Wolfe advises Daleville City Schools to prepare for BRAC

During an April 16 Daleville Board of Education meeting, retired Brig. Gen. Rod Wolfe, of Friends of Fort Rucker and the Alabama Military Stabilization Commission, spoke about the importance of education in potential Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) actions that could affect Fort Rucker.

The BRAC process, created by Congress in 1988, reduces Depart of Defense (DOD) budget costs by significantly downsizing or closing military installations. From 1989 to 2005, more than 350 installations have been closed.

Although the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have rejected BRAC for the last three fiscal years in their respective Defense Authorization Bills, DOD has requested BRAC authorization again in 2015, Wolfe said.

Wolfe said that while it is unclear if Congress will approve another BRAC in 2015, DOD is “dead serious” about the increasing need for budget cuts in a time of sequestration. According to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, if Congress does not authorize another BRAC, he “will have to consider every tool…to reduce infrastructure.”

Regardless of next year’s decision, Wolfe said Fort Rucker and the Daleville community should begin to prepare for the likely probability of BRAC in 2017.

One of the main categories considered in a BRAC selection, which compares installations across the military, is how the surrounding community supports military forces, missions, and personnel. Factors defining the level of support, such as education, healthcare, crime statistics and spousal employment, are closely evaluated.

Educational opportunities for soldiers and their families are particularly important, Wolfe said, including how school systems support military-connected students.

Positives include counselors for military students, transportation of military students and academic calendars that correlate with military leave.

Schools are also evaluated by the opportunities they offer to students, such as career tech programs and department activities (JROTC, band, theatre, choral music, sports, etc.).

Academic standards in comparison to national averages are additionally weighed.

A school’s adoption of Common Core Curriculum is also considered a positive factor, as it may help military-connected students stay on track in their studies as they move from school to school.

Wolfe said these factors largely define the word-of-mouth reputation of an area’s school system, which weighs heavily in a military member’s decision to move his or her family there.

“From the perspective of a military member, these are some important things to look at,” Wolfe said. “These are the things in education that we want to be able to look at (on the list) and say ‘yes, yes, yes.’”

Education is just one of several areas that will be evaluated by the DOD if Fort Rucker faces BRAC in 2017. It is, however, an area that Daleville should prepare for close evaluation as military communities across the nation compete to keep their installation’s gates open.

“There is no question that this will be a very fierce competition and everything—everything—counts,” Wolfe said.