As goes FIU, so goes the country... (FIU has proudly offered our nations veterans in-state tuition waiver for the first year of enrollment, regardless of the veterans home state.) From our partners at APLU: I write to tell you that the House of Representatives is scheduled to bring a bill to the floor on Monday evening that would require in-state tuition for certain veterans (Section 4 of HR.357, the GI Bill Tuition Fairness Act as amended). The bill will be brought up under an expedited process referred to as “suspension of the rules.” Bills brought up in this manner are generally bipartisan, non-controversial measures that are expected to pass easily. In brief, the bill deals with veterans who currently reside in a state but are officially residents of another state. In other words, this revised bill would require all public higher education institutions to charge in-state tuition to a veteran residing in the state of that institution, even if that veteran is officially a resident of another state. This requirement would remain in place for three years after the person is discharged from the military, assuming he or she continues to reside in the state where the institution is located. The in-state tuition policy would apply beginning in July 2016 and would only cover the veteran (not dependents). It appears that a consequence of this bill would be that public higher education institutions would no longer qualify for the out-of-state federal benefit of the GI Bill Yellow Ribbon Program since the veterans/students involved here would no longer be considered out-of state. A much broader bill was previously under consideration that would have required lifetime in-state tuition to veterans regardless of their actual state residency. Such a provision might be considered again as the legislative process unfolds. As you know, historically state governments and/or state institutions have made the decisions concerning residency for tuition purposes because those decisions are effectively allocations of state and/or state institution resources. I note that nearly 30 states have already passed or are considering enacting legislation to provide in-state residency waivers to veterans at their public colleges and universities. And in other states, several individual campuses and university systems offer in-state waivers to their veteran student populations. In principle, we believe that individual states and/or state institutions should retain their autonomy to determine in-state residency status and we conveyed that viewpoint to House and Senate leaders last year. Nevertheless, we recognize the strong and bipartisan congressional desire to support veterans in their efforts to pursue higher education degrees at public universities and colleges across the country. Moreover, there frequently is an anomaly in the way residency is determined for veterans of the armed services. As of now we expect the bill to pass the House. We will continue to watch this legislative process and will report back with key updates.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 02:51:34 +0000
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