Base Realignment and Closure: An Opportunity to Reassess DoD's Civilian Education and Training Infrastructure

To maintain the high quality of its civilian employees, the Department of Defense (DoD) off ers opportunities for education, training, and professional development (ET&D) both within and outside the DoD. Many ET&D institutions are located on military bases. Th us, when bases and other infrastructure are reconfi gured through the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process, ET&D institutions can experience complementary change, including physical relocation, governance change, or organizational restructuring. During past BRAC rounds, although there was not necessarily an explicit focus on ET&D infrastructure, base realignment and closure decisions had dramatic eff ects on ET&D institutions that serve DoD civilians as well as military personnel. Some of these institutions welcomed change; others resisted it. Th ese varying responses raise questions about the degree to which ET&D institutions, their sponsors, and related systemlevel stakeholders—e.g., the BRAC Commission, the Offi ce of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD (P&R))—can or should infl uence decisions regarding effi ciency improvement initiatives such as BRAC. Th ese issues are especially relevant with a new round of BRAC currently under way. For this round, the Offi ce of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) assembled an Education and Training Joint Cross-Service Group, which provided recommendations to the BRAC Commission. However, the group’s recommendations focused mainly on military education and training—specifi cally, fl ight training, military professional development, and specialized skill training for military personnel. As in previous rounds, civilian education and training has not been an explicit focus of the review. To shed light on issues relevant to this area, recent RAND research examined the ways in which selected ET&D institutions have been aff ected by and have responded to past effi ciency improvement initiatives such as BRAC. Of particular interest in the current BRAC round are the lessons learned about the ways in which systemlevel stakeholders can help facilitate the process of change for ET&D institutions that serve DoD civilians. From a policy perspective, system-level stakeholders with purview over multiple ET&D providers, sponsors, and customers are important because of their ability to look across sites and identify goals and objectives that address broad, high-level issues.