Students who attend Pentagon-operated schools on or near military bases are among those feeling the effects of the government shutdown, which started just after midnight Wednesday and will leave some federal employees without paychecks and national parks partially closed.
The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, which operates 161 schools on or near military bases worldwide, has halted all extracurricular activities, including sports, for more than 67,000 students.
Dylan McDonald, a 17-year-old senior and co-captain of his soccer team at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell Army base, fears he may have played the last game of his high school career after the government shutdown halted all extracurriculars. He and his mother worry that missing next week’s district tournament, could hurt his chances of being recruited to play in college.
“I put countless hours and blood, sweat and tears into this, and to not be able to finish properly based off of something that is uncontrollable to myself and my teammates and our families, yet still so directly affects us, is truly devastating,” Dylan said of the shutdown’s impact.
To further complicate matters, missing the tournament could also cost him a spot at this year’s local all-district team, a roster of top players that he’s been a part of the past two seasons.
Dylan and his mother, Jennifer McDonald, are among the eight parents and students at DoDEA schools who told NBC News how the government shutdown is affecting them, describing cancellations of sports practices and games, as well as afterschool tutoring and student theater productions.
Katie Fox, whose husband is a retired Marine, said her 15-year-old son’s homecoming dance at the DoDEA-operated Stuttgart High School in Germany was supposed to be this weekend. They already paid for tickets, his outfit and provided donations to help support the event. Then, due to the shutdown, it was postponed to later this month — assuming a funding bill is passed by then.
She said she’s frustrated, because Congress could pass a targeted appropriations bill to allow for extracurricular activities to continue.
“That’s my biggest frustration,” she said. “I know that there’s a solution, but it’s like we’re not being heard.”
Fox added that student athletes at DoDEA schools abroad are especially affected when sports games are canceled, because, unlike in the U.S., they can only compete against other DoDEA schools, meaning there are typically fewer games overall.
Maribel Jarzabek, whose husband is in the Air Force and based in Belgium, said her daughter Cassie, a junior at the DoDEA-operated SHAPE High School, only has six cross-country meets a year before the championship meet, compared to U.S. schools’ cross-country teams, which have around eight to 10 meets before the championships.
This means that Cassie, who is favored to win this year’s DoDEA European championship in cross-country, her mom said, has fewer chances to impress college recruiters than students with longer seasons and more chances to compete.
Cassie said she’s afraid the championships, which are scheduled for later this month, could also be affected, which could be devastating for her because they are the most important for recruiters.
“As a military kid, we already have to deal with the pressures of moving every couple years and starting completely fresh, not having any friends,” Cassie said. “So this is just another thing added on to the adversity we already have to overcome. It just really hurts.”
Crystal Noga — whose son Aiden Ward is a senior and a co-captain of Fort Campbell High School’s soccer team alongside Dylan McDonald — said that in the past, she has sent videos of her kids playing sports to their dad when he has been deployed overseas, and now some kids’ parents could be deprived of that, too.
She said if the team is forced to forfeit their first district game against their rivals next week, she won’t have any other chances to see Aiden play soccer in high school.
“Not only is it taken from them, it’s taken from me as a parent,” Noga said. “Once he leaves high school, that’s it. They’re thrown into the real world. So you’re taking away my last opportunity as well to see my kid be a kid.”
In the meantime, team captains like Dylan, Aiden and Cassie have to organize practices for their teams on their own, and they have to emphasize that they are not mandatory, their parents said. At the same time, most of their parents are living on the paycheck they received this week until the government passes a spending bill.
As Democrats and Republicans in Congress blame each other for the shutdown, the parents who spoke with NBC News all shared a similar sentiment: They don’t care which party is at fault — they want this fixed for their kids.
“If you can’t come to an agreement, putting the burden on other people’s lives, whether it be their paycheck, whether it be sports, whether it be anything, is absolutely unjust,” Noga said.
