A One-Day Difference – Inside Higher Ed
A Trump administration policy could deny education benefits to National Guard members helping states fight the coronavirus. Criticism mounts of plan to end deployment after 89 days instead of the 90 required for eligibility.
The way retired Brigadier General J. Roy Robinson sees it, one of the primary draws for young people to join the National Guard is the opportunity to go to college using tuition benefits provided by the federal government. Many National Guard members see the benefits as recognition of and appreciation for their service during times of crisis.
But members currently on active duty assisting states in responding to the coronavirus pandemic may fall short of qualifying for federal tuition and retirement benefits because of a Trump administration decision to end some members’ deployment just one day shy of the 90 days of federal service required.
The federal deployments are set to end June 24. If the Trump administration sticks to this cutoff date, it will have a negative impact on some Guard members’ ability to begin or complete their college education, said Robinson, who is president of the National Guard Association of the United States, or NGAUS, an advocacy organization that serves mostly officers in the National Guard.