1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

DODEA is making huge mistakes. DOGE is making it worse. Milspouses are getting hit hard as are our children. I’m a milspouse in Japan, a DODEA teacher. Or shall I say “was” since DOGE/trump gutted DoD funding and DODEA was forced to eliminate positions to save pennies. Not extraneous headquarters/ overpaid administrative positions, but they chose to eliminate student-facing staff like me (almost all milspouses) to cram more students in larger classes. I love my job. My evaluations are spotless, reviews are pristine, my students/parents have all vouched for me in hopes of my staying on. But I was still laid off. When there was a new position open I could’ve filled, it had to be given to a specialists DODEA chose to lay off in the next round of cuts. These second cuts where DODEA chose to eliminate the assessors who assist our school in meeting the deadlines for Special Ed. These assessors are already overwhelmed. We have 2 for our school, the largest in DODEA Pacific, 1300 students on average at our primary/ elementary school. So now that work will be foisted on our SpEd/ Speech teams which are already over burdened with not enough staff. DODEA also chose to eliminate our Ed Techs (aka the computer teachers). These the teachers help fulfill the “21st Century Ed” mandate, plus help with federally required testing. So now we have no one to do that at all. We will still be required to do it, to teach technology, but we won’t have the staff to do so and it will be shoved on classroom teachers. The very same teachers they’ve just piled more students on. DODEA already can’t get enough teachers/ support staff to come to Japan due to the lack of health care, they depend on milspouses to fill in. But now they’re laying us all off. More teachers left last year than ever before, less applications were sent in, more gaps remain open. Long-term subs are shoved in gaps while they scramble to get teachers. DODEA HQ didn’t give principals a heads up, waited until the last minute to send a mass email just before the CONUS schools closed for the long weekend, we in Japan were waking up. They didn’t ask the admins/staff for input. They just sent a last minute email saying layoffs were coming, RIF emails came over Memorial Day weekend. DODEA needs to restructure. It didn’t need to cut most important parts of its structure. Now it will collapse under the weight of those who make $200K+ to push papers. The leftover teachers will be crushed. Is the goal is to make living OCONUS miserable so families refuse, eventually making it all geo bach billets? If there are no families, they can eliminate DODEA to offer “choice” to remainders. That might be feasible in EU, but not JPN. You must be fluent in Japanese, burden falls on families to provide language tutoring/translation. Making it impossible for most enlisted to send kids off base, so Japan is less desirable to ADSM. They can’t serve worrying about their families. We deserve better.