People are the foundation of military readiness. Today's military mission is characterized by the use of sophisticated technology and an increased rate of deployment and family separation. These developments demand high quality, well–trained, and motivated servicemembers such as those who make up the force today. The Department of Defense must continue to attract young people of this caliber to military service, and must also retain them. Without a doubt, the most important thing that can be done to retain the present outstanding force is to offer a standard of living with fair compensation, healthy communities, and a reasonable work schedule. Investments in people are investments in the nation's security and its future. The Department must provide -- in exchange for the demands of a military lifestyle -- a decent quality of life.
QUALITY OF LIFE COMPONENTS
Military quality of life can be defined as those things which contribute to a servicemember's and their families' standard of living and their satisfaction with life in the military. Last summer, the Department conducted a comprehensive review of the programs which constitute quality of life. This review identified three general categories: Compensation and Benefits, Housing, and Community and Family Support.
As a result of this review, the Secretary of Defense identified specific areas within these categories which would make the most effective contribution toward strengthening the quality of life of military personnel and their families. The Secretary targeted the following areas for substantial improvement:
To meet the disparity in pay for service personnel, DoD allocated $7.7 billion of the Department's FY 1996 budget to provide pay raises to military personnel at the full rate authorized by law through FY 1999. This is an unprecedented commitment and reflects the value the Department places on treating its people fairly.
In addition, the Department has obligated $2.7 billion over the next six years ($450 million per year through FY 2001) to fund the following quality of life initiatives.
The Secretary recently established a Quality of Life Task Force of outside experts to follow up on these initiatives and to refine and strengthen them. The Task Force will provide recommendations for improving housing and the delivery of community and family services. The Task Force will also advise the Secretary on initiatives he can take to address the issue of personnel turbulence, as it relates to the quality of life of military personnel and their families.
The remainder of this chapter will discuss more broadly the programs which constitute quality of life, and address more specifically the initiatives outlined above.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
The Department has long recognized the importance of compensation in sustaining a robust quality of life program. The military compensation package is made up of pay and nonpay benefits -- the components of a standard of living. In the area of pay benefits, the Department is taking three initiatives. Operating together, these three initiatives serve to stimulate retention which, in turn, contribute to the operational readiness of units and the welfare of those who serve and their families.
Pay
Unequivocally, healthy retention patterns generate seasoned leaders who are instrumental to unit performance and operational readiness. No single stimulus is stronger than pay in generating retention of top-quality people. Currently, military pay raises lag private sector pay raises by 12 percent as measured by the employment cost index (ECI). To limit the growth of the gap, the Department has funded the maximum pay raise authorized by law through FY 1999.
Improved Quarters Allowance
About 70 percent of military families reside in the local civilian community and receive housing allowances which are designed to cover, on the average, 85 percent of their housing costs. However, because of previous pay and funding gaps, military families today are reimbursed at about 80 percent of their housing cost. The Department will fund the first 1 percent of the housing allowance gap closure in FY 1996 and plans to bring the reimbursement rate back to 85 percent incrementally over the next five years.
Cost of Living Allowance in the Continental United States
At present 30,000 military families are assigned to high costs areas in the continental United States (CONUS) in which payments for goods and services exceed 109 percent of the national average. These costs are in addition to housing expenses which are compensated under housing allowances. Assignments to areas such as Long Island, New York, or Los Angeles, California, place an undue financial burden on families. The National Defense Authorization Act of FY 1995 established CONUS COLA. This COLA program is designed to assist the military family residing in a high cost area. The Department plans to begin compensating families experiencing these high costs in July 1995. This increase will boost the average monthly pay by $40 and in some cases as much as $167 per family.
Health Care
A crucial part of the nonpay benefits package, and a key element of quality of life, is health care. Military medicine faces compelling challenges at this time of unprecedented change in the nation's health care system. One priority is medical readiness -- the need to be prepared wherever and whenever servicemembers are deployed, with the highest quality of care. Another equally important task is to supply accessible and excellent health care to the active duty force, family members, retirees, and other beneficiaries not currently involved in operations.
The Department's health care mission is not only complex, but also serves a large number of personnel. There are 8.3 million beneficiaries eligible to receive health care from the Military Health Services System (MHSS). Direct care is delivered worldwide in 133 hospitals and numerous clinics. Care is also purchased from the civilian sector through the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) and TRICARE support contracts. The medical portion of the President's FY 1995 budget is approximately $15.3 billion, or 5.9 percent of the entire defense budget.
MEDICAL READINESS
Changing world politics and revised national security objectives present new challenges to military medicine. In a mission environment characterized by rapid deployment into volatile situations, military medical forces must continue to plan and train as rigorously as the fighting units. The Military Services are cooperating to establish new medical doctrine with an emphasis on countering the health threat, providing capability-based packages, ensuring vital in-theater care, and upholding absolute quality of care. Priority must go to forward presence and early deploying personnel where the greatest successes are insured with limited resources. Through such innovative measures, support for all of the armed services can be delivered in the optimum and yet most flexible way.
The frequency of humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping operations underscores the importance of efficient and flexible medical support units. In concert with United Nations' assistance needs, the United States provided medical teams and supplies in Somalia and established a medical treatment facility in Zagreb, Croatia. In addition, the Department has supported several operations around the world by furnishing both medical supplies and personnel; these missions include the Operation Provide Promise airlift over Bosnia, water relief in Rwanda, and the ongoing Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. Additionally, medical support provided as a part of security assistance programs continues to offer medical material and training to many nations. Although this support is a testimony to past readiness and flexibility, true medical readiness can only be ensured when personnel assigned to medical units plan, train, and deploy as a cohesive unit and as a component part of the fighting force for which they were designed.
HEALTH CARE INITIATIVES
In meeting the challenges of constrained budgets, force downsizing, and manpower reductions, the Department is implementing and executing management programs to improve the efficiency and quality of the MHSS and access to medical services for all those entitled to DoD health care.
TRICARE is the strategy that will transform the MHSS by bringing together the health care delivery systems of each Service and CHAMPUS; this cooperative and supportive effort will better assist patients and maximize the resources available to military medicine. The commanders of military medical centers located within different U.S. regions will develop an integrated plan for the delivery of health care, with a variety of options for eligible beneficiaries. TRICARE will continue to be evolutionary, addressing new difficulties and obstacles, as well as phasing in new methods and initiatives for improving the delivery of care to DoD health care beneficiaries.
In December 1994, the Department announced the new, uniform health benefit option for DoD health care beneficiaries under TRICARE. Called TRICARE Prime, it works like a private sector Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and will enhance access to care and save money for both the patient and the Department. Families of active duty personnel who choose to enroll in TRICARE Prime will have no enrollment fees. In addition to TRICARE Prime, the TRICARE system will offer two other options to eligible beneficiaries: TRICARE Extra, which is a network of preferred health care providers; and TRICARE Standard, which is the same as the standard CHAMPUS program.
In addition to health care reform, the Department is strongly committed to dealing with specific issues such as any adverse health effects that may have resulted from service during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. The Department is conducting an aggressive, comprehensive clinical diagnostic effort to determine, as far as possible, the causes of the symptoms in Persian Gulf veterans as described by the National Institutes of Health consensus conference. All Persian Gulf veterans are being offered an intensive examination; furthermore, a toll-free hotline was established in the summer of 1994 for servicemembers to call if they feel they might be experiencing medical problems as a result of their service in the Gulf.
Preliminary results from evaluations of the first 1,000 patients completing the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program (CCEP) show that most (about 85 percent) have a definitive diagnosis/diagnoses that span a broad range of clinical entities for which they are receiving treatment and responding favorably. The Department expects to complete the majority of patient evaluations by late spring. For those remaining 15 percent who have less definitive diagnoses, the Department has established Special Care Centers (SCC) where patients will continue to be evaluated and treated. The Department has launched major research initiatives in the areas of reproductive health, interactive efforts of certain chemical compounds, leishmaniasis, and depleted uranium.
As female servicemembers continue to step into more diverse assignments, the Department is giving increased attention to women's health issues. In addition to traditional health care needs, the Department is identifying the medical implications of women in combat roles, what those assignments entail, and what the resulting health needs might be. With that information, the Department will implement actions to meet those requirements. In addition, the 1994 Health Care Survey of DoD Beneficiaries was designed to develop health risk assessments for female beneficiaries, focusing on the improvement of primary and preventive care for women.
The many challenges facing military medicine will require extensive involvement in problem solving, resource management, and program evaluation. The Department is addressing these issues through strategic vision, and an unswerving commitment to a healthy and efficient force.
Commissaries
Another important nonpay benefit is the commissary benefit. It supports a reasonable standard of living for people stationed both overseas and stateside. Overseas, military commissaries and exchanges are usually the only source of American products. Commissaries provide an income benefit through savings on purchases of food and household items for the military member and family. Surveys show that consumers average 20-25 percent savings when compared to commercial retail food stores; annual savings can range from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,500, depending on family size. This nonpay benefit is an integral part of the nonpay compensation package for active duty military, members of the reserve components, and military retirees. As of October 1994, there are 223 commissaries in the United States and 108 overseas.
Commissaries, and the savings offered, help offset a large portion of the economic stress military families experience. Overseas, American products also provide a constant and stabilizing feeling of home. They are an institution in military life, and serve as proof that the government understands the special needs of the personnel it values so highly.
Off-Duty Education
An important part of the nonpay military benefit, contributing to individual growth as well as the quality of military personnel, is off-duty, voluntary education. This program offers outstanding incentives to servicemembers who want to continue their education on their off-duty time, or increase their skills to become more competitive in their military career. In FY 1993, the Department made available $134 million in tuition assistance, which represented 75 percent of the cost of studies undertaken by servicemembers. Almost 40 percent of the force participated in college and university courses offered through the program. The following chart reflects the magnitude of participation in the voluntary education program during FY 1994. Off-duty, voluntary education meets the needs of motivated young people who gravitate towards careers that offer opportunities to advance and grow.
HOUSING
The military community offers stability and continuity of living as a backdrop for deployment, reassignment, and day-to-day life. The nomadic nature of military service creates a need for the familiarity found in an American hometown. Whether married or single, servicemembers need a good place to live, opportunities for growth and development, and assistance in dealing with the special aspects of the military lifestyle. Housing and Community and Family support address these needs.
Family Housing
Approximately one-third of military families live in military family housing. Housing is acutely needed in many locations overseas where security is a concern, or appropriate accommodations are not available. In the United States, housing is provided near some installations to offset the lack of affordable, safe, and adequate civilian housing. However, the supply is usually insufficient to meet the demand. As a result, military families forced to live off base must often accept inferior accommodations because housing allowances are not in line with commercial rates. The emphasis on housing is important, since the Department has found that the proportion of personnel remaining in service from bases with high quality housing is about 15 percent higher than among those stationed at places with lower quality housing. The military family housing budget in FY 1996 contains an increase of over $500 million.
The Department has undertaken a comprehensive study to develop a strategic plan for family housing into the 21st century. Experts from personnel, financial management, and housing divisions are looking at where and how to provide accommodations. As mentioned earlier, reimbursement for housing expenses has not kept pace with actual housing costs for personnel who reside in the civilian community.
Part of the strategy to address family housing needs is to expand the housing referral service and promote initiatives to make it easier for families in the civilian community to receive assistance. This will include looking for ways to minimize the costs of relocation within the private sector and also find ways to stimulate private-sector development of housing. To this end, $22 million of next year's defense budget will be put towards private housing ventures. Where these options have been pursued and there is still a need for quality, affordable housing, the Department will request sufficient funds from Congress to maintain and replace existing government facilities.
Bachelor Quarters
Housing for single military members is as equally important as for married members. About a half a million single servicemembers live in quarters. The Department wants to replace run down, cramped buildings and their institutional environment with quality residential communities. To meet this goal, almost $2.5 billion has been budgeted from FY 1996 through FY 2001 to renovate existing facilities and construct new dormitories and barracks. Not all of the old quarters can be renovated or replaced next year, but the Department is working towards better housing in the future.
Fulfilling the Department's commitment to quality housing will not come cheaply. The Quality of Life Task Force will examine innovative alternatives which will take advantage of all possible efficiencies. Living accommodations remain a high priority for the Department to ensure that servicemembers and their families have a good place to live.
COMMUNITY AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Community and family support is the network of recreational, social service, and dependent education to foster healthy individuals and families stationed around the world. These programs mirror those found in an American community, with some programs scoped to meet the needs of a mobile population.
Child Care
Child care is a fundamental quality of life program responding to a large portion of the force with child rearing responsibilities. Child care services assist in meeting mission requirements, and also contribute to the economic stability of families. As part of the Secretary's initiative, funding will be provided to expand child care spaces from 166,000 in FY 1994 to 204,000 spaces in FY 1996. Funding will be increased by $38.1 million.
Military members are parents to 1.2 million children under the age of 12. Not only is the Department the largest provider of child care in the world, but DoD Child Development Services have been heralded as a role model for other government agencies and the nation as a whole. Child care is available in 374 locations worldwide -- in 724 Child Development Centers and over 11,000 family child care homes. The Department has a potential child care need for 312,000 children. The Department will meet 65 percent of this need with the funding increase.
Child care helps military families achieve economic security in a time when two incomes are essential.
Family Advocacy Program (Spouse and Child Abuse)
As the Department experiences transition and turbulence related to increased personnel tempo (PERSTEMPO), stress and the potential for family violence increase. The Secretary responded to increased incidents of spouse abuse by providing an additional $22.4 million to the Family Advocacy Program (FAP) for prevention and treatment programs. Funds provided in FY 1996 will continue to support reduced case loads carried by FAP counselors, thus increasing treatment options and improving services to victims of family violence.
While treatment and intervention are clearly priorities, the Department is also aggressively pursuing efforts to recognize the potential for abuse, and to institute training and support systems that prevent its occurrence. Congress has increased assistance to new parents and first-term families. New Parent Support Programs will be implemented at installations with high populations of young first-term families. Outreach services will include pre- and post-natal home visits, parent education, and other services.
While the number of children in the birth to age five population is decreasing, the Department is experiencing a rise in the number of children ages 6-18. Currently, over 400,000 youth are in this age group. PERSTEMPO is increasing the strain on families with adolescents, an already stressful time for most families. The Department is concerned about an increase in the number of substantiated cases of child abuse in these age groups, especially the adolescent population.
The Department is also concerned about the general welfare of youth on installations, who are not immune to the forces of violence and gang activity which trouble the nation as a whole. In addition to maintaining Youth Activity Centers, which feature social and recreational activities, the Department will be evaluating the results of new efforts in FY 1995 to address the broader range of social and developmental issues for adolescents and parents.
Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR)
The Secretary's initiative addressed recreation programs in an effort to achieve comparability across the Services. With additional funding of $33.5 million, inequities in appropriated funding support to MWR programs will be brought into alignment. A baseline of $295 per capita will be instituted, with the primary recipient of this funding being the Marine Corps.
Each installation offers programs designed to encourage and enhance physical fitness, mental readiness, and commitment to the military mission. MWR programs include fitness centers, libraries, sports, and athletic programs, as well as a wide variety of other recreational, social, and developmental activities.
In addition to core MWR programs, servicemembers are supported by exchange services. A combination of these resources serve 12 million patrons and participants, and employ over 220,000 people worldwide. To manage the breadth and scope of these programs, the DoD Executive Resale Board (composed of the Services' MWR commanders and resale directors) was recently reconstituted to provide corporate leadership and to aggressively promote cooperative efforts among the Services and agencies.
Revenues generated from exchange sales and MWR programs are used to support the construction initiatives for building and modernization of these facilities. The FY 1995 nonappropriated construction program of $323 million continues the infrastructure support needed to deliver quality services. The Department has streamlined construction and other processes to mirror private-sector corporate operations. Modernization of systems and facilities has fostered the impetus for a more streamlined, businesslike approach. Currently, the Department is updating directives to reduce the complexity of policy and make it easier for the Services and installation commanders to implement broad policy guidance.
As a major contributor to the Military Services' quality of life, the military exchanges provide servicemembers and their families value and distinction in both the merchandise and services offered. These revenues are used to sponsor recreational facilities and activities at affordable prices, thereby promoting readiness, individual and community fitness, esprit de corps, and personal development. A healthy military community relies upon recreational programs to provide opportunities that offset the pressures of military life. In order to keep motivated personnel, the Department must balance the high stress and hard training environment with revitalizing recreational activities.
Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Overseas
Live entertainment overseas adds that little touch of home so desired by troops serving in foreign countries. American entertainers energize troops and offer welcome respite to those who must serve far from home. The Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Office (AFPEO) is a joint-Service program that logistically supports entertainers who are willing to perform free of charge for servicemembers on military installations overseas. Entertainers perform at numerous locations, with a priority to remote and isolated sites; shows are also organized for troops mobilized for missions in such places as Somalia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Saudi Arabia. In FY 1994, the AFPEO sponsored 88 noncelebrity tours and 17 celebrity United Service Organizations/DoD tours. These tours performed an estimated 2,300 shows, entertaining over 250,000 servicemembers and their families. This small but vigorous program touches the lives of troops overseas, when they most need it.
Family Centers
The Department's 317 Family Centers provide programs and facilities to address the unique needs of military and DoD civilian personnel and their families. Due to the continually growing number of personnel with families, the Centers are becoming increasingly more important.
The following chart indicates that Family Centers are the critical link between the military workplace and the home. Their primary mission is to assist commanders in maintaining readiness within the total work force by delivering a wide range of quality services that promote family adaptation to the demands of the military lifestyle.
Family Centers provide direct support across the entire spectrum of post-Cold War missions, including humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, disaster relief, and emergency evacuations. The Centers are integrally involved in providing accurate information and timely assistance to military members and their families.
Family Centers have assumed an increasingly important role in support of mission readiness throughout the recent developments of the post-Cold War environment. During the Persian Gulf War, the Department realized that entire families go to war, and family readiness is a crucial component of overall force readiness. Family Center Deployment Support Programs specifically focus on family preparedness -- teaching skills to ensure that family members have the capabilities and tools to manage in the absence of the military member. In conjunction with these programs, Family Support Groups at the unit level provide a critical resource and link to other support systems.
As PERSTEMPO increases, Family Center programs have refocused efforts to mediate the stress associated with more frequent separation. The Centers continually adapt, evolve, and develop innovative ways to assist the families in meeting the growing challenge of family separation. In addition to their response to increased PERSTEMPO, the Centers continue to feature a wide gamut of services designed to enhance the quality of life for servicemembers and families. These include information and referral, relocation assistance, personal financial management, spouse employment assistance, outreach, family life education, crisis assistance, and volunteer coordination. These essential services create an infrastructure for the quality of life that military families rightfully deserve.
Department of Defense Dependent Schools
The Department's educational structure supports the educational needs of American children of military personnel and some other government related employees. The Department's goal is to maintain quality education for these children. The overseas and CONUS school systems are discussed below.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEPENDENTS SCHOOLS OVERSEAS
Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) overseas will support 87,000 students in FY 1996. By school year 1996, schools in Europe and the Pacific will be stabilized from the drawdown. DoDDS will continue to strive for educational excellence by maintaining the Seven-Year Curriculum Review sequence and by pursuing the President's National Education Goals. Also, DoDDS maintains Title XIV, Dependents Education Act, 1978, which requires the Department to offer instruction in special, vocational, compensatory education, and English as a Second Language.
DoDDS' goal to minimize the effects of the drawdown on children's education has been extremely successful. In spite of the reductions, DoDDS students scored 8-19 percentile points above the national average in all Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) and American College Test (ACT) test areas over the past school year. Although students already perform well above the national norms on Standardized Achievement Tests, DoDDS has set even more demanding targets under the National Education Goal in the areas of math and science as well as core studies throughout the elementary and secondary grades.
DoDDS has maintained a quality educational program in the past with enhancements such as Distance Education, Foreign language Immersion, Reading Recovery (a program to help children-at-risk learn to read), and Advancement Via Individual Determination (a college preparatory program for students who come from backgrounds most underrepresented in four-year colleges and universities). DoDDS has also offered a testbed for applications of advanced technology, including the use of the Defense Simulation Internet. DoDDS now serves all preschool children between the ages of 3-5 with disabilities under the provisions of the Individual With Disabilities Education Act.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DOMESTIC DEPENDENT ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES
The Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) program, formerly referred to as Section 6 Schools, was reauthorized in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 1995 by the addition of paragraph 2164, Chapter 108 of Title 10, U.S. Code. These stateside schools provide education to approximately 33,000 eligible dependents residing on 16 military installations and in Puerto Rico. The schools have locally elected school boards which participate in the development and oversight of policies, procedures, and programs. Current educational initiatives related to the National Education Goals include special projects to support a high degree of parental participation in child development, preschool, and early childhood development programs. Other resources range from advanced placement courses to special instructional models and strategies designed to help students learn. This program also has oversight responsibility and fiscal support of eight special contractual arrangements with local educational agencies in five states and Guam, serving an additional 6,000 students.
A quality education program is essential to the American lifestyle. The military community is no exception. Department schools must allow the children of servicemen and women access to a school system that will deliver an education program that is equal to the best public school systems in CONUS, and will prepare students to compete in a global economy.
Chaplain Services
The military chaplaincies serve as the link between servicemembers, their families, and support services throughout the Department. They act as liaisons with Family Centers, Family Advocacy, and other military relief programs; they also work with outside organizations such as the American Red Cross and drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. Chaplains offer expert assistance at pre- and post-deployment briefings, provide pastoral care to family members who remain at home, and facilitate the religious and spiritual needs of deployed servicemembers worldwide. Across the globe, chaplains support military personnel and their families with their specialized methods of counsel and relief.
Equal Opportunity
The Department continues to recognize that one of the keys to maintaining an acceptable quality of life for its members is to ensure equitable treatment for all. Besides affecting quality of life, equal opportunity is also a readiness issue. If DoD personnel are not treated fairly, then the missions they are asked to do will suffer. Therefore, the Department is fully committed to a policy of equal opportunity and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind.
Transition Support and Services
The consideration and assistance given to over 300,000 servicemembers and their families who return to civilian life each year remain priorities for the Department. These veterans are a tremendously talented pool of employees -- 99 percent have high school diplomas, 22 percent have some college credit, and approximately 19 percent have at least one college degree. Operation Transition's goal is to prepare servicemembers and their families to make a successful transition to civilian life.
Each Military Service, in conjunction with DoD, the Departments of Labor (DoL) and Veterans Affairs (VA), and state employment service agencies, has initiated innovative transition programs. During FY 1994, servicemembers made 724,964 visits to transition offices for preseparation counseling and employment assistance. Within the United States, DoL and VA also provide employment assistance workshops at 204 selected bases. In FY 1994, 163,044 servicemembers and spouses participated in 3,686 workshops. In a perfect example of seamless government, DoD, DoL, and VA implemented the Servicemember Occupational Conversion and Training Act to address the needs of unemployed veterans, particularly those whose military skills do not readily translate to civilian jobs. As of November 1994, VA processed 58,235 training applications and 8,388 eligible veterans have been placed in job training under this program. A new program, to be administered jointly by DoD and Department of Justice in 1995, will promote the entry of qualified servicemembers into law enforcement.
Automated systems are a vital part of DoD transition programs. The Defense Outplacement Referral System (DORS) is a resume data base and referral system linking private sector employers to departing servicemembers and spouses. In FY 1994, there were 7,980 employers and over 60,000 personnel registered in DORS. Since December 1991, 730,078 resumes have been sent to employers. The Transition Bulletin Board (TBB) allows employers to list job openings at military installations worldwide. In September 1994, TBB listed 9,693 want ads, business opportunities, and federal jobs. The Verification Document (DD Form 2586) translates servicemembers' military skills and training into civilian terms. The public and community service registry, established in June 1994, contains information on organizations desiring to hire veterans. So far, 125 organizations have registered, with hundreds being researched for inclusion. Since June 1994, 69,751 separating personnel have registered.
Finally, DoD provides additional benefits (for example, extended health care and extended commissary and exchange privileges) to involuntarily separated military members and their families, and to certain voluntary separatees.
Troops to Teachers Program
Troops to Teachers is a teacher and teacher's aide placement assistance program designed to assist separated servicemembers, DoD and Department of Energy civilians, and certain defense contractor employees in becoming certified and employed in the teaching profession. The program is designed to help improve the quality of public school education by injecting the talent, skills, and experience of eligible personnel into schools serving a concentration of students from low income families.
This initiative furnishes stipends of up to $5,000 to selected, eligible participants to defray the cost of becoming certified through a state's alternative certification program. In addition, it awards grants of up to $50,000, paid over five years, to local education agencies for each participant they agree to hire as a teacher or teacher's aide in a school serving a concentration of low income families. DoD received over 5,100 applications for this program and began placing departing servicemembers in teaching positions over the past summer. Currently, over 125 individuals are teaching in school districts across the country.
Relocation/Base Closure Assistance
As the force draws down, base realignment and closure have become a major source of added stress for military and civilian personnel and their families living and working on closing installations. A Base Closure Assistance Team is being organized to serve as a commander's resource and expert consultation team to address individual installation issues. The multi-disciplinary teams will work with affected installations to identify potential problem areas and to develop strategies and solutions tailored to local needs. In another initiative, the Department is gathering lessons learned and developing resource and planning guidance to ensure that organizational and individual needs are addressed during the closure and realignment process. The overall goal of this effort is to minimize the stress of closure by sustaining support functions through innovation and community collaboration in a climate of decreasing resources.
PERSONNEL TURBULENCE
As missions continue to increase, personnel turbulence remains a major concern. As part of the review for the Secretary, the Quality of Life Task Force will advise on issues that affect personnel turbulence. Currently, servicemembers not only have to work hard but must also deploy in places the Department requires in support of national interests. As the force has downsized, the level of operations have undergone a dramatic increase. More time spent deployed in support of operations results in less time available for training, family, and rest. Since frequency and length of duration can affect a family's stability, finances, and other aspects of living, the Department must commit to sponsoring programs for families who are affected by increased PERSTEMPO. Information on specific PERSTEMPO rates is in the formative stages. However, the goal is to find a balance between mission and training requirements that draw servicemembers away from home and their need to spend valuable time with their families.
The Secretary has placed quality of life as one of the highest priorities in the Department. The intangible value of a good standard of living sets the stage for a high quality, well-trained, and motivated force. The improvements planned for quality of life reach out to each and every servicemember. They represent an enormous commitment to people -- the foundation of military readiness.
