Communities large and small around the country that play host to military installations, take heed. Your long-term economic well-being due to the infusion of Department of Defense dollars could be on the line if your public schools are ailing.
The Department of Defense contributes billions of dollars each year to state economies through the operation of military installations and defense weapons contracts. In fact, the most recent DoD study on how the cash impacts each state shows that the military in just one year spent a whopping $407 billion on contracts and payroll in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Those funds bolster state economies and provide a huge hedge against recession. The annual injection at the state level among the top recipients is eye-popping: California, $49.0 billion; Virginia, $46.2 billion; Texas, $37.7 billion; Maryland, $21.1 billion; Florida, $19.2 billion; Washington, $15.2 billion; Connecticut, $15 billion; Georgia, $13.2 billion; Pennsylvania, $12.1 billion; Alabama, $10.9 billion.
The funds, particularly for military installations, underwrite thousands of jobs. In just one powerful example, the major military facilities in Texas generate approximately $136.6 billion annually in economic activity, the state comptroller's office found, and support 806,000 jobs.
At the same time, military members with school-age children are becoming increasingly concerned about the quality of schools around those military installations, to such a degree that poor school quality is a major factor in their decision to continue serving. The U.S. military leadership is listening and taking action, and that could have serious implications in the long run for the economic health of local communities.
The Air Force's top officer, Gen. David Goldfein, the chief of staff, stressed this point to local leaders concerned about the viability of their bases. "As I visit installations, the No. 1 quality of life issue of airmen with children is access to good schools," he told a gathering in Washington, D.C. "They'll say, 'Hey, chief, you can deploy me, you can send me to tough locations, you can make me live in small rural communities ... we're in. But once you start affecting the quality of our children's education, that's when we're going to make difficult decisions.'"
Goldfein said that "as we make future basing decisions ... we're going to start at some of those quality of life issues because of retention. Airmen are not going to stay in the United States Air Force if I'm moving them between school systems that are all over the map." As if to underline the point, he added that local investment in school quality around bases "are resources well-invested."
Similarly, the military service secretaries, the top civilians in the armed forces, asked the nation's governors to pay specific attention to school quality. They said in a letter that "the quality of schools near bases" will be a key factor "when evaluating future basing or mission alternatives."
The message couldn't be clearer: Fix ailing schools or potentially face an exodus of those dollars.
One Air Force community, Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., is living this problem right now, facing difficult issues with the quality of public schools. So much so that the Air Force is having trouble recruiting faculty and Air Force families to take assignments there at Air University. Air University is an extremely important institution, serving as the Air Force's intellectual and leadership development center.
The Air Force is serious about finding solutions so that service members want to come to Maxwell. And so is the Montgomery community. Service leaders and community officials have formed a robust education task force that is mapping out ways to address the problems. They have compiled near-term fixes that focus in large part on providing additional school choice options for military families.
"The efforts and progress we have seen from all the local school districts in improving educational options speaks to the tremendous desire for success across the region," said Col. Patrick Carley, commander of the 42nd Air Base Wing at Maxwell.
Success will require a long-term commitment by the public school systems that service Maxwell and by community leaders anxious about a diminution in the economic jet fuel that the facility provides the Montgomery region. It took years for those schools to reach their present educational nadir. It will take years-long commitment to turn them around. Both the community and the Air Force say they are teamed up on the problem for the long haul.
Maxwell and Montgomery underscore a different kind of partnership that other communities around the country are watching closely. It is driven by the overlapping needs of military families and national security. But it is also a partnership that, if it succeeds in improving schools and helping the Air Force retain service members, will aid all children in the region while keeping the local economy humming.
Jim Cowen is executive director of the Collaborative for Student Success in Alexandria, Va. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
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