Posted on Apr 23, 2020
Should the TA limit be raised or gotten rid of all together?
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Should the Tuition Assistance cap be removed to allow individuals to complete their degrees faster? I have maxed my TA each year by March meaning I either use my GI bill to cover the other courses, or I sit around and wait until October to take more classes.
Is there a better solution to this problem?
Is there a better solution to this problem?
Tuition assistance
Education
College
GI Bill
Bachelors Degree
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 19
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The whole purpose of the TA limit is to prevent people from knocking out their degrees quickly and leaving the Army. A few years ago, there were even more restrictions like new Soldiers has to wait a year and people getting Masters degrees had to wait even longer. It's the same reason you can't transfer your GI Bill until you have six years in and you have to add four more. It's all about retention incentives. A few years ago when the Army was downsizing, the TA became more restrictive. When the Army started growing again, it became more permissive. When I joined the Army in the 90s during the Era of Bill Clinton and the massive reduction in military end strength, TA only payed for 75% of your class. You had to pay for it out of pocket up front and get reimbursed on the backside. Nearly impossible for a barracks E4 making $600 a month. By the time the Iraq war was surging, TA in the Army and the Reserves grown to pay 100% of everything up front.
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SP5 Howard Moore
SFC Kelly Fuerhoff - it wasn't just one shitty leader there were several in their little clic they were west pointers they had a very low opinon of ROTC officers I woud have had to go to brigade level to get away from them
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SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
SP5 Howard Moore - Ok and? You could have gone to brigade. Or dealt with it til you PCSed. Not every leader looks down on people who are trying to get college done while serving. In fact, the attitude has greatly shifted at least from Big Army about soldiers getting college in and using TA. There may still be some who don't want to encourage soldiers to use TA to get a degree, but they seem to be the minority these days.
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SP5 Howard Moore
At that point i was disgusted with the service and the politics involved and elected to get out
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SMSgt Bob W.
The civilian public calls it "budgeting" government funds. Let me see, you want NO limits on Tuition Assistance so you can get your degree; once you have it, you leave the military and USE the GI Bill to continue your education on the public's dime. Do I have this correct? REMEMBER: Both programs are meant to assist you in getting what you want. You both of them to reach your goal.
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I was in the same boat in using TA to pursue my Masters. I’d love to see the limit loosened a bit to allow soldiers the opportunity to complete degrees at a quicker pace. However, it’s hard to argue the TA limit due to the fact that it’s essentially free money you are getting to complete a degree without necessarily having to tap into your GI Bill.
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That's a good point. Should it be an option to instead calculate your cost over 4 years and then let you use it as you as you see fit?
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SSG (Join to see)
That actually makes sense, or get a cost estimate directly from the school and use that to set the limit.
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SFC (Join to see)
That's actually a pretty great idea. Of course, the Army would be concerned about a Soldier taking it all at once and then getting kicked out on purpose. But a great workaround would be an agreement that a Soldier is able to use all their TA available to their ETS date and if they get kicked out they would pay back the portion they didn't own. Similar to a bonus.
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MAJ Byron Oyler
SSG (Join to see) - Problem is colleges are going full on bat shit crazy with what they charge and if you offer them government money like this, it would get worse. We need to reel in the colleges in what they charge.
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