U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently introduced the Military Family Stability Act, which is designed to provide additional flexibility to military families when military parents’ duty stations change.
The bill would allow students to finish the school year or spouses to be able to start or finish professional or educational programs before reporting for duty in a new capacity. The premise is to provide stability for dual-career families, as well as military children, during what is often a stressful military-relocation period, which can occur every two to three years.
“We have the most powerful military in the world, but our nation’s heroes do not serve alone,” Blunt said in a released statement after the bill was introduced. “Military spouses and children are the support system of our troops. In fact, former Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Gen. Ray Odierno, always used to say, ‘The strength of our nation is our military, and the strength of our military is our military families.’
“Our military families have changed a lot over the years,” Blunt said. “More military spouses are working today than ever before. This is great news, but all too often, spouses sacrifice their own careers to meet the needs of the military. In addition, military children experience interruptions in their school year due to abrupt relocations. The average military child will change schools six to nine times.”
Blunt cited the example of Mia Reisweber, a teacher from his home state enrolled at Missouri University of Science and Technology and a doctoral candidate at St. Louis University. “Mia applied for this program with the knowledge that her husband would move to Fort Leonard Wood for professional education in June,” Blunt said. “Unfortunately, her husband’s orders were changed to a report date at the end of October. Mia and her husband pleaded with the Army to allow her to move early to start her Ph.D. in August; however, their requests were denied.”
Blunt also recalled the case of Liz O’Brien, a Division 1 college basketball coach of 11 years, whose career was negatively impacted after marrying into the Army.
“These modern times require the military to evolve to better meet the needs of our nation’s military families,” Blunt said.