The Lack of Child Care Facilities in the Military Communities

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Modern military bases can be discussed as the developed communities where soldiers live with their spouses and children. From this point, many military families living in these communities face the problem of organizing the effective care for their children because of the lack of affordable child care facilities.

However, it is important to note that the quality of the soldiers’ service is directly associated with the development of families’ households within the community and families’ comfort. If the military family experiences problems with providing the effective care for children, this fact can influence the soldiers’ performance negatively.

Thus, the US Department of Defense (DoD) is expected to pay more attention to organizing the high-quality and affordable child care facilities in the military communities with the focus on developing the military child care system, reforming the priority principle, and improving the system’s financing because of the necessity to respond to the needs of the hundreds of families living at the US military bases.

The development and improvement of the military child care system is the first step to changing the situation for better because of organizing more facilities of different levels for children from the numerous military families. Many military families have children who are below the school age, but these children have no opportunity to attend the child development centers or stay with the in-home family care providers because there are few available places in the centers.

Moreover, many military parents cannot afford to pay the child care providers’ fees because they “operate as private contractors and set their own fees” (Kozaryn, 2014). As a result, parents should choose the work in shifts in order to receive the opportunity to care for their children. Even if the military family can afford the services of the child care providers, the quality of care is still questionable because these persons can violate health and safety standards (Fitzsimons & Krause-Parello, 2009, p. 42).

From this perspective, the military child care system should be improved significantly in relation to establishing more child care centers and hiring more trained child care professionals in order to provide the military families with the opportunity to support the life-work balance.

The second step is the reformation and improvement of the priority principle according to which military families can expect the places for their children in the child care centers. Referring to the example of the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the American community in Germany, it is possible to note that the waiting list is the basic challenge for military families to receive the high-quality care for their children.

Those children from the families of child care providers are of the top priority. Then, single parents and families with the deployed members are placed in the waiting list (Child Development Center, 2008). This priority principle also works in the other military communities according to the DoD standard, and the problem is in the fact that “many families remain on waiting lists or seek alternatives off-base” during a long period of time (Zellman, Gates, Moini, & Suttorp, 2009, p. 437).

The necessity to reform the principle of priority should be stated clearly because many military families become the victims of ineffective standards every year. Thus, it is possible to draw the attention of the community and DoD leaders to the problem while writing, for example, to the editor of the Kaiserslautern American newspaper or developing the discussion on the topic in the US media.

The next step is the focus on financing issues because the lack of the child care facilities in the military communities is directly associated with the inappropriate financing of the sphere. The main barrier to establish more child care centers in the military communities is the DoD financing policy.

In spite of the fact that officials are inclined to ignore this question while discussing the perspectives for the military services’ financing, the researchers pay attention to significant changes in the authorities’ approach to the discussion of the problem because the problem develops round the investment issue (Fitzsimons & Krause-Parello, 2009, p. 41; Representative Loretta Sanchez, 2013).

Thus, the DoD officials are oriented to overcoming the budget cuts because the military officials should take care of their soldiers (Interview: US Army chief says budget cuts are hurting force, 2013).

However, the problem is in the fact that little attention is paid to the problem of the military child care, although this issue affects the well-being of the community directly.

To guarantee the combat readiness of soldiers living with their families in the military communities, it is necessary to provide the families with all the opportunities to care for children and perform their military duties.

The current military child care system has several influential weaknesses because many children living in the military communities stay to be deprived of receiving the professional care and educational support due to the lack of the educational and child care facilities. Thus, the problems are based on the lack of financing and on the ineffective characteristics of the whole system depending on the priority principle.

References

Child Development Center leaders explain congestion and confusion. (2008). Web.

Fitzsimons, V., & Krause-Parello, C. (2009). Military children: When parents are deployed overseas. The Journal of School Nursing, 25(1), 40-47.

Interview: US Army chief says budget cuts are hurting force. (2013). Web.

Kozaryn, L. (2014). It’s a new world sarge! Web.

Representative Loretta Sanchez on sequestration military budget cuts. (2013). Web.

Zellman, G., Gates, S., Moini, J., & Suttorp, M. (2009). Meeting family and military needs through military child care. Armed Forces & Society, 35(1), 437-460.

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The Lack of Child Care Facilities in the Military Communities

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