With the school year just around the corner, Congress passed a bill just in time to save a large number of student veterans. One of the specifications of the “new” Post 9/11 GI Bill is that there is a cap on the amount of tuition the GI Bill will pay a private university. That cap is $17,500. One of the biggest points of contention for this new rule was its affect on students who had already been accepted or enrolled in a private university with tuition over this cap. Bill HR 1383 protects around 30,000 student veterans in the states of Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.
The main point of importance for these students is the date: January 4th, 2011. The new GI Bill law was signed into effect on January 4th of this year. Any veteran who was already accepted into or enrolled at a private university on or before January 4th, is safe from the tuition cap. For these veterans, their tuition will continue to be paid as before.
Democratic Representative Bob Filner expresses that prior to this date, the academic world and veterans organizations all knew this change was going to happen. Therefore he is firm that the January 4th cut off date is appropriate. Alternatively, Republican Representative Jeff Miller says that he hopes more students will find their situation unchanged because of the allowance for students who were only accepted, and not just those who were also already enrolled in classes.
Photo thanks to Scoobie1993 under creative commons license on Flickr.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Will the student still receive their monthly stipend after they have reached the tuition cap of 17,500?