When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

GI Junior Scholarships

The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based public policy think tank, has released a policy brief  that concludes that education opportunities for school-aged military children in California would be improved by introducing something called GI Junior Scholarships.  Essentially, these scholarships are school vouchers to allow parents to choose their children’s school. 
Military children attend an average of six to nine different school systems throughout their elementary and high school years.  Overall, school districts surrounding military bases throughout California have a slightly lower Academic Performance Index (API) than the statewide average. No more than half the students in public schools surrounding California’s 26 military bases score at the “proficient” level in English language and math on the California Standards Test. Only14 percent of high school students in those schools on average score college-ready in English on the Early Assessment Program and 9 percent score college-ready in math.
“It’s entirely reasonable that military parents, who have little to no control over where they will be stationed should command more choice over the education of their children,” one of the authors of the study says. “Expanding private education options for students from military families by allowing students to attend private schools using public funds would help ensure they have access to high-quality schools regardless of where their parents are stationed.”
I am a strong supporter of increasing opportunities for military children to do well in school, but I believe a larger, critical point is being overlooked here.  If these schools are not good enough for military children, why are they good enough for others?  They clearly aren’t serving anyone very well, and resources could be better put into improving these schools than finding ways to abandon them and go elsewhere.

Here’s a link to an article about this subject:
Posted by About AART at 8:48 AM

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