Army suspends tuition assistance program for troops

Stripes ^ | 8MAR13 | Mark Patton

[Marie]

WIESBADEN, Germany — The Army announced Friday it is suspending its tuition assistance program for soldiers newly enrolling in classes due to sequestration and other budgetary pressures.

“This suspension is necessary given the significant budget execution challenges caused by the combined effects of a possible year-long continuing resolution and sequestration,” Paul Prince, an army personnel spokesman at the Pentagon, wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. “The Army understands the impacts of this action and will re-evaluate should the budgetary situation improve.”

The Army’s announcement follows a similar move by the Marine Corps.

The Army’s tuition assistance program was available for troops to complete a high school diploma, certificate program or college or master’s degree. Under the program, the Army paid 100 percent of the tuition and authorized fees charged by a school up to established limits of $250 per semester hour or credit hour or up to $4,500 per fiscal year.

“The Secretary of the Army has approved the suspension of Tuition Assistance effective 5 p.m. (Eastern Time) on March 8, 2013. Soldiers will no longer be permitted to submit new requests for Tuition Assistance,” read a statement posted Friday on the GoArmyEd.com website. “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 statement read.

Student Veterans of America on Friday blasted the decision, saying the move could hurt troops’ post military careers and leave them in debt.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

A few years back, the Air Force adopted the policy that if you didn’t have your CCAF Associates Degree you wouldn’t get the Wing Commander’s endorsement on your annual report. This will hurt careers!

[Marie]

Yes. It does. My husband just gave a lecture to young troops that the best thing they could do to advance was to pursue a higher education. He’s working on his own degree.

This really sucks. Especially for the younger troops.

[csmusaret]

Last century when I served you could get tuition assistance while on active duty, but it came out of your VA education benefits.

[Marie]

Ignore that! The Duffel Blog is satire! (Gets me every friggin’ time, damnit.)

[blueunicorn6]

Obama said, “Nothing’s too good for the troops, so that’s what we’ll give them....nothing.”

This is going to really hurt minorities.

[Caipirabob]

The plan is to make the only motivating factor to join the military to be “gay sex”. Then force “the draft”.

[yoe]

Coloradans had better figure out fast who and what special interest is sinking their state...."“The Secretary of the Army has approved the suspension of Tuition Assistance effective 5 p.m. (Eastern Time) on March 8, 2013. Soldiers will no longer be permitted to submit new requests for Tuition Assistance,” read a statement posted Friday on the GoArmyEd.com website. “However, Soldiers currently enrolled in courses approved for Tuition Assistance are not affected, and will be allowed to complete current course enrollment(s).

AF1 should be restricted to emergency flights only not for campaigning by Obama as he has been doing since he was reelected: All Federal Employees, including congress and the senate will have no pay raise until the military, law enforcement, and border patrol ( (those people who put their lives on the line each day to protect the rest of us) have their salaries re-instated to normal levels if they have been "furloughed". Michelle Obama does not need to travel or buy over the top expensive dresses or shoes...the Obama girls should learn to put their hands over their hearts when our Flag is passing..........Obama is not going to cut government waste, it is not in his interest to do so...he is petty.

[Marie]

One thing that everyone is VERY upset about is that there was NO notice. They set the deadline, then kept it to themselves.

Had soldiers been given warning, they would’ve had the opportunity to sign up for at least one more class.

This is straight-up dirty.

[SkyPilot]

You don't understand the magnitude of the problem that the military is facing right now.

Tuition assistance is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of cuts that are being implemented and the cuts that are in process now. Sequestration is here, and the DoD has been moving the levers for weeks now in anticipation of this fiscal train wreck that it was told by both Houses and the President would never happen. The March 1st deadline pulled many triggers - some are reversible in the short term, many will not be readily reversible.

This is not all "smoke and mirrors" to elicit "pain" in the vague hope that Mr. and Mrs. Medicare Recipient will tune in and perhaps care.

The Dept of Defense is not on some phony sympathy campaign. It is reeling because of three budget assaults, all of which are driven by the President and Congress:

1. Sequestration. The military is under a very real and very deep cut of 13.5% across-the-board to its budget in the middle of a fiscal year. The DoD is 18% of the budget, but must absorb 50% of all of the Sequestration cuts. Military pay is exempt, as well as most procurement dollars. All that leaves is Operations and Maintenance (O&M), which is the life blood of the military. It pays for everything, from tuition assistance to health care to fuel to civilian salaries to bullets. Everything. O&M is the only main pile the DoD can draw from to "pay for" their 13.5% cut, which translates to an overall 30% or more drop to O&M. This means deep cuts to every program in the military.

2. The previous DoD 2011 cuts of $487 Billion. These cuts are spread over ten years and began two years ago. This was dictated by Obama and "secretly" (according to the Weekly Standard) agreed to by the Republicans in Congress. This was a massive cut to the military, and resulted in thousands of contracts canceled and thousands of civilian jobs lost up front (at least 14,000 Air Force, about 8,500 Army, and about 5,000 Navy). In the next two years, there will be huge troops let go as a result of the 2011 cuts: 179,000 Army, 36,000 Air Force, and 25,000 Marines. I don't have the figure on the Navy cuts. The military was still dealing with these cuts before Sequestration.

3. The Continuing Resolution. All military services are operating without a budget for FY13 (which we are more than halfway through). This means that the services are forced to operate with billions in shortfalls because the money is basically frozen at last year's levels and does not even address the FY13 priorities and missions that have been levied upon the DoD. The Air Force alone has a $2 Billion CR shortfall alone, and again - all of this is before the Sequestration cuts.

Congress has added some $7 Billion to the latest CR that is now over in the Senate (and they are adding programs and money to it that have nothing to do with the military, further jeopardizing its passage). The full CR money would allow the DoD to re-program some funds to O&M, but it also leaves the poison pill of Sequestration in full effect, thereby negating any positives and restoring only a fraction of what is needed.

Sequestration does nothing to solve our long term fiscal collapse. That is Entitlement driven, and the Entitlements are exempt from Sequestration. Mandatory spending (Entitlements) are now 63% of the all spending and are expanding. Even if Defense were zeroed to nothing, this is what the bleak future holds.