Give military kids a break

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It's a problem in Virginia and Alabama, Georgia and California, D.C. and Maryland, and dozens of other states. What is it? It is the unnecessary red tape that military families struggle with just to get their children a fair shake in public schools. The Pentagon has an interstate solution, and we think the various legislatures should sign on.

There is no getting around the fact that military children move frequently. (The average is six to nine times between kindergarten and 12th grade.) That in itself puts a strain on families, and even more so when it entails enrolling children in school. When that's on the to-do list, the "problem" can overwhelm.

Examples run the gamut — from vaccination requirements to conflicting curriculum — and sometimes the snag is as simple as giving a student credit where credit is due for perfunctory history classes. Nobody, least of all the student, benefits when bureaucracy gets in the way of teaching and learning.

As one military wife, whose husband works at Bethesda Naval Hospital, succinctly put it: " Every county's different. Every state's different. Every school's different." For instance, before military mom Dawn Staats moved from California with her young boys, they had taken arithmetic and handwriting classes. But once they got to Virginia, the boys flunked handwriting — handwriting — because the school taught a different style. As for arithmetic, suffice it to say they spent hour upon hour at home learning "new math" because the Virginia school used a different method to teach multiplication.

Consider another side of the issue in but one state: North Carolina. Cumberland County, home to Fort Bragg, has an estimated 13,000 students with parents on active duty. The paperwork is a major task for schools and families alike. The various states, Superintendent William Harrison said, "need to acknowledge they need to work for people serving our country." (Uncle Sam couldn't have said it better.)

What the Pentagon wants states to do is simple: Cut the red tape. States should allow school districts to accept temporary transfers until official records arrive; grant grace periods on immunizations; and waive or substitute state-specific exams taken in another state. That's hardly the entirety of the list, but states are seemingly getting the point.

Some states are wary of ceding states' rights to the federal government. Yet the federal government is merely asking states for the same thing states have been asking of the federal government regarding education: flexibility.

Legislation on an interstate agreement is pending in Virginia, Alabama, Georgia and several other states (and they should be applauded). But about two dozen others need to get onboard to really help make the transition easier. After all, military children are trying to deal with the hand they are dealt. They deserve a break.