Military

Nationwide Education Compact Benefits Military Children

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 18, 2010 at 11:31 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

A new law removes obstacles that hindered the educational career of children in military families. State Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña sponsored a bill in California to make it easier for military kids to transfer from one school to another.

Rear Admiral William French, the commander of Navy Region Southwest, and Marine Corp General Anthony L. Jackson held a press conference today to highlight new legislation. AB 343 removes obstacles that affected children in military families.

More than 60,000 students in California schools are children of military families. Their parents often move frequently from one military base to another. But moving from school to school, sometimes in different states, can set back their education and make it harder to qualify for college.

State Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña sponsored a bill in California as part of a nationwide initiative to make it easier for military kids to transfer from a school in one state to a school in another.

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"We want to make sure families that are already living under very stressful conditions do not have additional stress as a result of disruptions to their children's educational opportunities," she said.

Saldaña says 25 states have signed on to the education compact, which was put together by the Department of Defense and the Council of State Governments.

Member states will recognize course requirements from schools in other states to help students meet local graduation requirements. Students will not get penalized for transferring in the middle of a school year. Also, if they are absent because of a family move, it will not be recorded as truancy.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.