Military spouses need the Help of our Navy Momma's

[Rebecca]

All:

 

Here recently in the news the Department of Defense of temporarily halted the program MyCaa (My Career Assesment Account) for a review.  This halt came as a BIG surprise for the neary 133,000 spouses from all branches who utilize this program. The DOD felt it didn't need to give any of us a heads up on this before they pulled the plug.  This is leaving a lot of our spouses scrambling to find alternate funding to continue onward with their education.  Many of the spouses found out through the facebook page and or the school they are attending.  This is not right and very disrespectful for the DOD to do this to us.  I am asking for you help in getting the word out to everyone's congressman, senator, local papers, news channels.  We spouse are not going to sit back and let them take away this wonderful program.  I hope that my Navy Momma's will help us out.

 

Check out the following articles links:

 

This site has been suggested as a place where our stories can get to the right people :

http://afps.dodlive.mil/2010/02/19/employment-program-temporarily-halts/#more-2381

And the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON)(SS/SW) Rick D. West Al suggested to people to contact people through the defense.gov site that ran an article regarding the halting of funding.

That link is
http://prhome.defense.gov/contact_us.html

(the article is found at http://www.defense.gov//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=58009)

 

The MyCAA program (My Career Advancement Account) was a program funded by the DoD (through the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Military Community and Family Policy), run through MilitaryOneSource. Wednesday afternoon (2/17) they “paused” the program, effectively leaving 98,000 spouses in a lurch (nearly 133,000 military spouses have applied for the program since it launched last March. To date, about 98,000 spouses are enrolled in courses or have been approved for financial assistance). They won’t pay out any additional funds while they go through an “internal review” of the program. The review was a surprise to everyone and no one was given notice. There have been several news pieces done:

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_spousetuition_halt_021710w/ a href="http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_spousetuition_halt_021710w/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_spousetuition_halt_021710w/>

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=58009 a href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=58009" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=58009>

And yesterday - http://afps.dodlive.mil/2010/02/19/employment-program-temporarily-halts/#more-2381 a href="http://afps.dodlive.mil/2010/02/19/employment-program-temporarily-halts/#more-2381" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://afps.dodlive.mil/2010/02/19/employment-program-temporarily-halts/#more-2381>

(I wrote about it on my blog yesterday: http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/mycaa-program-suspended-no-notice-disrupts-milspouses-ability-go-school a href="http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/mycaa-program-suspended-no-notice-disrupts-milspouses-ability-go-school" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/mycaa-program-suspended-no-notice-disrupts-milspouses-ability-go-school> )

The official responses so far fail to account for 2 very important issues:

1. The way spouses weren't notified. They are still finding out through 2nd tier sources (Facebook and Twitter, which I’ll link to below). DoD hasn’t contacted any of the recipients directly to let them know which means that some won't find out till they go to apply for summer session...way too late to find the "alternate sources of funding" that is being suggested to women now calling in to ask what is going on.

2. This "pause" does affect recipients already approved for this program. Every article that is written, basically a re-release of a press release sent from the DoD, keeps wording so it sounds like the program just isn't accepting NEW accounts (even in the last article written today it is repeating the idea that this “pause” won’t affect those who already have approved accounts). But, the women who were already awarded the $6,000 are being affected as well. We can't access the money already awarded to us. We are collecting the experiences on the Blue Star Families Facebook page (as is the Military Family Congressional Caucus and the Take Action Against MyCAA Shutdown) and women who are already current users can't access their funds to pay for next semester. There was NO warning and now women who are counting on this source of funds are scrambling. They should have given a notice at least of a semester so women could line up other avenues. In addition, they are being told to use the new GI Bill, which is primarily designed for the serving military member or veteran, not the spouse.


Additionally, why the sudden stop on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of the fiscal year? If funds were running short, stop the accepting new applicants, but
grandfather in all current MyCAA account holders. I don't think the lack of funds is an issue here. Most organizations can conduct a review without
ceasing operations. The press releases say this was a planned event, a planned review of the program, but Military.com was still sending out ads for it yesterday and even as recently as last week there were ads for the program up online and women who called in to speak with their career counselors weren’t given any indication as late as Wednesday afternoon that they should not count on their funds this next semester. Some of those who have called in have been told that fraud was involved and that is why everything has been shut down. But can you imagine if any other federal program like this was shut down to investigate fraud? The GI Bill? VA benefits? The spouses feel like they are being thrown under the bus. What is being called “a pause” is, in reality, for some of them, a huge obstacle. They planned their courses around PCS moves, deployments, seasonal childcare, and other responsibilities. If they can’t attend a course in order, for example in a nursing program, because they can’t afford to pay for it next semester, it is so much more than a “pause” or “inconvenience” to them. Being told to find alternate funding, at this point in the semester (looking at paying for next semester) is really not an option at all. There is no grant/loan/scholarship that can be applied/accepted/disbursed in a two-month timeframe. FAFSA can’t be gotten that fast and many scholarship programs are already past application deadline this late into the school year.

The end effect of this “pause” is that military spouses are being left hanging on a program that may or may not resume in the form that they signed on to. We need someone to push past these generic and vague boilerplate responses to ask the whys and hows. Most importantly we need someone to advocate for those who are already approved for funding and allow them to access their funds while everything else is being sorted out.

There is a Facebook group set up around this issue that just started yesterday: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311128483876&ref=nf a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311128483876&ref=nf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311128483876&ref=nf> . There are currently 730 members.

The Congressional Military Family Caucus is taking stories on their FB page: http://www.facebook.com/militaryfamilycaucus?ref=ts
as is Military Spouse Coalition: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Military-Spouses-Coalition/165271567100?ref=ts
and Blue Star Families: http://www.facebook.com/BlueStarFamilies?ref=ts
also Military.com has a blog up: http://paycheck-chronicles.military.com/2010/02/19/even-more-mycaa-reports/

Senator Burr’s office (NC) has already issued a statement about it. I’ve contacted Congressman Nye’s office and Sen. Warner’s office with this information as well. Congressman Nye’s office did inquire and got back the standard press release, which we already know is misleading in regard to the effect this pause is having on military spouses currently approved for funding and currently taking classes.

Take a look at the personal stories on the FB pages, it would be great if we could get some help. The official responses just aren’t cutting it.

Thank you for your time! Please let me know if I can be of any more help!

Spouse tuition aid shuts down without warning - Navy News, news from Iraq - Navy Times

www.navytimes.com

Defense officials have abruptly shut down the My Career Advancement Accounts, a program that gives qualified military spouses up to $6,000 in tuition assistance to help them pursue portable careers.

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And a number of people have also been told to contact
Public Affairs, Defense Press Office POC is Major April Cunningham, [phone].

 

Thank you,

Rebecca A proud Navy Spouse and Veteran.