The Virginian-Pilot
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The Pentagon said Wednesday its decision to suspend a popular tuition-assistance plan for military spouses resulted from a sharp increase in applications.
A week ago, the Defense Department announced a temporary halt to the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account operations with a notice on its Web site that merely said it was to be reviewed.
The suspension was immediate, and no notice was given to people participating in the program, a news release from Rep. Glenn Nye’s office said. There’s still no word when the program might resume.
In the statement Wednesday, the Defense Department said the halt came as a result of an unprecedented sixfold spike in enrollments during January that almost reached the budget limit.
The program launched quietly in March 2009, and more than 136,000 military spouses applied. About 98,000 are enrolled in courses or have been approved for tuition assistance.
“These applications were overwhelming the system intended to support the program and almost reached the budget threshold,” Tommy T. Thomas, deputy undersecretary of defense for the Pentagon’s office of military community and family policy, said in the news release.
Although no new financial-assistance applications are being accepted, counseling support will remain available at local installations and spouses can receive assistance using other government resources, the statement said.
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programs should not be for spouses
Tuition etc should only be for the service member him/herself. They got carried away with this one. Okay, i can see if a mem ber passes his GI bill down to his kids. This only makes for sham marriages where poor members are conned into marriage just so the spouse can get an almost free education. They need to stop screwing with benefits. go back to the old WWII era GI bill and leave it alone. Give spouses in state tuition rates but leave it at that.
Interesting
I am wondering why further studies were not preformed prior to the start of the program to see just exactly how high demand would be. I am glad they are still having the counseling available. However, as one reader suggests, they are not attempting to undermine the spouses efforts because as a military spouse, and I know many before myself were able to get themselves through school without this fund. While sure it would have been great to have gotten a nice little break in the amount we had to borrow, that same education is still possible. I hope in the future they are willing to provide more funding when the government can afford it, because it does encourage some people with greedy spouses to try and better their education. I say this because my own sister's ex husband refused to let her go to school on the premises that loans would have to be repaid and it would be his money initially repaying it.
Closing down program because it is too popular?!
This seems to be another example of the support this administration gives to the military. The spouses of our military personnel play a critical support role. To undermine their efforts to improve their (economic) situation is unconscionable.