WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Pentagon Considers Closing Schools On Military Bases

Pentagon Considers Closing Schools On Military Bases

(FORT KNOX, Ky., December 23rd, 2003, 5 p.m.) -- If the Pentagon decides to close the schools it operates on military bases, it would mean some major changes at the two bases in Kentucky.

Affected students would either be sent to nearby public schools, or the local public school system would take over the base schools, said Mike Lynch, chief of staff for the Department of Defense Education Activity, a civilian agency that operates the schools.

It would also mean the end of a standardized curriculum that allows a student to transfer at midyear from Germany or South Korea to Kentucky without changing textbooks.

The Department of Defense has completed a $1.6 million campus-by-campus evaluation of the effect of closing some or all of the more than 50 schools it operates, which cost the government more than $250 million last year to operate. A decision isn't expected until spring.

Students, active-duty military parents and base commanders have expressed fierce opposition to closing the schools, which students say make the burden of moving from base to base more tolerable.

"People here just understand what you are going through," said Katie Wurzbach, a Fort Knox High sophomore whose father will be in Saudi Arabia until June.

School officials at Fort Knox, which has 2,800 students, and Fort Campbell, with 4,500 students, say the schools' benefits go beyond the bonds students form. They cite high performance on standardized tests -- especially among minority students -- and graduation rates better than 95 percent.

But the schools are costly for the military, which is fighting two wars and is in the middle of a major transformation as the branches reconfigure themselves for fighting in a new, high-tech century. Salaries for teachers, who are federal employees, average as much as $15,000 a year more than the average salary for Kentucky's public schools.

Last year, the Pentagon spent about $28 million to operate the Fort Knox school system alone. Both Fort Knox and Fort Campbell have full school systems, kindergarten through 12th grade --
something done at only four of the 14 U.S. bases with schools.

High-ranking officers -- including Brig. Gen. Ben Freakley, the commander at Fort Benning, Ga., who until recently served as assistant division commander of the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division in Iraq -- also are on record as strongly opposing the idea.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement that he is confident the study will "illustrate that families at Fort Campbell and Fort Knox are well served by their schools, which are obviously tremendous assets to these two Kentucky installations and to the children of our soldiers."

Lynch said the final decision will be made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, probably in consultation with President Bush, and likely will involve Congress.

Col. Keith Armstrong, garrison commander at Fort Knox, said word of the potential closings only recently began circulating on the post.

"But I think you are going to be seeing a very vocal part of the population speaking out in favor of the schools," he said.

Reaction at Fort Campbell, where thousands of families have members fighting in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, has so far been muted as well, said post spokesman George Heath. But acting superintendent Tom Pearce said students and staff have taken the possibility of closing seriously.

If the schools are closed, public school districts will be asked to absorb the new students.

Bob Lovingood, superintendent of Christian County schools, said it's not clear how many of Fort Campbell's students would be absorbed into his district if the schools close, since the post straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

But he said he'd welcome the new students if the government provides funding to support their education.

Hardin County schools Superintendent Richard Hughes said based on discussions with colleagues who operate schools near major military bases, the government may pay the district as much as $8,000 per student. Hughes said while he's confident his district could handle the new students, he won't be lobbying to do so.

"We know how the people at Fort Knox feel, and we understand all those strong feelings people always have about closing schools," he said.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)