Bill reinstates military tuition assistance, but immediate effect on KU students unclear
We told you earlier this month about how military tuition assistance for active-duty, reserve or National Guard members was suspended, and a few KU students were already feeling the effects.
We don’t like to leave you hanging here, so here’s the conclusion (I think) to that story. The budget bill signed by President Obama on Tuesday included an amendment to restore that tuition assistance program, which 64 KU students are making use of right now.
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday that it’s still not clear exactly when students will be able to enroll in new classes making use of the assistance, but it should be soon.
Students at KU who want to use it for summer or fall classes probably hope things move fast, I would guess, as they might want to enroll in those classes now. The tuition assistance application process is something that really just happens between the students and the Department of Defense — KU doesn’t play a big role — so students will need to check with the education officer in their unit to figure out what exactly they can do now, said Brian McDow of the university registrar’s office.
I also checked with Greg Freix, who directs a School of Business master’s program for officers stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Earlier this month he said that a few of his students already hadn’t been able to get their usual TA funding because of the program’s odd schedule. He tells me now that he hasn’t gotten word how the reinstatement will affect those students, exactly.
That budget bill that the president signed, by the way, also included those cuts to political science research that we were talking about earlier this week.
Give us more stories, which we will dutifully conclude at some point, by sending your KU news tips to merickson@ljworld.com .