Career program for military spouses a wise investment

Secretary Gates, Mrs. Obama? I know you keep saying that you want to really help military families, so we need you to just take one tiny step out of the box into which all of you dumped the MyCAA program.

In case you forgot, My Career Advancement Account is a program, halted this spring, that offered military spouses up to $6,000 to apply to education, licensing, and other costs associated with promoting a portable career. Spouses had to submit a plan for approval. The funding was granted a semester at a time and it went directly to the educational institution.

Sounds like a really good idea, doesn't it? That's why almost 1 in 5 military spouses applied for the program. That's why we broke the bank on the program - unlike all those other little programs that you guys keep begging us to attend that we neither want nor need.

In fact, the demand for MyCAA was so great that it freaked out all of you who are standing in the box. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said recently that he is concerned that the program has "morphed" beyond its original intent and cost estimates.

Hear these ideas that will help you think of "morph" not in a swine flu way, but in a penicillin way.

1. We now live in a country where more than 70 percent of all mothers work. We also live in an era where education is de rigueur.

A four-year degree does what a high school diploma used to do. If the MyCAA program is designed to provide military spouses portable career skills that would help them find jobs after making permanent change-of-station moves, we need credentials to compete with our peers.

2. Military spouses are more ambitious than you think.

Service members are a pretty good catch. They tend to be smart and hardworking, but a lot of them ain't crazy about school. That's why they came to you. That's why so many of us like them. They are men who act like men. They are women who do not lean.

Consequently, they attract good partners who want something more out of life. Slackers need not apply for the role of military spouse. Ambitious spouses - the ones who don't really see themselves as the Realtors or home health care providers you want us to be - need this program.

3. Military spouses put their own needs last.

This is a weird one, isn't it? But in my work I see it all the time. Military spouses are wolves. We protect our young. We protect our mates.

In a time of limited resources - like the post 9/11 GI Bill you seem to think we should be using to pay for a four-year degree for the spouse - we save those things for the good of the pack. Even though you may be able to show me "proof" that using the GI Bill for myself is a better investment, I will be damned if I deprive my spouse or children of what they need.

4. Military spouses cannot fund an entire four-year degree on $6,000.

We're clever. We're crafty, but $6,000 does not actually buy a bachelor's degree. College Board reports that annual tuition at a public four-year college is about $7,020. The private schools your children did or will attend cost around $26,000 per year.

You can afford to fund one year of school for these spouses in exchange for the career demands that military moves and deployments make. It is a great start to a great finish for them.

5. Military spouses are the hammer.

Do not forget what you know about retention. If the spouse isn't happy, the service member is more likely to move into the civilian world. If you want to hold the best and the brightest, you have to hold the spouse, too. And you can't hold us with ramen noodles, guys. We aren't asking for a handout, just a way to adapt to a two-income/multiple move kind of world. You fund it. We will do the rest.

6. Military spouses are a fabulous investment.

Our country has been at war for almost nine years. You know that less than 1 percent of the population is serving that effort. Military spouses bear the stateside burden well and painfully and proudly.

But face it: Your credit with us after multiple deployments is depleted. By playing word games with what the original "intentions" of the program were, you lose even more credibility with us.

Don't blow it. Fund the program. Encourage the most able spouses. And check the box for truly helping military families.