Jennifer Barnhill is a columnist for Military.com writing about military families.
In January, the Trump administration issued an executive order requiring the Department of Defense to come up with a proposal that would determine the feasibility of creating a program letting military families take federal funding and spend it on the school of their choice, including helping pay for religious schools, while possibly reducing funding for Defense Department facilities that rank among the highest performing nationally.
Some military families who want to be able to access outside schools have done so, depending on local laws, but no national proposal has been put in place.
"We are now able to choose the school choice that we would prefer, as long as we provide transportation," said Tiffany Kelley of her Air Force family's move from OCONUS to Georgia in 2023. "Georgia does it right, in my opinion. You pick the school; they give you three choices."
The Kelley family takes advantage of Georgia's Quality Basic Education Act, which enables those living on a military base to enroll in a public school they are not zoned for, without an official address. "We have now utilized school choice for this last school year, and it has been the best decision that we could have made."
But that is just one type of "school choice."
School choice is a broad term that refers to policies allowing families to select alternatives to their assigned public school districts. School choice options include religious schools, charter schools, magnet schools and voucher programs, also titled Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). While these models offer families more educational options, voucher programs and, to a lesser extent, charter schools shift public funds away from traditional public schools, raising concerns about their long-term impact on districtwide education equity.
Those programs can be a boon for families that want to pursue other educational opportunities for their kids.
"If I didn't have that option to use the voucher, I would not be able to afford to home-school," said Cella Logan, a Gold Star spouse living in Florida with her two children. Logan first heard about a voucher program from a school liaison officer (SLO), who encouraged her to apply. She was thrilled that her son was approved, but quickly ran into issues trying to utilize the voucher for home-schooling.
"Utilizing the voucher was the challenge," she said. So she started to make calls, first to the program administrators, then to the Florida Department of Education and got nowhere. "As soon as I talked to my legislators, within three weeks, it was taken care of."
Logan's experience highlights one worry held by military parents. Will this new program make military parents' lives and children's education better, or will it be one more hurdle to navigate?
"Private schools aren't bound by the interstate compact," said Eileen Huck, acting director of government relations for the National Military Family Association (NMFA). The Military Interstate Children's Compact is an agreement made by all 50 states to guarantee military students certain rights and protections as they navigate new school districts across state lines. Advocates worry military families may only see the positives of school choice, without being made fully aware of the consequences.
"It's not school choice; it's the school's choice," said Nicole Russell, executive director for the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS). NAFIS is a nonprofit that advocates for the receipt of impact aid for the more than 1,200 schools that serve federally connected students. While the executive order doesn't identify how the DoD should fund military school choice, NAFIS worries federal impact aid would be used to fund the program.
Impact aid is funding paid to local school districts with high numbers of military students. These payments are used to offset the loss in property tax income, as military families living on military installations don't have to pay local property taxes, which help fund local schools. If military families utilize these funds, their funds go with them.
"These private schools have the option to discriminate based on a variety of factors. Public schools do not discriminate against students who enroll," Russell said. Those who oppose school choice often cite private schools' history of discrimination on the basis of race and disability, as well as the lack of education standards in many states for religious schools.
These fears are top of mind for mental health counselor and special education advocate, Dr. Destiny Huff. Huff is married to a soldier in the Army and together they have two children, one of whom spends the majority of the school day in a special education classroom. She has seen firsthand that private schools do not have to accept applicants.
"[Non-public schools] don't want disabled learners that can have behavior concerns," Huff said. Although she is fully aware that special education and the public school system is flawed, for many, it is the only option. "When that funding is pulled from that public school that is required to take my child, then they don't have the funding to support my child."
Huff also shared that as a Black family, they have already experienced racial barriers in accessing education. "School choice is not always an option for us because of stereotypes and perception," she said.
To mitigate these challenges, Huff's spouse has turned down desirable duty assignments to ensure educational consistency for their children. They are not the only ones to pay a cost to support their children's education.
Parents with children enrolled in special education may have a harder time accessing educational support. When a parent accepts a school voucher, they forfeit their right to access special education services from the public school system under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as private schools are not bound to honor this law. While vouchers provide funds to parents to seek external special education services, many providers have long waitlists.
And it is not just supplemental services that would cost military families. The average cost of a private elementary/middle school is $12,790 and the cost jumps to $15,344 for high school, with costs varying widely by state. However, most vouchers do not cover 100% of tuition, requiring families to cover the difference.
Although school choice would not require military parents to send their children to private schools, it would pull funds from local public schools, leaving them with fewer supports and resources for military students who can't afford the extra costs.
Military families stationed in Alaska know all too well what happens when districts experience budget shortfalls. In 2024, the school districts closed the second of three schools on Eielson Air Force Base. High school students were told they would need to travel to a school 20 miles away, removing sibling child-care options and building in a snowy commute.
"If you decide to do the lottery, you can't take advantage of [school] transportation," Air Force spouse Lisa Slaba said of the concerns experienced by families stationed in interior Alaska. "Now you add in fresh snowfall on the ground ... that's just another added layer to the nervousness and anxiousness that people feel."
"School of choice seems like it's going to be really relevant if you have a lot of choice in your area," shared Navy spouse Christy Thomas, whose service member's assignments have mostly been to rural areas. "Some of our locations, even in the continental U.S., don't have choices, which is why we home-schooled in those areas."
Many military families report choosing home-schooling as it offers families consistency and flexibility, but this decision comes at a cost to military spouses' retirement savings and future earning potential.
It is unclear what problem increasing school options via a universal voucher program would solve.
According to Military OneSource, 30 states have already introduced and/or enacted some version of open enrollment aimed at reducing the military-specific barriers of accessing education in a highly mobile environment. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) also offers a voucher-like program for families stationed overseas without access to a DoDEA school; the money allocated does not pull from a local public school.
And states, too, are offering their own flexibilities. Arkansas and Mississippi have amended state laws, allowing military families to choose the school where they would send their students and enabling military parents to register their children for school in advance of securing housing that would assign them to a public school district. Neither of these policies diverts funding from public schools to support military families.
Alabama's does. Its CHOOSE Act offers refundable income-tax credits called education savings accounts (ESAs) to parents of K-12 students, ranging from $2,000 per year per home-schooled student to $7,000 for those attending a "participating school." Of the 232 schools on the list, 58% reference a religious affiliation in their name. And according to initial reports, more than half the applications represented students who were already attending private schools.
This April, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced the Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act that would establish military ESAs with protections for discrimination on the basis of religion but not race, gender or disability.
Given the work that has already been done at the state level to mitigate the schooling challenges faced by military families, it is unclear what problem this solution is aimed at solving. It is also unclear how this approach would help all military families.
Military families are thirsty for good educational choices, choices that thoroughly consider their diverse needs. They don't want the school choice conversation to turn into another privatized military housing or global household goods contract situation, where they are forced to bear the burden of poorly designed policies and contracts. Research shows that the top reason service members leave service is the impact it has on their families. Military parents prioritize their children above their service, making this a policy change the government can't afford to get wrong.
