Giving Compass' Take:

· For military children, education can be difficult subject when parents are transferred around the country. The 74 explains a plan under consideration in Congress where those kids moving with their parents to different locations would be able to choose the school that best fits them.

· One lawmaker suggested education savings accounts for military children to use. How will providing these funds help military families with school choices? Both sides of the issue are presented here.

· Read more about military families and schools.

Military-connected students — about 1.3 million of them in the United States — face a host of problems their civilian peers don’t.

They typically move six to nine times in the course of their K-12 careers, forcing them to deal with everything from different GPA calculations and course offerings to missed opportunities to try out for sports teams or the school play if, for instance, their family is transferred mid-year.

They’re also at the mercy of whatever public school system is near where their parents are stationed, sometimes not of the best quality or well situated to support the unique needs of military-connected students. Other options, from charters to private schools, can be scarce in the rural areas where many bases are located.

One lawmaker, Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican and Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan, in March introduced a bill he says could help those military-connected students by providing them with education savings accounts. The money could be used for a variety of educational expenses, including private school tuition, college coursework, or private tutoring.

“What better place to [expand school choice] than servicing a unique population of military families, men and women who raise their right hand to serve our country, who make tremendous sacrifices, who the last thing as a country that we want them to be worried about is a good education of their children. That should be automatic,” Banks told a group of reporters earlier this year.

Read the full article about school choices for military families by Carolyn Phenicie at The 74.