A White House military policy advisor said yesterday that no MyCAA benefits or any new DoD money for education will be included in the new White House military family initiative announced yesterday. It will, however, be a future task as part of the White House policy statement released in January, he said.
“Obviously we’re all aware of the hiccups and struggles with the MyCAA program,” said Matt Flavin, White House director of veteran’s and wounded warrior policy. “The [policy] commitment does envision more money and more resources to programs. ‘Joining Forces’ pivots off the [policy] commitment and looks towards the private sector.”
Yesterday’s announcement is a major bump for that policy statement, rolling out and lending publicity to many of the programs it included, such as partnership for military families across the federal government.
But Flavin’s statement that they would like to see more money and resources for spouse education programs directly contradicts what we were told by Barbara Thompson, director of DoD’s office of family policy and children and youth at the time. When asked about funding and MyCAA she specifically said they were not included.
“This initiative ... does not specifically address funding in the DoD,” she said.
While it’s certainly possible that plans have changed since that time, we would like to see more information on this issue and specifics as to what they are planning and when they are planning to do it.
Read more about our spouse education and employment in my story today over at Military.com.
