Okinawa Joe comments

Posted in: Gov't to request American schools in Okinawa accept Japanese pupils See in context

There are already provisions for Local National dependents to attend as a Category 4 tuition paying student, so why is Minister Kono making such a great fanfare to request something which essentially already exists?

This appears to be political posturing with little real benefit to those who Minister Kono are pledging to assist - Okinawan children and ultimately the Okinawan economy. 

http://www.dodea.edu/enrollment-categories.cfm

This may sound like a feel good story, though in practice it is counterintuitive to the proposed goals ... For any Okinawan or Japanese family who can afford to send their children to a DoDEA school at $27,000.00 USD / year, they can receive a comparable English language immersion experience from a school such as AmerAsian School Okinawa (AASO), Okinawa Christian School International (OCSI) or Amicus at any where from 1/10th to 1/2 of the cost of DoDDS. While DoDDS offers a top notch English only education, is not accredited for Japanese children who attend for their grades to be recognized in Japanese public schools. The National or Prefectural government would do much more for the community by supporting the local Okinawa international schools who actually need the financial support (DoDEA is well funded) and can give the children a much broader education experience with both English and Japanese immersion. If it is the intent for the GOJ to subsidize the cost, the money would go much further, help more children (up to ten fold!) and ultimately benefit the Okinawan economy by supporting local International schools by either paying tuitions for needy families, or subsidizing teacher salaries and school programs. As a US Government employee, I have free access to DoDEA schools, yet we elect to pay out of pocket to instead send our children ages 10 and 14 to AmerAsian School of Okinawa (AASO) as they receive complete English and Japanese immersion, fully accredited by the Japanese board of education, which permits them to attend Japanese or American public High schools. They are at peer level in Japanese language arts, and well above peer level in English language arts.

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