Education support stops in Iraq, officials say - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Education support stops in Iraq, officials say

Education support services have been cut back in Iraq since Oct. 1 due to a botched funding request.

While classes continue, the funding problems have interrupted services that help troops with tasks like signing up for classes, dropping classes, and preparing for and taking tests required for future education programs.

“My soldiers who need [General Technical] score improvement classes are unable to receive this valuable training at this time. I am truly disappointed that we are not receiving the support we deserve,” Sgt. 1st Class Ronald L. Pierce said in an e-mail Thursday from Joint Base Balad.

An Army official in Iraq said on Thursday said he expected the funding problem to be resolved on Friday.

“Education Support Staff should be able to return to work immediately afterward,” said Army Lt. Col. Gerard Mathern, an officer who oversees education programs in Iraq.

In the meantime, “limited counseling services” are available and officers are working with students “to mitigate issues” stemming from the current cut backs, Mathern said.

The reduction in services was “due to delays in the preparation of funding and contract documents,” Mathern said.

One counselor at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, told Military Times that problems have been cropping up ever since the funding stopped several weeks ago.

“We have already heard of students getting charged for courses they have tried to drop without guidance, and many other issues are still coming to light,” Thomas Sasko, a local program manager at the Blackjack Education Center in Balad, wrote in an e-mail Wednesday.

In addition, a slew of e-mails and memos from early October, obtained by Military Times, shows many education professionals in Iraq complaining about the funding suspension in early October.

“I wish I had better news to give you,” wrote Michael Coyne, a manager of deployed sites for Central Texas College of Europe, in an Oct. 6 e-mail to more than a dozen officials involved with education services in Iraq.

“Resource Management in Iraq will not [provide Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request] funds until the government budget has been approved in Washington; we have no information as to when this will be rectified,” wrote Coyne.

Coyne’s e-mail said funding for Kuwait also was affected.

Coyne declined further comment when contacted by e-mail and referred questions to the dean of Central Texas College Europe, which provides education programs in Iraq under a contract with the Army.

Sasko said actual classes have not been affected because they’re paid through separate contracts with Central Texas College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and University of Maryland University College-Europe.

Meanwhile, education support staffers are left to “stay in their C-Huts/CHU’s without compensation until the funding resumes,” Sasko said, referring to the austere on-base housing in Iraq.