Due to the recent implementation of the Veterans’ Access to Care Through Choice Accountability Transparency Act of 2014, one significant change non-resident students using their GI Bill at public colleges and universities will see this year is lower tuition. As of July 1, 2015 public schools are mandated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to charge non-resident veterans (and family members using transferred Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits) resident tuition rates. Schools not in compliance will no longer receive tuition payments from the VA, or be approved to enroll students using any of the other GI Bills.
Non-Compliant States
Many states had already adopted a resident tuition policy for non-resident veterans and families even before the passage of the Veterans’ Act, however, 18 states had not, including Arkansas, California, Connecticut, D.C., Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. However in defense of the public schools in those states, they could not have changed their tuition policy even if they had wanted to. To comply with the new tuition policy, most non-compliance states had to make legislative changes to their state statutes before schools could make the change their tuition policy.
The Old Verses the New
The old tuition policy created a significant financial hardship on many recently discharged veterans who were using their Post 9/11 GI Bill in a state where they were not a resident, due to the fact that the VA only pays up to the resident rate at public schools; in most states it takes living in that state for at least one year and providing proof to establish residency. Previous choices included either paying the difference out-of-pocket or waiting a year before starting school.
Private and foreign schools fall under a different Post 9/11 GI Bill pay structure where the VA pays up to $21,084.89 per student in tuition per academic year. Because public school non-resident tuition can be up to three times or more than resident tuition, and due to no fault of the students in that state, they were paying a lot in out-of-pocket expense. Just how much?
To give a couple of examples of the difference between resident and non-resident tuition, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill charges resident full-time undergraduate students $4,296 per semester, but non-residents have to pay almost four times that amount – $16,837 – for a seat in the same class. The University of Vermont charges resident full-time undergraduate students $8,369, but the same non-residents have to pay $19,565.
With the Post 9/11 GI Bill only paying the resident rate, non-resident students were left paying $12,541 and $11,196 respectively per semester at these schools. But these were not alone; most schools have similar resident and non-resident rate differences. Now with the change, at least the playing field is level … but at whose expense?
The Fallout
The loss of revenue by schools is yet to be felt and will vary depending on the number of non-resident GI Bill students enrolled each semester, but those with a high number of students paying significantly less, and state funding on the decline in most states, will see a significant impact on their bottom-line. Some will be able to absorb the loss; others may have to seek additional sources of revenue to make up the difference or make changes to their education programs. Time will tell.
The Lesser of Two Evils
Because complying with the provisions of the Veterans’ Act was voluntary, and if it means less revenue for schools, why would states choose to have their schools comply? Because the change in policy dictated schools not in compliance would no longer be approved by the VA to accept any GI Bill student – resident or non-resident.
In the end, most schools could not afford to lose the GI Bill money as it is big business – an estimated 900,000 students will be using the GI Bill – especially in areas having large military populations. It came down to states making the decision if they want their schools to lose a little or a lot. Most chose to minimize losses and comply.
