Q&A: Leslye A. Arsht

Written by Diana McGonigle

EDUCATION OVERSEER:
Establishing Quality of Life for Servicemembers and Their Families



Leslye A. Arsht
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense
for Military Community and Family Policy

Arsht has been part of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness team since June 2004. Her focus since that time has been on education, military spouse career opportunities and employment for severely injured service members.

Prior to this appointment, Arsht was a senior advisor to Iraq’s Ministry of Education. For nine months, she aided in the re-establishment of Iraq’s primary and secondary schools, developing a four-year strategic plan and advising the new ministry as it began a national dialogue on curriculum reform. She was presented the Joint Civilian Service Commendation award by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer for her service. In June 2005, Arsht was chosen as the grand prize winner of the Good Housekeeping Award for Women in the Government.

Arsht’s career in communications and education policy spans over 30 years. She has been counselor to now U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee during his term as the U.S. secretary of education; co-founder of a non-profit education consulting firm; and associate vice chancellor for news and public affairs at Vanderbilt University. She also served as a deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1987-1989. A native of Houston, Arsht is a graduate of the University of Houston.

Ms. Arsht was interviewed by MAE editorial coordinator Diana McGonigle.

Q: What are your responsibilities as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Military Community and Family policy?

A: In my role as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, I have a vast portfolio of policies and programs that represent DoD’s and the military services’ commitment to establishing “quality of life” for our servicemembers and their families.

My responsibility for quality of life policy, advocacy and oversight includes family programs and family assistance services; child development and youth programs; military spouse career advancement; state liaison initiatives; the off-duty, voluntary education program for military personnel which includes tuition assistance; morale, welfare and recreation; defense resale for commissaries and exchanges; the transition assistance program for separating servicemembers; family violence prevention and intervention; casualty and mortuary affairs and military funeral honors. I’m also responsible for advocacy for quality education for all military students moving between schools and defensewide policy responsibility for the Department of Defense Education Activity that serves approximately 88,000 students in 199 schools in 13 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico.

These quality of life policies, programs and services address key DoD goals related to recruitment, retention, morale and mission readiness.

Q: How in particular are you involved with military voluntary education?

A: I assist the Defense Department in establishing policies governing the management of adult education programs for military personnel and expanded education opportunities for military spouses.

Q: What are your goals for military voluntary education?

A: The availability of off-duty military voluntary education has been a particularly important recruitment and retention tool for DoD since the advent of the all-volunteer force in the 1970s. Numerous studies have shown that educational opportunity is the primary reason that personnel are attracted to and stay in the military. Service-sponsored studies also show that better-educated servicemembers perform better on the job, and thus contribute to enhanced unit readiness and mission accomplishment. With that knowledge, I have three primary goals for military voluntary education.

First, to provide the highest quality educational opportunities possible for our military personnel and eligible family members— regardless of duty location. Our servicemembers serve the nation throughout the world in more than 150 locations. We need to leverage technology to make distance learning and virtual classrooms routinely available to complement the opportunities provided in the more typical classroom. Geographical dispersion should not be a deterrent to voluntary education.

My second goal is to ensure that servicemembers have the opportunity to attend a nationally- or regionally their personal education goals. To achieve this goal, this also requires that the institutions they attend minimize the loss of credit transfer, accept non-traditional credit, and award credit for military training and experience.

My third goal is to ensure that funding is available for interested servicemembers to pursue their educational goals.

Q: Are servicemembers making full use of tuition assistance and other benefits? Are officers using TA [tuition assistance] to pursue graduate degrees?

A: Yes. Education was—and continues to be—a key factor in the professional and personal development of our servicemembers. Despite the high operational tempo in support of the global war on terrorism, many who are deployed are still staying connected to their education goals by online courses and often enrolling in traditional courses when they return home. This includes officers who are using tuition assistance to pursue graduate degrees.

Q: What does your department do to support military spouse education and career advancement?

A: Support for spouse careers is a key factor in the re-enlistment decisions of married servicemembers and it has a profound effect on the financial well being of military families. Our families tell us they need two incomes just like their civilian counterparts. And our military spouses also tell us that they, too, have education and career aspirations.

In the past few years, we’ve seen great steps forward in support of our military spouses. Since 2004, the Department of Defense through our state liaison office has partnered with state governors and legislators to improve the quality of life benefits of our servicemembers (including the National Guard and Reserve) and their families who reside in their states. We have seen the number of states offering complete in-state tuition increase from 21 in 2004 to 33 this year. We now have seven states offering alternative teacher licensing through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) and another five states considering the use of this nationwide standard to assist spouses with their transition between states. In addition, 20 states (compared to nine in 2004) have made military spouses leaving jobs as a result of a permanent change-of-station move, automatically eligible for unemployment compensation.

We’ve also put into place several initiatives to support spouses in obtaining portable careers such as a partnership with the medical transcription trade industry and the DoD Spouses to Teacher Program, which provides counseling, support and certification reimbursement. We also have a partnership with Military. com, powered by Monster.com where our spouses can post their resumes, search for employment near their installations and find military spouse friendly employers. To date, more than seven million job searches have been conducted on the Website [www. military.com/spouse]. Employers can post jobs for free and search specifically for military spouse candidates.

These positive efforts result from some wonderful partnerships between state leaders, business and industry, educational institutions, the Departments of Defense, Labor and the Small Business Administration. We are aggressively seeking additional opportunities for military spouses.

Q: How does your department address education opportunities for severely injured servicemembers?

A: Providing educational opportunities to the severely injured is quite complex and requires a collaborative, comprehensive and cooperative effort between the military services, the Departments of Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Education, and the Small Business Administration. It also requires communication and coordination at the state and local level. Most importantly, the support begins with the needs and desires of the individual servicemember.

When a severely injured servicemember returns from the combat theater, the primary focus is recovery. Most servicemembers are anxious to get better and return to their units. We know that isn’t always possible and in some cases, the severely injured transition back to the civilian world. There are a number of programs to facilitate a “seamless” transition of support from the Department of Defense to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the local community of the servicemember’s choice.

To that end, Operation Warfighter provides for temporary assignments in the federal government while the servicemember recuperates. In some cases, these assignments have led to new careers in the federal government, however the program is not intended to be an employment program. Rather, Operation Warfighter is more of a “wellness” program that enables the servicemember to remain physically and mentally engaged through opportunities for meaningful work while recovering from his or her injuries. In 2006, more than 140 servicemembers were placed in nearly 80 federal agencies and departments; 20 “graduates” were offered permanent employment with their OWF agency upon medical retirement while the remainder who completed the program either returned to duty or civilian life. ReaLifelines is a Department of Labor program to assist severely injured servicemembers and their families access online resources and contact information. The Department of Labor staff provides individual support to severely injured servicemembers and their families with resume writing, job counseling, and job searches. Department of Labor “One Stop” offices are located at some military installations and are directly connected to other Department of Labor state-based operations.

The Heroes to Hometowns program facilitates return or relocation to a permanent home. Our goal is successful reintegration. Through a Memorandums of Agreement with the American Legion, National Guard Bureau and the State Directors of Veterans Affairs, Heroes to Hometowns supports myriad activities including welcome home celebrations, the securing of temporary or permanent housing, assisting in adapting a home or vehicle, finding career and educational opportunities and creating carpools to support travel to medical appointments.

Some successes include the Sentinels of Freedom program, based in San Ramon, Calif.—they’ve already awarded nearly 10 scholarships to severely injured servicemembers and their families, and through a partnership with RE/MAX, have taken the program nationwide to serve a greater portion of the severely injured population. The Sentinels of Freedom “scholarships” whose benefits include housing [up to four years], education, and employment opportunities provide an outstanding start to successfully re-integrating into the community.

To help ensure the severely injured have the tools they need prior to commencing or re-engaging on their higher education, the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program, operated out of the Department of Defense, outfits the member with any and all adaptive computer technology necessary to enable them to use any computer application, send and receive e-mail, and access the Internet. The associated training, software and hardware are provided at no cost to the member. Through a recent legislative change, servicemembers outfitted through CAP may now keep all equipment through their transition to the VA system.

Institutions of higher learning have enthusiastically responded to the call of providing educational opportunities and scholarships for the severely injured, and in some cases, their family members. Grantham University, through its Military Severely Injured Scholarship Program, offers full tuition on-line scholarships to eligible severely injured veterans and tuition discounts to their eligible family members. The University of Idaho, through its Operation Education Program, offers tuition, books, housing and child care assistance to resident severely injured and their eligible family members as well. Many other colleges and universities are considering or finalizing scholarship programs, both on-line and resident, to benefit the severely injured and their families; these opportunities will be announced in the coming months.

Q: How did your college education help you in your current and past jobs?

A: I loved college—but I decided early that I wanted to major in political science and work in government. And that’s how I started my career. But my real understanding of the role of college in one’s life has grown from an insight that struck me in Iraq—our culture encourages us to consider that we can be—and do—anything, if we work hard at it. Our higher education system offers amazing variety and lots of second chances.

Q: I understand that Good Housekeeping magazine awarded you the grand prize in the Women in Government Award in 2005 for getting the Iraqi education system up and running. Can you tell us about your efforts?

A: It was an amazing experience and my first real exposure to military life. I heard often the concerns of military parents dealing with their own education and that of their children. But when dealing with Iraqis, I was immediately struck by the things about us that were alike—even under those harsh circumstances there was an underlying optimism. During my nine months in Iraq, our military members worked side by side with civilians re-establishing the school system, protecting the sites where national tests were given, rebuilding water and sewer systems, or simply handing out treats.

While Iraqi expatriates and I trained teachers in research-driven, internationally effective instructional practices, parents took their children to school and picked them up; they worried whether their children were being graded fairly and that their teachers wouldn’t be able to catch up with the outside world.

I was struck by what I believe to be a universal truth—we need partnerships in order to achieve success. No one sector—the armed forces, the aid workers, the Iraqi Ministry and government, could have re-started the schools there—alone. It took all of us. Everyone wanted the schools reopened and operating effectively.

The need to reach out to, and depend upon partners, is just one of the many career and life-affirming lessons from my time in Iraq.

Q: What trends do you see in military voluntary education? What accounts for these trends?

A: We see three major trends: an increase in foreign language courses, an increase in coursework that leads to certification and licensure, and an increase in distance education enrollment. The Defense Department modified the Uniform Tuition Assistance Policy in December 2006 to allow servicemembers to use tuition assistance for non-degree-oriented foreign language education during off-duty time. This change in the policy provides funds and allows the servicemember to become proficient in a foreign language. The new foreign language skills will allow them to work effectively outside our country’s borders in languages and cultures that are critical to our nation’s defense.

With the change in Section 2015 of Title 10 U.S. Code, DoD is permitted to spend discretionary money for credentialing. The credentialing is defined as a set of standards that link the skill or knowledge to the civilian job sector. Our servicemembers seek educational opportunities that lead to personal and career growth. The change in the law helps make this possible.

Distance Learning is growing by leaps. Since 2000, servicemembers’ enrollments in distance learning courses have increased 30 percent. This trend can be contributed to the growth of institutions offering continuing education programs and deployments that place servicemembers away from the traditional classroom.

Q: Do you see any challenges ahead for military education?

A: Many of the challenges facing our servicemembers are outside our direct control. These include the transfer of credit from institution to institution due to the mobile nature of the military lifestyle and a high operational tempo. Our ultimate goal is to help servicemembers and their families achieve their professional goals. We in the DoD can’t do this without strong partners in the federal government and our nation’s post-secondary institutions.

Our important ongoing work with the more than 1,800 colleges and universities that comprise the Servicemembers Opportunity College [http://www.soc.aascu.org/] will continue in earnest. And as I mentioned earlier, we really need our educational institutions to take advantage of advancing technologies that will take the classroom to the student—wherever he or she may be. Our servicemembers and their families constantly seek opportunities for personal and professional development. Together, we can make that an achievable goal. ♦

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