James Kimbrough has been teaching eight years in the Hampton City Schools in Virginia. The retired lieutenant colonel began teaching after a 22 year Army career.
“We teach in the Army every day, helping them be better versions of themselves,” he said. “Instead of at 18 after they've enlisted, now I'm catching them anywhere from 14 on up to 18 when they start their adult journeys.”
Looking back, he said the most difficult part of becoming a teacher was navigating the process of getting a license and finding a job. Kimbrough was mentored through the process by the federal Troops To Teachers program, which has a state-run office at William & Mary, the university in Virginia. They guided him through the certification process and revamped his resume to help him translate his decades of military experience, he said.
“They helped me with interview skills,” he said. “They constantly told me, ’Hey, look, here's a job fair. Here's their opening,’ etc. Luckily enough, I got a phone call from them one day that said, ‘Hey, you ought to consider looking at Hampton.”’
Despite success stories like Kimbrough's, the Troops to Teachers program has struggled to maintain funding and federal support.
When it started in 1992, it was run by the U.S. Department of Education. It was turned over to the Department of Defense ten years ago, but a Government Accountability Office study found that the Pentagon failed to promote the program and frequently changed the rules. Participation began to decline.
According to the 2023 GAO study, the program churned out 7,718 teachers in 1994, but that number dropped to 1,450 by 2020. Many states also dropped their placement offices, dramatically lowering the program's reach.
The Department of Defense briefly shut down the program in 2020. Congress rescued it in the 2021 budget and has passed legislation authorizing it into 2027. But the legislation provides no funding, and the Pentagon has done little to keep the program going.
“I think they've just been unaware of the program and unaware of the help that's needed,” said Ed Gawlik, a veteran and teacher, who is the part time military liaison for the Virginia office.
Virginia officials said they haven’t heard from anyone at the national program since May, when the last federal money ended.
Gawlik's office received a small allocation of state money, and he still goes to local bases to find new candidates who are leaving the military and want to become classroom teachers. Virginia is one of the last state offices still open.
As a counselor, he keeps track of future clients who are still in the military and who may soon be on their own, he said.
“If you go online and try to do it yourself, they can be fully confused and frustrated, and that doesn't help to retain you to become a teacher,” he said.
Virginia's state money will run out in the next several months, and its Troops to Teachers office will close without additional funding, said Karen Hogue, interim director of the program, which is run through the Virginia Department of Education Program Center.
“I would love to see the national Troops To Teachers office return in its entirety. I also would be thrilled to also have the state fund our office,” she said. “I feel like for so long, we have been in this kind of whole holding pattern. We're just kind of keeping a skeleton crew.”
The American Legion lobbied to rescue the national program when it was shut down by the Department of Defense. The Legion's senior policy associate, Kevin O'Neil, recalls that the program used to offer $10,000 grants to help people obtain their teaching license.
“We have a lot of former military members that are leaders, that are supervisors, that have life experience. They've traveled the world, in many cases. And these are just qualities, I think, that would be excellent for a teacher,” O’Neil said.
The American Legion continues to lobby for the program on Capitol Hill, but so far, the program has not been extended beyond next year.
“There just doesn't seem to be an interest on DoD’s part to better advertise this,” O’Neil said.
The GAO found 31 states still had local offices in 2018, but the number has continued to decline as federal funding dried up. Some websites declare the program has ended, though the program still has an official military website, which mainly refers troops to other teaching programs in the states. Some of those links were dead.
“The states have played the most critical role in this,” O'Neil said. “However, if the transitioning service member is not made aware of this program, it's unlikely they're going to go back to their home state and just happen upon it.”
The Pentagon lost access to some of the program's data during the shut down, making it difficult to judge how effective the program has been, according to the GAO.
The national office for Troops to Teachers responded to a request for comment by saying “the program is currently operating with minimum staff and resources” and could not offer someone to interview.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
