Some members of the military who were counting on the Pentagon to finance their degrees will have to look elsewhere for the money—or postpone their education until the federal-government shutdown ends.
The Defense Department said this week that it would not grant tuition assistance for classes starting on or after October 1 until Congress passed a spending bill for the Pentagon.
While the individual branches of the armed forces have some discretion over how they run their education programs, both the Army and the Navy have already announced that they will follow suit. The Marine Corps will continue processing applications for aid, to the extent possible, but will not issue awards until a budget is in place, a spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Defense Department said that students and spouses who had already been approved for aid would receive it, but an Army spokesman said that no funds would be awarded during the shutdown.
“The bottom line is there is no money,” said the Army spokesman, Lt. Col. S. Justin Platt.
Roughly 20,000 soldiers have sought tuition assistance for classes starting during the 2014 fiscal year, which began on Tuesday, and 2,000 are scheduled to begin sometime this week, he said.
The Army is recommending that students not start classes until after the shutdown ends, saying that they should not count on being reimbursed once it is over.
The Defense Department provides up to $4,500 a year in tuition aid to active-duty members of the military, and up to $2,000 a year to their spouses.
Colonel Platt said that many students would be able to make up the loss with their benefits. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has said it will continue to process claims and payments for the education benefits until existing funds are exhausted, probably in late October.
But Jim Sweizer, vice president for military relations at the American Public University System, where October classes start next Monday, said that’s “easier said than done.” He said he expects that there will be delays in the processing of GI benefits, given that Veterans Affairs, like other federal agencies, has furloughed many of its employees.
“Our students are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to what lawmakers are doing,” he said.
On Monday, Columbia College of Missouri announced that it would defer tuition charges for the term that begins on October 21 while military students seek other funds. Students who cannot find other ways to finance their education will have the option to withdraw without penalty or to enroll in an extended six-month payment plan, with the first payment due on November 22.
