Tuition Addition…and Subtraction
As a result of the Sequestration, several branches of the Military, including the Army and Marine Corps have suspended the Tuition Assistance (TA) program. At the exact same time this was being announced, both New York and Colorado were in the process of submitting and/or approving legislation that will lower tuition rates for illegal immigrant students. These two states are joining a list of other states, including Massachusetts and Texas, that offer reduced, or in some cases, free tuition through scholarship funds to “undocumented students”.
Well, this makes perfect sense, right? Punish the hard-working young men and women who have volunteered to fight for this country, sacrificing everything so we can appreciate the finer things in life, like a higher education. And reward the young men and women who are here illegally, possibly through no fault of their own, but here illegally, nonetheless.
The sad thing is this does make perfect sense to the Obama Administration. Make the Sequestration as painful as possible. Make it seem unimaginable. Once again pander to the left, and try to “buy” votes. And once again, hurting the members of the military, who tend to vote Republican. And colleges and universities across the country fall in line, typical of their history of discrimination against students in the military.
Last October, according to FoxNews.com, The University of North Carolina denied in-state tuition to Hayleigh Perez, an Iraqi veteran because she left the state for a brief amount of time, to join her husband, also in the military, who was stationed in Texas. Sgt. Jason Thigpen, founder and president of the Student Veterans Advocacy Group, which is helping Perez make an appeal to the school, said nearly 250,000 other student veterans nationwide have been forced to pay out-of-pocket while using their G.I. Bill due to “adverse and short-sighted changes our federal government made.”
It all comes down to one simple premise – addition and subtraction. Adding tuition assistance to those who richly deserve it, and subtracting it from those who do not.
Unfortunately, this Administration got it all wrong.
Written by Debby Wolf
