U.S. military families in Bahrain would be able to use government funds to attend a different school in the country, instead of attending the Defense Department's Bahrain School, under a pilot program incorporated into the House version of a defense authorization bill. (Shannon Renfroe/Stars and Stripes)
Some U.S. military families in Bahrain would be able to use government funds to spend on private schools under a proposed pilot program backed by conservative lawmakers in Congress, who are accusing the Defense Department school in the country of falling short.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., sponsored the proposal as part of an amendment to the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which the chamber passed last week.
“Because of the deep concern of parents at the Bahrain school, which has been struggling with poor teaching, flooding and even recently celebrated a notorious antisemite, we have developed a pilot program,” Banks said in May during a House Armed Services Committee meeting, in which he detailed the reasons for his amendment.
A separate amendment by Banks included in the bill prohibits the establishment of any office or committee empowered to recommend or implement diversity, equity and inclusion policies at any DODEA school.
In recent years, Department of Defense Education Activity schools and the military in general have landed in the middle of America’s culture wars, with most disagreements falling along partisan lines.
Conservatives have blasted DODEA on a range of “woke” issues, such as diversity, equity and inclusion, and student access to books focused on transgender matters.
Efforts to curtail diversity-focused programming, along with Banks’ plan for a pilot program in Bahrain, are likely to face resistance in the Senate, which is at work on its own version of the NDAA. For the Bahrain pilot program to take effect, it must make its way into a reconciled bill and be signed by the president.
The program would allow up to 30 students to attend international schools in Bahrain, using the same program accessed by State Department diplomats overseas.
Service members and Defense Department civilians would be eligible to take part in the initiative. Banks said parents in Bahrain have been “repeatedly ignored, belittled and bullied” by DODEA administrators in Bahrain, Europe and Washington.
“And now they’re being treated as second class to the State Department because their parents chose to serve in the military, not to be diplomats,” Banks said.
DODEA Europe declined to comment Tuesday, saying it would be inappropriate to weigh in during the legislative process. However, the district did say that standardized test scores at the Bahrain school are above national averages and point to a high-performing student body.
Banks and other conservatives also blasted the Bahrain school recently for promoting Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour in conjunction with Arab American Heritage Month.
The Bahrain Middle High School in an April social media posting touted her as someone who has campaigned for civil rights and social justice issues.
Sarsour is the co-founder of MPOWER Change, a Muslim online organizing platform, and she served for about 16 years as executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. Sarsour also backs a movement to boycott and divest from Israel and has faced accusations of antisemitism, something she has denied.
“The schools we trust to educate our serve members’ families should NOT be giving a platform to Jewish hate,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., wrote in an X post that came in response to the Bahrain school’s promotion of Sarsour.
School officials subsequently removed the social media posting.
