It’s not often that an innovative idea originates in Alabama and then gets adopted around the nation, but that very thing happened recently, receiving some national coverage. Unfortunately, there was virtually no mention of Alabama.
Back in 2017-2018, Maxwell Air Force Base and its largest command, Air University, faced a quandary. Many potential Air University students were telling their commanders that they did not want to attend training at Maxwell Air Force Base because of the area’s low-quality public schools. More than 56% of airmen in that year's Air War College came to Montgomery without their families, the poor reputation of local schools the number one reason given. Air University was having trouble attracting faculty for the same reason. Ironically, one of the best public schools in the entire area was on Maxwell Air Force Base itself, a Department of Defense (DOD)-operated elementary school. Unfortunately, DOD policy limited attendance at that school solely to military members who lived on base.
To make matters worse, in February 2018 the three Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force sent a joint letter to the National Governors Association, saying:
While focus on the mission is always our priority, the factors military families cite most frequently as drawbacks to military service include military dependent's difficulty assimilating into local school systems following a duty station transfer, the quality of schools available for their children, and the ability of spouses to obtain jobs and sustain careers.
The service secretaries went on to warn that such issues would influence the DOD “when evaluating future basing or mission alternatives.”
In response to this growing issue of concern, the commanding general of Air University at that time, Lieutenant General Anthony Cotton, tasked retired Rear Admiral Kent Davis, then serving as the civilian director of communication and outreach for the university, to come up with a way to address these issues. (Yes, the same Davis who later served as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs before apparently being dishonorably ambushed by Gov. Kay Ivey.)
Davis formed a working group made up of Maxwell and local community officials, hired Lt. Col. Christina Karvwnaris as a superb full-time coordinator of a new effort to improve the quality of life for Air Force dependents in Montgomery, and both began working with local school districts and others to tackle the concerns.
That working group was a tremendous success. It was eventually successful in getting support for likely the first pilot “school choice” program in Alabama. Individual schools and entire school districts around the River Region began waiving selected application deadlines and residency requirements so that the dependents of military personnel had much greater choices in public schools. It was also successful in encouraging reciprocity of licensing for military spouses who previously had tremendous trouble obtaining jobs in Alabama because of the state’s rigid licensing rules for out-of-state professionals (efforts that politicians are now predictably trying to take full credit for, by the way). Finally, the working group was successful in changing DOD policy to allow off-base military families to enroll their children in the DOD-operated school at Maxwell and at similar schools located on three other military bases around the nation (one each for the Navy, Army and Marine Corps).
That pilot program initiated at Maxwell Air Force Base was a tremendous success: 215 off-base military children would eventually take advantage of that change in policy at Maxwell alone.
Now, a new 2025 federal law will allow service members assigned to other bases around the nation to request that their children be enrolled in the school operated by the DOD if space is available, regardless of whether they live on base.
“It’s great to give families that flexibility,” Eileen Huck, acting director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, said in a recent article for Military Officers Association of America. “If there are spaces available and families want to send their kids to a [DOD] school, I think it’s great that this opportunity is going to be available to them.”
A successful school choice effort that has already benefitted many families and perhaps helped preserve military units and missions in Alabama, and it all began right there at Maxwell Air Force Base under the focused guidance and principled leadership of Davis and Karvwnaris. Such innovation can deliver common sense answers to the systemic inefficiencies and obstacles that too often plague the good citizens of Alabama thanks to poor government leadership. And now the rest of the nation will benefit from that rare Alabama-based innovation.
Troy Carico is both a former infantry enlisted soldier (11B) and infantry officer with branch qualifications including counterintelligence (35E) and military intelligence (35D). He served with distinction in the U.S. Army for more than 22 years, and is highly decorated and service connected disabled. He also has prior service as a civilian intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency Great Skills Program and has served in numerous clandestine assignments throughout the world.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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