Honor Military Families Too

There was a great viewpoint in the Dallas Morning News this Memorial Day on the need to honor military families as well as military members. Anyone who served knows how difficult the military can be for the families. President Obama did sign the Caregivers Act recognizing the toll that taking care of injured heroes has on the family.

But there is rampant unemployment of military veterans, incredible stress of multiple deployments on families and serious need for help with depression for spouses.

We continue to take more steps to help military spouses and families - but those tiny steps need to get a lot bigger to fully address the problems they face.

Veterans Day - thanks

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Enrolling in MyCAA

Using militaryonesource to enroll in the MyCAA spouse education scholarship program

Start your MyCAA

MyCAA – Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts which provide $6,000 for active duty military spouses for education are coming back! They were put on hold on due to overwhelming response but Secretary of Defense Gates says MyCAA will be back on in two weeks!

So for all those who are doing THE toughest job in the military, we wanted to make sure you know how to apply for this amazing benefit.

MyCAA process:

1. Ensure that you are confirmed in DEERS (Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System) as benefit eligible
2. Establish MyCAA account - create a profile on the MilitaryOneSource website https://aiportal.acc.af.mil/mycaa
3. You must agree to seek employment in Portable Career Fields upon completion of your education program (business, health and education all qualify)
4. When you are in the MyCAA website, select a College/University and then select the degree program you wish to complete
5. Create your Career and Training plan - this is the list of courses you are going to take to achieve your career goal. Most colleges have these uploaded for each degree so you should be able to find it when you select the program. You must save your Career and Training plan to submit for approval
6. A MyCAA consultant must approve your plan
7. You can enroll in the school at any time during this process
8. Now that you have an approved Career and Training Plan, you must select classes and then apply for Financial Assistance (FA) for the upcoming term
9. Let the school know when your FA is approved
10. The school logs in to MyCAA and checks to ensure there is an approved FA for the student - - the student should be registered at this time
11. The Financial Assistance is paid directly to the school.
12. Once your account is open you are eligible for up to $6,000 to complete your career goals
13. Every term, you must select your classes (once again, a military friendly school will have these in the MyCAA system) and get your FA approved
14. Other resources: MyCAA Flyer, Spouse Fact Sheet, MyCAA Spouse FAQ

Not too difficult and certainly worth the effort. If you are looking for a specific program, I have worked closely to train the following military friendly schools to help spouses use their MyCAA education benefits in great portable careers. Definitely give these a try!

Business Degrees: New England College of Business and Florida International University

Education Master's Degrees: American College of Education, Lamar University, Arkansas State University, University of Texas Arlington

Nursing (RN to BSN): University of Texas Arlington, Ohio University, Purdue University

DANTES

DANTES (Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support) is a US Department of Defense (DoD) organization created to assist United States (U.S.) military service members pursue their educational goals and earn degrees while continuing to serve their country.

I have worked with them to get American College of Education and now the New England College of Business and Finance listed. This is one of the best military groups I have worked with - they are incredibly responsive to online schools who want to help the military and are always extremely friendly. They are truly excited about helping service members realize their educational goals.

If you are looking for detailed information on the education options presented by DANTES, refer to the DANTES website - and make sure you check out that featured school for online associates, bachelor's and master's degrees in business!!

Military Scholarship Money

It is amazing to work with groups of people who really "get it" on recognizing our military and their spouses. Florida International University (FIU) announced that any military member, veteran, their spouse and immediate family members would qualify for a $20,000 military scholarship for Corporate Master's in Business Administration (CMBA).

FIU accepts GI Bill, Post 9/11 GI Bill, MyCAA and works with all programs to ensure our military members, their spouses and families can realize their educational and career goals. The $20,000 scholarship is on top of any funding your recieve from your military education benefits.

The CMBA provides you the critical skills and flexibility whether you are staying in the military and need to advance or you are transitioning to a civilian role.

Thanks FIU for helping out those who serve.

EduMilitary -

Check us out at http://edumilitary.blogspot.com for all the information on education benefits for military members, spouses and family.

Gates: MyCAA Back in Two Weeks!

From Military.com on a May 8th speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates -

“So we’ve been looking at the program. And I would tell you that I’m going to have a couple more meetings on it this week, this coming week. But within the next week or two, I expect we will be able to reopen the program to new applicants. And we are looking at a budget somewhere on the order of $500 million to — and we’re going — we’re going to have to do some things in terms of some caps and some limits, to be able to help as many people as possible. But I expect within the next two weeks we’ll reopen the program, with a substantial increase in the funding.”

Read more: http://paycheck-chronicles.military.com/2010/05/14/from-the-mouth-of-secretary-gates-mycaa-news/#ixzz0oqzHGnaF

FREE Museums for Military

The Blue Star Museum initiative by the National Endowments of the Arts and Blue Star Families is offering FREE admission to over 600 museums in all 50 states starting Memorial Day through Labor Day. This is just an outstanding way to show our appreciation to those who serve this nation. Pretty easy to take advantage of this benefit -

• Active duty and immediate family with military ID
• If under 10 must be accompanied by appropriate military ID holder
• Some limited time exhibits might be included

What a great way to help families reconnect after a long deployment or just have some great down time and not have to worry about the cost.

For our military families - take advantage of this as it is only this summer!

Go to the website and click for the museums near you.

Bruce Fleming is Wrong - Academies are valuable

The New York Times loves to find fault with the military and today is no exception in "The Academies' March Toward Mediocrity". In this case they have highlighted the opinion of a Naval Academy English professor who apparently knows all there is to know about producing officers for the military. He states emphatically that we should shut down the Academies and just get all our officers from R.O.T.C. He bases this on the fact that he knows of nobody that would argue that Academy grads as a group, are better than any other group of R.O.T.C. officers.

Well it must be so. I mean, I am sure that in the English professor circles they have studied officers coming out of the various routes and done a full on comparison analysis on which perform better. So he must be correct in assuming, based upon his circle of friends, that an art history major from Vanderbilt would be just as a Naval Academy Grad.

How does the New York Times print this crap!

If you want to do an analysis and figure out the value of the academies then do it. If you want to take the opinion of a General or Admiral who, after years of leading junior officers, makes a statement about officer quality, then I would be concerned.

But an English professor - seriously NYT???? That's the opinion we should take in deciding military policy?!

So wrong.

Full disclosure: my brother in law is an English major, USNA class of 82 and I would take his opinion because he served in the military!!

GI Bill vs Post 9/11 GI Bill

Is newer always better? In the case of education benefits for the military it might not be that way. It turns out that if you qualify for Montgomery GI Bill and Post 9/11 GI Bill you need to take a quick look to decide which is better for you to achieve your educational and career goals.

There is a great presentation on the VA site on how to figure out which program is right for you. For instance, Post 9/11 GI Bill does not cover OJT & Apprenticeship Training, Flight Training, Correspondence (this does not mean online institutions of higher learning), national testing programs, entrepreneurship training or co-op training. For those you have to use Montgomery GI Bill.

On the plus side for Post 9/11 GI Bill - you get a housing allowance and a book stipend which were not included in the Montgomery GI Bill.

When I started working with veterans looking to earn advanced degrees I assumed that newer would be better. But when you look at the details of the different programs, you really need to do a little research to make sure you are maximizing your military education benefits.

MyCAA coming back?

The MyCAA program is phenomenal. Military spouses can use $6,000 education dollars towards a portable career to help them as they move their families around the world supporting our military members. Unfortunately it was too successful. The initial enrollment in the program was 5 times the budgeted amount. So in February, without warning, they shut it down.

In March, they turned the MyCAA program back on for spouses who were currently enrolled. And now we wait to see if they will allow new spouses to start realizing their career goals.

Rumors are starting. I had heard that June was the re-start date. Now we are hearing that may be July. Please know that we are on it and will continue to make sure we notify you when they come back on.

In the mean time, if you want to know more here is a great resource on how to apply for MyCAA. Or write you Congressman or Senator and tell them to turn it back on!

Business degrees using Military Benefits

Great new site for military members looking to use their GI Bill for business degrees. It also has a nice section and the right links for MyCAA for military spouses. A business degree is definitely the right track for military members preparing to leave the service or who want to make it a career. It will provide you the knowledge and skills necessary to increase organizational effectiveness no matter where you work.

Please take a look at the New England College of Business when you get a chance - it will be well worth your time.

Military Education Benefits

The education benefits for our military are quite simply amazing - and also too numerous to really track. We started this blog to help our military members, their spouses and their families navigate the maze to fully realize their educational and career goals.

Please feel free to comment, ask questions and help us continue to make this relevant.