They are now attacking military kids education

DOD announces massive cuts at military kids schools for special education and technology support while gaslighting that its an improvement

Hegseth is incapable of telling the truth

This weekend a friend tipped me off that letters were being sent out last week by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) informing a host of employees from special education assessors to technology specialists that their jobs were being eliminated.

At that point DODEA hadn’t made a public announcement, informed leaders of the schools, or any parents that these important positions were being eliminated. They appeared to have kept it quiet until after the firings were already in motion.

Then the gaslighting began. This story was published late Friday in the military paper of record, Stars and Stripes.

From the story,

About a week after notifying employees of potentially widespread job cuts, the Pentagon’s school system announced a reorganization that it says will boost support for students.

The shift, to take effect at the start of the next academic year, includes new school-level administrative roles to assist principals and an expansion of mental health services, the Department of Defense Education Activity said in a statement Friday.

The changes support an initiative announced in March by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as part of a larger plan to rebuild the U.S. military to meet current and future demands.

“This strategic realignment is designed to better serve military-connected students and families through smarter resource allocation, strengthened leadership and professional development, and enhanced support at every level of the school system,” DODEA said in its statement.

Sounds great, right? They are going to ADD resources to the schools! Amazing! But, is that the story?

TLDR: No. This is an assault on the all important school system that supports military children, the dismantling of special education and technology support while emplacing extra administrators and a smatter of psychologists that will in the end only hurt the military and service members families.

What is DODEA?

Simply put DODEA is the military’s school district to education the children of service members serving overseas and in remote locations in the United States without local school systems capable of handling the number of children. Many military bases have them and they currently serve approximately 65,522 children in 161 schools with about 11,828 full time employees.

It’s an excellent school system with most military families choosing to place their kids in DODEA schools when given the choice. Most of the employees are either military family members, veterans, or long term employees dedicated to serving military families with care and understanding.

For most service members serving overseas DODEA is the only other choice than homeschooling their kids. Their mission is just like any other school system in the United States.

Well, at least it was until Pete Hegseth took over as Secretary of Defense. Now things are really bizarre.

I literally went to the DODEA website to find their mission statement and core values have been replaced by a page long word barf of bureaucratic nonsense that has nothing to do with educating kids but instead about “workforce optimization” in line with Hegseth’s goals of reorganization.

There is no mention of educating thousands of children at all.

Don’t turn around…Der Kommissar's in town

This is where things get super dark. In his very first month in office Hegseth issued a decree through his minions to have a wide swath of books and curriculum removed from DODEA schools that he alleged were DEI related but it’s obvious were aligned with his extreme Christian Nationalist agenda.

Now this reorganization to improve schools will include a kommissar. From the announcement:

Administrative officers will be added to nearly every school to “streamline operations and free principals to focus on instructional leadership,” DODEA said.

Mental health support also will be expanded, with the aim of lowering the student-to-psychologist ratio from 1:900 to 1:700, the agency said. The goal is to hire about 21 more psychologists across the agency, DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said Friday.

The reorganization involves elimination of potentially hundreds of school-level and above-school-level positions, with teachers being spared.

This is the gaslighting. Look we are adding psychologists! Check out this cool new idea of an “administrative officer” so principals don’t have to do that pesky ‘running a school thing’ anymore!

(Oh, we are firing several hundred people that help schools serve special needs kids and overall technological instruction.)

The positions being eliminated are shocking. They are eliminating a wide range of special school staff including school education technologists, assessors for special education and speech/language pathologist, and office automation assistants and clerks, as well as numerous “above-school level positions.’

This is so clearly a move to get control of the instruction and make sure that teachers are not teaching “wrong think” or supporting LGTBQ and special needs kids. It has nothing to do with improving education. It has everything to do with emplacing spies in our kids schools.

Don’t believe me? Ask the teachers.

Teachers union weighs in

On Wednesday the “Overseas Federation of Teachers, which represents educators in public schools on Department of Defense military bases in Italy, Spain, Bahrain and Turkey, today denounced the agency’s plans to cut essential school personnel who help students learn in a digital age and access crucial services.”

I will post their release in full:

ANKARA, Turkey—The Overseas Federation of Teachers, which represents educators in public schools on Department of Defense military bases in Italy, Spain, Bahrain and Turkey, today denounced the agency’s plans to cut essential school personnel who help students learn in a digital age and access crucial services.

Positions eliminated include all school-based educational technologists (ETs), all speech-language assessors and all special education assessors in DoDEA schools—more than 450 jobs throughout the Department of Defense Education Activity system.

DoDEA’s plan calls for school-based ETs to be replaced by district-level ETs—only two for the entire Europe South district, providing only remote support. OFT President Linda Hogan said, “That’s just not enough. Nearly every curriculum series DoDEA uses has multilayered technology components, which have to be mastered by students and teachers alike. These cuts will hurt our students and tarnish the educational quality that DoDEA schools are known for.”

Hogan added: “DoDEA is sending our students back to the Victorian age educationally by cutting these vital positions. ETs and assessors are not add-ons to a school staff; they are central to the education and services our students depend on. DoDEA made these cuts without talking to classroom educators or to parents—the people who know what kids need.”

DoDEA has said it is about to launch a new “Blueprint for Continuous Improvement” and has adopted the ISTE Standards for Students and Teachers, a framework that offers guidance in using technology. “How do we accomplish that without essential educational technologists?” Hogan said.

She said that the cuts to speech-language and special education assessors will be equally damaging. She noted that assessors identify and support students with learning and behavioral needs: collaborating with educators, families and support teams; making recommendations for special education services; and helping to create individualized education programs.

“We don’t know DoDEA’s plan for replacing these vital staffers,” Hogan said. “If special education teachers fill the gap, then their students lose crucial teacher time and energy. If school psychologists take on assessments, they’ll be stretched even thinner to handle their other casework, from threat assessments to child abuse cases.”

Hogan said, “DoDEA is hands-down a top-notch school system. That is in no small part because teachers can work alongside critical support staff, including educational technologists and assessors. They aren’t expendable. They are crucial to students’ success in school and in life. We urge DoDEA to reverse this shortsighted decision.”

It’s the kid they’re hurting

Put simply the elimination of Education Technicians undermines modern learning capabilities. This isn’t the old days where school technology was making sure the mimeograph machine worked. In 2025 a portion of almost all curriculum is online with students issued laptops or other devices to do their work. Eliminating those positions will cripple that effort.

As a parent of a child that needed special education assistance the elimination of the speech-language and special needs assessors is absolutely devastating to children who need any kind of additional learning resources as special needs and/or 504 plans.

A Section 504 plan is a written agreement that provides accommodations and services for students with disabilities in school. It ensures students have equal access to education and other school programs and activities. Section 504 protects students with disabilities who may not need special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), but still require support to fully participate in school.

These assessors are the people who do that evaluation and track a child’s progress. This will hurt thousands of military families with special needs children and force them to choose continued military service with the needs of their families.

One of the first things I learned as a young officer was that we recruit individuals, but we retain families. As service members progress in rank they pick up families and that is a calculus that must be factored into readiness. If we treat families poorly we lose our critical mid and senior grade leaders.

Hegseth just decided that cutting costs and implementing his extremist education agenda is more important than actual retention and support of our service members and their families.

In addition, the military is a family business. Approximately 30% of military new recruits come from military families. What do you think politicizing their educations and dismantling their schools will do to their desire to serve in the future?

This will hurt the military, but even more so, it will hurt kids as they are placed in a political crosshair when they simply need a quality education.

It’s unacceptable.