Posted on 01/06/2013 8:32:13 AM PST by artichokegrower
In choosing to serve her country in uniform, Hayleigh Lynn Perez knowingly accepted a nomadic life. Now the former Army sergeant says she and thousands of other veterans trying to get a higher education are being penalized for that enforced rootlessness.
Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the federal government will pick up the full in-state cost for any honorably discharged service member wishing to attend a public college or university. But because the often intricate rules governing residency differ from state to state, and even within university systems, many veterans face a bewildering battle to exercise the benefits they've already fought for.
"It is part of our contractual agreement when we join the military," says Perez, who filed a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the University of North Carolina Board of Governors after one of its schools denied her resident status. "It's been paid for — with blood and sweat and tears and deployments."
Until last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs would cover up to the highest rate charged for in-state students at a public school in that state. But under changes that took effect in August 2011, while veterans can receive up to $17,500 a year for study at private schools, the agency will pay only "the actual net cost for in-State tuition and fees assessed" by the public institution the veteran is attending.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
But if you are an illegal alien and part of the Dream Act residency is not an issue. Get in the back of the line veterans Obama is putting the illegal aliens ahead of you.
Ping to potential college-tuition issue. When I went to college, we lived in Virginia but my parents had Texas residency, and neither state would accept me as an in-state student.
Yep, and a fair number of vets voted for Obama. Them's the breaks.
Somewhere I sense Margaret Carlson smiling because soldiers ‘do just fine’ . . .
That ain’t the breaks. These are earned benefits plain and simple. I don’t care if she voted for Mickey Mouse. She earned them. End of story.
Its important for those on active duty to declare and make sure of their state of residency. I checked my paperwork out a year before I left active duty and it was screwed up and got it corrected so I could go to the college I had chosen without any question of residency. Had I not been attentive to the details I’d been a year behind at least with my plans.
Used to be “young enough to die, young enough to vote.”
Now, if you declare to a leftist-sanctioned “community organizer,” that you will vote for Obama’s nationalizing socialism, you can get immediate good-enough-to-qualify-for-residence recognition in some states.
How much do you wanna bet that more students voted for Obama, than are registered *as students* ... forget about merely being residents however concocted by the left.
The instate tuition issue is a consequence of the success of the original GI bill and government tuition programs that try to replicate that success for all citizens. Another side-effect with these programs is the rise of tuition cost and the greed of colleges to suck on the teat of government willing to supplement students. I am not against the GI Bill as it is a good program it is just people have to live with the unattended consequences.
P.S. It will be tough to legislate away this issue but one work around exists; If they can join the National Guard it will provide automatic instate tuition and more funds for college.
Bingo. It doesn't say in the article what her state of residence was for the enlisted period, as I'm guessing it's not where she wanted to go. And now she wants to go to court to blame others for her failure to handle this detail while she was in service.
Or they could leave the United States, re-enter illegally preferably in California, and apply for college admission and financial aid through the Dream Act.
Brown signs California Dream Act
October 09, 2011
Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday granted illegal immigrants access to state financial aid at public universities and community colleges, putting California once again in the center of the nation’s immigration debate.
Changed it right quick when they started considering a law to a pro rated tax on retirement pay for the number of years you claimed their state during service.
A lot of folks like to claim states without taxes so they don't have to pay them. Then at retirement they go “Sure I claim TX - but I've lived in this state 10 years. How come you can't give me in state tuition?”
I used the GI Bill after my service in Viet Nam to go to a local junior college and then on to a four year college in my state. I also worked. At the junior college I was the Veterans rep. for the night school students. And at Mississippi State I worked for the custodial service of the University setting up venues with extra chairs and tables for events, moving grand and up right pianos around, etc. Also setting up the speaker system for the Football games. Yep the stadium did not have a permanent speaker system in those days. The huge speakers sat on top of the Field House at one end of the stadium.
Yet that doesn’t change the fact that elections have consequences. Obama doesn’t give a fiddler’s damn about the military or anyone in it. A SM voting for him is actively voting against his/her self-interest, possibly even against his/her own safety and well-being. I have no sympathy.
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