compact. Virginia’s House approved the measure in February, but it stalled in the Senate because of concerns regarding state sovereignty and the potential impact on school districts, said state Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach
.
“I’m not a fan of compacts, and I don’t think we should delegate our authority or responsibility, you know, to some other organization,” he said. “You just can’t have a group of non-Virginians telling Virginia what the law’s going to be with regard to education policy, even though they’re for military dependents.” Stolle, whose father served in the Navy, also questioned the need for such legislation. “You would think by reading the bill that we don’t do all those things already,” he said. “We make every effort, every reasonable effort, to accommodate military families.” In 2006, the General Assembly passed a law allowing military children to continue attending school in one division even if military orders require the family to move to base housing elsewhere. Virginia also allows school divisions to accept standardized tests from other states to satisfy SOL requirements for graduation and provides training for educators in partnership with the Military Child Education Coalition. Some school divisions, including Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, have their own military-focused programs and training. Cole said he was surprised by the Senate’s opposition because Virginia is a member of several other interstate agreements and can vote to withdraw its membership at any time. “It has overwhelming support, which is part of the reason why I was surprised it had a hard time in the Senate,” he said. “Given the number of military dependents we have in the commonwealth, I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Pathetically, the state is unwilling to help/accommodate the 66,000 military children that are FORCED to reside in Hampton Roads. Nice folks, real nice. They're just children you DC idiots. They don't choose this life style, we, their parents do. So how bout you do something out of the ordinary and support the troops and the military family's for once!
And here's an email received from "Charlesr85353":
In a commonwealth that has many things not done because of lack of funds how does Mr Cole plan to fund this? How many military members pay property tax, which is the greatest source of funds for our schools, or even pay state income tax? Do we get any money from the feds for the impact on our schools? And do the programs apply to those not in the military displaced by many other things, or
even the civilians in the government who often have transfers during realignments? How many choose to support our economy by not shopping at the exchange or commissary? There are many more questions, but, in the end, why do we need to fund this? If this is a problem for military members maybe the military should fund it. Just a thought.
And my response to that? Many of us do. We yes we make an occasional trip to the commissary/NEX but the minority of us primarily shop at the local grocery store or the same Target/Walmart you shop at. We pay the same over priced taxes as you, and what do we get out of it? Nothing. All the taxes we pay goes towards a state that we will move out of in 2 or 3 years. So do these high taxes benefit us in any way, shape or form? Nope. Not in the slightest.
Are you a military family looking for help? Here's a couple numbers.
Military Child Education Coalition School
(information for each state, plus scholarship and program resources.)
militarychild.org/child-student, (254) 953-1923
Fleet and Family Support Centers of Hampton Roads School outreach
(consultation, resources, educator training and school-transfer information)
ffscnorva.navy.mil, (757) 462-7563
Virginia Department of Education
(Resources and information on Virginia’s policies regarding military students)
www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/military, (800) 292-3820
No comments:
Post a Comment