Sequester politics forces vets out of school

Breaking news this morning, the US Army (and presumably the other branches will follow) has announced that current budget cuts have forced the Army to discontinue tuition assistance for all Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard soldiers.  While the GI Bill is as yet unaffected, thousands of veterans and men and women in uniform rely on Federal Tuition Assistance to attend college, myself included.

The following message is posted on the GoArmyEd website, which processes all tuition funding requests and tracks students progress.

ARMY TUITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM SUSPENDED
3/8/2013 9:50:00 AM   --  3/11/2013 10:50:00 AM

The Secretary of the Army has approved the suspension of Tuition Assistance on March 8, 2013. Soldiers will no longer be permitted to submit new requests for Tuition Assistance. However, Soldiers currently enrolled in courses approved for Tuition Assistance are not affected, and will be allowed to complete current course enrollment(s).

This change in the Army Tuition Assistance program applies to all Soldiers, including the Army National Guard and Army Reserves. The Army understands the impacts of this decision and will re-evaluate the decision if the budgetary situation improves.

In the interim, Soldiers can continue to access their GI Bill benefits, if applicable, either the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) or the Post 9/11 GI Bill, or use other funding sources (i.e. grants, scholarships, or Army National Guard Soldiers using state Tuition Assistance where available).

Soldiers should contact their local education centers with questions and to get updates. Updated information will also be posted to www.goarmyed.com.

When the White House cancelled tours to try to make the sequester hurt, most people laughed and some decried the school kids who would ultimately lose out.  Now the White House is using the sequester to directly attack the benefits that we veterans have earned through multiple deployments and combat tours.

It is also noteworthy that the announcement to cut tuition funding comes just after the VFW spent a week in DC meeting with White House officials and members of Congress.  No mention of these funding cuts were raised with the VFW.

This is cheap and dirty politics at its worst, and int he words of an unnamed White House staffer, I think they will come to regret this announcement.