Mark Warner urges Pentagon to reconsider teacher furloughs at DoD schools

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) today urged Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to reconsider his decision to furlough almost 11,000 teachers at Defense Department-operated schools for up to five days as part of the Pentagon’s plan to comply with budget cuts required due to the sequester. In a floor speech today, Sen. Warner said the proposed teacher furloughs announced by Secretary. Hagel on Tuesday will be disruptive to military families, causing children to lose school days and other vital educational services even as their parents are fighting overseas.

“These furloughs would be a slap in the face to the men and women who serve our country in the military,” Sen. Warner said. “These families entrust the government with their children’s education, and their children should not be made to suffer because of our inability to get our fiscal act together. I am inviting my colleagues to join with us in a letter to Defense Secretary Hagel urging him to reconsider this decision, and exempt Department of Defense educators from furloughs.”

Approximately 83,391 students attend 193 DoD schools worldwide. The Defense Department operates on-base schools for military children in Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. At U.S. bases overseas, the on-base schools often provide the only educational option for children of American military families.

A survey of military families released today by Blue Star Families, a national non-profit organization, identified child education as one of the top concerns of America’s military families. Another top concern of military parents is the negative effect of deployments on children.

“Our fiscal situation requires shared sacrifice — but our service members and our military families too often bear the brunt of the sacrifice every day,” Sen. Warner said. “These educators serve as one of the most significant factors in a student’s learning. Often, they also provide a vital source of stability for our military children, many of whom have one – and in some cases, both — parents deployed abroad. The idea that we would look to the individuals teaching our military children for cost savings should concern all of us.”