Military spouse training program under scrutiny

By Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY

Updated

WASHINGTON ? A California school that specializes in dog-obedience training is the No. 5 recipient of U.S. government funds set aside to help military spouses advance their careers. Yet it is not accredited or subject to federal education oversight, new congressional data show.

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  By Mark Greenberg, for USA TODAY

  Dana Kendall, a 29-year-old Navy wife, plays with her pit bull Toni in the living room of their home in San Antonio, Texas. Toni, a rescued pit bull was trained by Kendall to be a certified service dog.

By Mark Greenberg, for USA TODAY

Dana Kendall, a 29-year-old Navy wife, plays with her pit bull Toni in the living room of their home in San Antonio, Texas. Toni, a rescued pit bull was trained by Kendall to be a certified service dog.

The for-profit Animal Behavior College received $2.7 million from the federal government in fiscal year 2011 through the Defense Department's My Career Advancement Accounts, an analysis by the Senate education committee shows. Launched in 2009, the program gives spouses of some enlisted personnel and junior officers up to $4,000 over three years to earn certificates, licenses or associate degrees.

The goal is to help spouses, who frequently move, build marketable skills that can be used wherever they live. Currently, 26% of military spouses are unemployed.

The program is "a terrific proposal designed to help meet President Obama's goal of America once again having the highest proportion of college-educated citizens in the world by 2020," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "But taxpayer-funded ? dog-walking classes do not help meet that goal."

He is calling on the Defense Department to "step up oversight" of schools participating in the program.

About 40% of schools that receive taxpayer funds through the spouse career-training program, including the Animal Behavior College, do not grant degrees so aren't subject to scrutiny on completion and student loan-default rates. The schools offer courses from selling real estate to animal massage and teaching yoga.

Animal Behavior College's owner, Steve Appelbaum, said he has fulfilled all of the Defense Department's rules for participation. He said he understands why the program might raise eyebrows, but "this isn't some fly-by-night business."

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