Posted on Apr 23, 2021
Schooled not scammed in military tuition assistance: Choosing the right education and training program for you. Part I
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Part I of a two-part series. Read part 2 here: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l
There is a lot of information out there on using your education benefits once you leave the military. But what if you want to get a jump on your education and training while you’re still serving? Which choice of schools is right for you?
“The most important thing you can do is choose your school up front very carefully,” said Aniela Szymanski, senior director for Legal Affairs and Military Policy at Veterans Education Success, a nonpartisan group that advocates for military-connected and Veteran students.
This is excellent advice whether you’re pursuing an education as a service member or Veteran. But if you’re in the military, there are important differences to consider in benefits, legal protections, service rules and other areas as you navigate the decision process.
Even though the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) screens and requires each school to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) before they are allowed to accept DOD Tuition Assistance (TA) dollars, that doesn’t mean they are all the same.
DOD’s list includes institutions from the public, nonprofit and for-profit sector. Most analysts would agree that the former two types of institutions tend to produce better student outcomes. But for-profits can be viable options, provided they meet your college and career goals and, based on the data, live up to their promises to you.
It’s true that some for-profit education institutions with large service member and Veteran populations have been fined, settled with or been shuttered by federal or state regulators, according to a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee report begun in 2012 and updated in 2015. Reasons for these sanctions included aggressive recruitment and debt-collection practices, falsification of job placement data and issuance of predatory loans.
A recently passed American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes a provision designed to close a legal loophole that allowed some of these abuses to take place, but it doesn’t take effect until 2023.
You can also find more than a few public and nonprofit institutions on the U.S. Department of Education’s “heightened cash monitoring” list, which means they face some type of risk of failure.
To help service members evaluate education institutions and their offerings right now, we review available benefits and services and pose key questions you can consider before choosing a school. (In part II: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l, take advantage of free resources to verify school offerings, prepare to apply and get legal services if you think you’ve been misled or scammed.)
Review Military Tuition Assistance Benefits and Ask Key Questions
1. Know which benefits and services are available. DOD-approved benefits and programs are available to further your professional and personal goals. As noted, DOD both screens schools and provides you with TA to apply toward a degree. Here’s a summary of DOD benefits and military services:
DOD Tuition Assistance (TA): DOD TA is generally available to eligible service members at a rate of $250 per semester hour, capped at $4,500 per year. You can apply TA to in-person or virtual classes. However, check with your service branch and installation education counselors for eligibility rules and procedures, and see information below on factors involved in selecting the best school.
Tuition Assistance Top-Up: If the school you want to attend is more than the DOD TA cap, you could qualify for Top-Up assistance. However, as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) notes on its website, use of this program could consume your post-military GI Bill benefits. “You’ll want to think carefully about your situation before applying for benefits through this program,” VA says. VA recommends that you talk with your education counselor and use its GI Bill Comparison Tool to determine the best course of action. Details: https://rly.pt/3tQON7G.
Community college and in-state tuition rates: You may not need to tap into much of your DOD TA or any Top-Up assistance if you explore learning options available through the many community colleges on DOD’s list. Community colleges are generally state-accredited and provide course credits that are generally easy to transfer to a state public or private university later, Szymanski said. Keep in mind that if you’re on active duty, you’re also eligible for the in-state tuition rate at public colleges and universities in the state where you live or are permanently stationed.
Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES): This DOD service provides military members across the U.S. Armed Forces with free education and career-planning programs. “Our programs can help military members at every stage of their military career, from coming out of basic training and your tech school all the way through till your transition,” said Erin Roberts, a DANTES public affairs official, during a recent webinar reviewing some of these learning services. Details: https://rly.pt/3sGd13f
Service education counselors. Obtain advice on your education and career pathway from an education counselor through your service branch. Details: Find one at https://rly.pt/3nfjXmB.
2. Key questions on school selection. “If you’re a student,” Szymanski said, “you want the most money going to your education as possible.” But picking and choosing from among DOD’s 2,500 screened institutions, which offer programming at 9,425 locations, is not easy. Ask these questions as you compare and contrast schools and offerings:
How much money is the school spending on instruction? Veterans Education Success looked at this question in a 2019 report, “Should Colleges Spend the GI Bill on Veterans’ Education or Late Night TV Ads?” The report found a bundle of 10 schools getting the most Post-9/11 GI Bill tuition and fees since that program was created. Three of the 10 schools with most of the funding, the report found, spent 15% or less of your tuition and fees on instruction, concentrating spending on telemarketing and advertising to service members and Veterans. Details: Review the findings at https://rly.pt/3sGden3.
Is the school at risk of failure? See if the school you’re considering is on that Education Department heightened cash monitoring (HCM) list. That could mean it’s facing loss of accreditation, has financing issues or is at risk of another regulatory compliance issue. In a comparison of just the first 25 institutions on the DOD “screened” list and the HCM list, three schools appeared on both. Details: Compare your school lists at https://rly.pt/3epOVEF and https://rly.pt/32ItLfG.
Is the school facing law enforcement action? Veterans Education Success tracks which schools are subject to law enforcement action for predatory behavior and which schools are subject to repeat law enforcement settlements. Details: See https://rly.pt/3sLktKm and https://rly.pt/3sK7tol.
Which type of accreditation or licensure criteria does the school have? It’s important to check that when you graduate, you’ll be eligible to work and study in your field. Most agree that employers prefer to see degrees from schools with regional versus national accreditation; however, DOD accepts schools with both types of accreditation. Federal law does require schools participating in the DOD TA program to meet state licensure or certification requirements. Details: For more on this topic, see the report at https://rly.pt/3epeNk0.
Do you need a student loan? If you’re in the service and otherwise eligible, you can receive $4,500 from the military per year toward higher education. If a school is asking to take a loan out in your name, it’s a “red flag,” Szymanski said. To keep watch on all student loans opened in your name, Szymanski recommended creating an account at https://rly.pt/3ng4aUK and checking it often. “Be vigilant,” she said. Details: Read about your federal student loan benefits and rights at https://rly.pt/3dIySTa.
Learn more
In part II of this article: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l, take advantage of free resources to verify school offerings, prepare to apply and find legal services if you’ve been misled or scammed: you learn more in part 2.
Access links to the 2012 Senate HELP investigation, hearings and reports: https://rly.pt/3esQT7c.
Contact Veterans Education Success: https://rly.pt/2PgUqgl.
Find Military One Source Education Resources: https://rly.pt/3xmfEdM.
Read the “90/10 Loophole Closure Is On its Way to the President’s Desk!”: https://rly.pt/3epPJtb.
Read the DOD Office of Financial Readiness article on how service members can pay for education: https://rly.pt/3ndwKpT.
Read The Century Foundation report, “The Education Department Should Review these Risky Schools”: https://rly.pt/3neVFsS.
Part 2: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l
There is a lot of information out there on using your education benefits once you leave the military. But what if you want to get a jump on your education and training while you’re still serving? Which choice of schools is right for you?
“The most important thing you can do is choose your school up front very carefully,” said Aniela Szymanski, senior director for Legal Affairs and Military Policy at Veterans Education Success, a nonpartisan group that advocates for military-connected and Veteran students.
This is excellent advice whether you’re pursuing an education as a service member or Veteran. But if you’re in the military, there are important differences to consider in benefits, legal protections, service rules and other areas as you navigate the decision process.
Even though the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) screens and requires each school to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) before they are allowed to accept DOD Tuition Assistance (TA) dollars, that doesn’t mean they are all the same.
DOD’s list includes institutions from the public, nonprofit and for-profit sector. Most analysts would agree that the former two types of institutions tend to produce better student outcomes. But for-profits can be viable options, provided they meet your college and career goals and, based on the data, live up to their promises to you.
It’s true that some for-profit education institutions with large service member and Veteran populations have been fined, settled with or been shuttered by federal or state regulators, according to a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee report begun in 2012 and updated in 2015. Reasons for these sanctions included aggressive recruitment and debt-collection practices, falsification of job placement data and issuance of predatory loans.
A recently passed American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes a provision designed to close a legal loophole that allowed some of these abuses to take place, but it doesn’t take effect until 2023.
You can also find more than a few public and nonprofit institutions on the U.S. Department of Education’s “heightened cash monitoring” list, which means they face some type of risk of failure.
To help service members evaluate education institutions and their offerings right now, we review available benefits and services and pose key questions you can consider before choosing a school. (In part II: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l, take advantage of free resources to verify school offerings, prepare to apply and get legal services if you think you’ve been misled or scammed.)
Review Military Tuition Assistance Benefits and Ask Key Questions
1. Know which benefits and services are available. DOD-approved benefits and programs are available to further your professional and personal goals. As noted, DOD both screens schools and provides you with TA to apply toward a degree. Here’s a summary of DOD benefits and military services:
DOD Tuition Assistance (TA): DOD TA is generally available to eligible service members at a rate of $250 per semester hour, capped at $4,500 per year. You can apply TA to in-person or virtual classes. However, check with your service branch and installation education counselors for eligibility rules and procedures, and see information below on factors involved in selecting the best school.
Tuition Assistance Top-Up: If the school you want to attend is more than the DOD TA cap, you could qualify for Top-Up assistance. However, as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) notes on its website, use of this program could consume your post-military GI Bill benefits. “You’ll want to think carefully about your situation before applying for benefits through this program,” VA says. VA recommends that you talk with your education counselor and use its GI Bill Comparison Tool to determine the best course of action. Details: https://rly.pt/3tQON7G.
Community college and in-state tuition rates: You may not need to tap into much of your DOD TA or any Top-Up assistance if you explore learning options available through the many community colleges on DOD’s list. Community colleges are generally state-accredited and provide course credits that are generally easy to transfer to a state public or private university later, Szymanski said. Keep in mind that if you’re on active duty, you’re also eligible for the in-state tuition rate at public colleges and universities in the state where you live or are permanently stationed.
Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES): This DOD service provides military members across the U.S. Armed Forces with free education and career-planning programs. “Our programs can help military members at every stage of their military career, from coming out of basic training and your tech school all the way through till your transition,” said Erin Roberts, a DANTES public affairs official, during a recent webinar reviewing some of these learning services. Details: https://rly.pt/3sGd13f
Service education counselors. Obtain advice on your education and career pathway from an education counselor through your service branch. Details: Find one at https://rly.pt/3nfjXmB.
2. Key questions on school selection. “If you’re a student,” Szymanski said, “you want the most money going to your education as possible.” But picking and choosing from among DOD’s 2,500 screened institutions, which offer programming at 9,425 locations, is not easy. Ask these questions as you compare and contrast schools and offerings:
How much money is the school spending on instruction? Veterans Education Success looked at this question in a 2019 report, “Should Colleges Spend the GI Bill on Veterans’ Education or Late Night TV Ads?” The report found a bundle of 10 schools getting the most Post-9/11 GI Bill tuition and fees since that program was created. Three of the 10 schools with most of the funding, the report found, spent 15% or less of your tuition and fees on instruction, concentrating spending on telemarketing and advertising to service members and Veterans. Details: Review the findings at https://rly.pt/3sGden3.
Is the school at risk of failure? See if the school you’re considering is on that Education Department heightened cash monitoring (HCM) list. That could mean it’s facing loss of accreditation, has financing issues or is at risk of another regulatory compliance issue. In a comparison of just the first 25 institutions on the DOD “screened” list and the HCM list, three schools appeared on both. Details: Compare your school lists at https://rly.pt/3epOVEF and https://rly.pt/32ItLfG.
Is the school facing law enforcement action? Veterans Education Success tracks which schools are subject to law enforcement action for predatory behavior and which schools are subject to repeat law enforcement settlements. Details: See https://rly.pt/3sLktKm and https://rly.pt/3sK7tol.
Which type of accreditation or licensure criteria does the school have? It’s important to check that when you graduate, you’ll be eligible to work and study in your field. Most agree that employers prefer to see degrees from schools with regional versus national accreditation; however, DOD accepts schools with both types of accreditation. Federal law does require schools participating in the DOD TA program to meet state licensure or certification requirements. Details: For more on this topic, see the report at https://rly.pt/3epeNk0.
Do you need a student loan? If you’re in the service and otherwise eligible, you can receive $4,500 from the military per year toward higher education. If a school is asking to take a loan out in your name, it’s a “red flag,” Szymanski said. To keep watch on all student loans opened in your name, Szymanski recommended creating an account at https://rly.pt/3ng4aUK and checking it often. “Be vigilant,” she said. Details: Read about your federal student loan benefits and rights at https://rly.pt/3dIySTa.
Learn more
In part II of this article: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l, take advantage of free resources to verify school offerings, prepare to apply and find legal services if you’ve been misled or scammed: you learn more in part 2.
Access links to the 2012 Senate HELP investigation, hearings and reports: https://rly.pt/3esQT7c.
Contact Veterans Education Success: https://rly.pt/2PgUqgl.
Find Military One Source Education Resources: https://rly.pt/3xmfEdM.
Read the “90/10 Loophole Closure Is On its Way to the President’s Desk!”: https://rly.pt/3epPJtb.
Read the DOD Office of Financial Readiness article on how service members can pay for education: https://rly.pt/3ndwKpT.
Read The Century Foundation report, “The Education Department Should Review these Risky Schools”: https://rly.pt/3neVFsS.
Part 2: https://rly.pt/3nwLa4l
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