The decision to attend college is often laden with anticipation over a litany of matters: admittance procedures, test scores and acceptance, transfer of credits, and for young students, life away from home for the first time.
However, far and away one of the biggest concerns regarding college — especially these days — is cost.
In recent decades, college tuition prices have skyrocketed and they continue to rise much faster than inflation and household incomes. Long gone are the days when you could obtain a four-year degree, books and housing for $20,000 or less — total.
Today, that $20,000 is the average price tag associated with one year of school at a private college or university. Public colleges and universities have been rapidly raising their rates, as well, partially because of public money budget cuts.
Some studies show that graduates today are exiting school with twice as much educational debt as students incurred a decade ago.
Clearly, the cost of education is a real hot button for many families today, especially since it can be difficult to earn a solid, middle-class income without a fair amount of education.
For military families, educational costs become even more tangled since the families are often faced with instate vs. out-of-state tuition eligibility issues.
Family Appreciates Virginia’s New Tuition Waiver
Many a military family has been faced with wanting to send their dependents to school in a state where they are not formally a resident. This can oftentimes result in high out-of-state tuition costs.
For one family based at Fort Eustis, Va., state legislation just passed has made life a whole lot better, college cost-wise.
Even though Michelle and her active cuty husband, Jim, are originally from Ohio, they now maintain legal residency status in Washington state.
If not for a new bill supporting instate tuition benefits for military families, the couple would be paying out-of-state tuition this fall for their 18-year-old son Corey, who plans to attend college in Virginia.
When Corey began considering colleges in the past year, Michelle and Jim had resigned themselves to the fact that they would be paying out-of-state tuition costs. Bearing the traditionally high out-of-state costs in mind, Corey only applied to one Virginia college.
Despite its sizeable military presence, until this year Virginia did not offer instate rates to its military personnel and their dependents. Understandably, lawmakers and military families have been pushing for several years to change this policy.
Fortunately, the legislation finally passed and will take effect this year. The tuition adjustment led to Corey’s rush to apply to other Virginia colleges, although windows for admission were quickly closing by that time.
As it stands, he will attend Old Dominion University in Norfolk at an in-state tuition rate.
Michelle says the savings resulting from receiving in-state tuition will be about $10,000 a year.
“It really makes military families feel appreciated when the states take note of this issue and change legislation to help,” she said.
The family had also experienced the college tuition issue four years earlier when oldest son Kyle, now 22, began attending Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga., while the family was stationed in the Peach State.
Georgia is considered a “green” state (military-friendly regarding instate residency designation), and was one of the first states to change its policy on tuition waivers to military students. Kyle received instate tuition status while there.
While Kyle was still in school, the family received new orders to move to Florida. Since Georgia also offers continuity of benefits, Kyle was extended the instate tuition benefit even after his parents had moved.
He took one semester off to move with his family to Florida, but decided to go back to Georgia Southern to finish school. Because he returned to school within a year, the state’s offer for instate tuition was still valid.
In many states that offer tuition waivers, this is not always the case. Oftentimes, a student must take courses consecutively, without taking any time off, to receive the instate tuition benefits.
Kyle has since graduated — happily loan-free.
Michelle has plenty of other friends around the country with college-aged children who have their own tuition eligibility-related stories. One friend, in fact, who was stationed in Colorado a couple years ago, had a daughter in college who had to emancipate from her parents to maintain her instate tuition benefits when her family was transferred out of state.
Colorado has since joined the ranks of other states like Kansas, California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia — among others — that have adopted military-friendly tuition policies.
“I feel that kids suffer monetarily if their parents are in the service,” Michelle said. “We applaud the states that are trying to make a difference for military families when it come to college tuition and residency requirements. We really appreciate it.”
Eligibility Concerns Are Common
College tuition eligibility questions are some of the most frequently heard by the Alexandria, Va.-based National Military Families Association (NMFA).
* Why can’t we get instate tuition in our state of legal residence?
* Why can’t a military family member get instate tuition from a state when we’re assigned there on military orders?
* Why must a military dependent lose their instate status mid-way through their college career if the military sponsor gets an out-of-state-assignment?
These are the issues that military families across the United States have been grappling with for years.
Fortunately, the matter has increasingly come to light and many states are working to do, or have already done, something about it.
While it’s no doubt frustrating to deal with, it helps to understand why there are no across-the-board standards when it comes to residency requirements and tuition rates for military families.
“It’s really a state issue, and the Department of Defense is federal,” said Michelle Joyner, director of communications for NMFA. “But the DOD is good about writing letters to encourage states to change, but it really has no influence over their policies.”
Joyner added that eligibility for instate tuition is an important issue for spouses, as well as dependent children.
“It’s a huge issue,” she said. “A spouse is not only faced with the instate/out-of-state decision, but he or she stands to lose a lot of credits on the move, as well.”
She said that in recent years, military service members have really taken a hold of education. In fact, a growing number of active-duty service members are embracing the Montgomery GI Bill and Tuition Assistance, which cover the cost of education and afford service members the opportunity to eventually exit the military with a good education under their belt.
Such is the case for Michael Horowitz, a captain in the U.S. Air Force. Currently stationed at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, Horowitz obtained his master’s degree through Embry Riddle Aeronautical University over five years via satellite campus courses while transitioning between two military bases and a four-month deployment to Bosnia.
Horowitz and his wife, Rebecca, were officially Florida residents, but tuition status was a non-issue, as was cost.
“The cost of college was not a financial issue with us,” Rebecca said. “Mike knew at the beginning of his career that he would need to get a master’s degree to help improve his promotion chances, so we took part in the GI Bill when he first started his active duty. Tuition assistance took care of most of the class costs. We paid very little out-of-pocket expenses.”
Currently, GI Bill benefits do not extend to military family dependents, though there is some ongoing discussion by the Army to possibly allow re-enlisting military members to transfer their GI Bill benefits to spouses in lieu of receiving a Selective Reenlistment Bonus.
In the meantime, however, states that are sensitive to college tuition cost issues and resident eligibility requirements can make a marked impact on military families trying to obtain and pay for higher education in the face of frequent state-to-state moves.
Tuition Costs Impact Quality of Life
The Army Continuing Education System (ACES) is spearheading the drive to achieve consistency in instate requirements.
Desired outcomes would result in a state providing instate tuition rates for service and family members A) within their state of legal residence, B) while in the state of assignment, and C) continuity of instate tuition once established.
On the organization’s Web site, a U.S. map shows each state color-coded as either green (state meets all three desired outcomes), amber (meets the first two desired outcomes but is missing the third, or red (meets only one or none of the desired outcomes).
It is encouraging to military families that states are increasingly paying attention to the issue and working to initiate positive changes for military members and their families who want to continue their education.
Arizona State Rep. Amanda Aguirre is one of the latest state legislators to have authored a bill that grants instate tuition to military members and their families stationed in the state.
In June, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano held a ceremonial bill signing at Marine Corp. Air Station in Yuma.
Officially passed in April, the new law allows family members of Active duty personnel who have been accepted to an Arizona college or university to be granted residency status and continue receiving instate tuition rates, even when the rest of the family has moved away on military orders. The bill also allows service members and their families to transfer all of their credits to an Arizona school from a state where they were previously stationed and enrolled as a student.
In addition, the new bill requires that Arizona pursue reciprocity agreements with other states regarding transfer credits of military personnel and their dependents. The hope, by many, is that one day there will be reciprocity agreements between all 50 states.
“There are many states already providing instate tuition to military family members including Florida, California and Virginia, all of which have large populations of active duty military personnel,” said Patricia M. Barron, deputy director of government relations for NMFA. “Military families residing in these states feel especially valued and appreciated for their contributions to the nation. By passing legislation that grants instate tuition to military families, the state goes a long way toward increasing their quality of life.”
For current information on individual state policies regarding instate tuition status, visit www.usa4militaryfamilies.org.
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