Military tuition assistance programs have become yet another casualty of the government shutdown.
The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force have all notified their respective members that tuition assistance has been suspended for classes beginning on or after October 1.
Kimberly Yates of the Air Force development office said in a news release:
“Airmen with approved TA for FY14 may incur debt with their school should they attend classes. Students should take action to withdraw from their current class or pursue using another funding source, such as the Montgomery GI Bill or the Post 9/11 GI Bill.”
The Army's tuition assistance website, GoArmyEd.com, has posted the following statement:
[T]he Army will not be able to honor all of the FY14 TA requests that have been requested in GoArmyEd prior to 1 October 2013 with a class start date of 1 October or after. GoArmyEd will reject all approved and pending TA requests for classes scheduled to start on or after 1 October 2013 until either a budget or a CR is approved by Congress and signed by the President.
The Marine Corps Times reports the Corps will not process any new tuition assistance applications until the government is back up and running:
That creates potential difficulties for some Marines, especially those who attend schools with classes scheduled to start in mid-October.
And lastly, Vice Adm. Bill Moran wrote on the official Navy blog:
"Tuition Assistance funding for those classes starting after Oct. 1 will not be available until next fiscal year once funding is released."
This is not the first time the military's tuition assistance programs have taken a hit because of budget troubles. Last March budget cuts due to sequestration suspended tuition assistance programs for the Army, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
Here's a little more info from the Navy on TA suspension:
