Deanie Dempsey, wife of General Martin E. Dempsey the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, answered questions about spouse employment at the 2012 Spouse Summit. She recalled her own original quest to get in-state tuition when her husband was stationed in Colorado. Even though Deanie had an in-state drivers license, registered to vote, and had completed all the other requirements for in-state tuition, the registrar’s office denied her request. Deanie recalled that the clerk told her, “It isn’t a matter of residency. It is a matter of permanency.”
As if the guy who worked down the road at Hewlitt Packard was going to swear permanency to the state of Colorado before his wife went back to school!
After Deanie educated the Registrar’s Office on the error in their logic, the decision was reversed and in-state tuition granted. Deanie told the crowd: “We as military spouses don’t want special treatment. We want fair treatment.”
That is what we are actually talking about when we ask for military spouse employment and military spouse education. We aren’t asking for a handout. We are asking that the unfair practiced that dig a moat around our careers be eliminated. Then we can get on with the job.
Navy wife Jacey Eckhart is Editor of SpouseBuzz and author of I Married a Spartan?? The Care and Feeding of Your Military Marriage available on iTunes, Amazon, and on www.jaceyeckhart.com.
