Members of the National Guard may see a significant decrease in their tuition at Arizona universities if House Bill 2352 passes.
The bill would allow members of the National Guard to receive employee tuition at any Arizona university if the member has exhausted all of his or her federal benefits. Employees of ASU pay the same as in-state tuition for semesters where they take 10 or more credits, according to ASU.
For employees who take nine or less credits, their fee is $25. If HB 2352 were to pass, National Guard members who are not already in-state would receive these same benefits.
Rep. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) introduced the bill which went through the House Military, Veteran and Regulatory Affairs Committee on Monday.
Currently, there are 182 members of the National Guard enrolled at ASU, according to Steven Borden, the director of ASU’s Pat Tillman Veterans Center.
Out-of-state undergraduate tuition, in 2016-17 at one of the four main campuses, is $26,470. These fees are based on a 12-credit class schedule. In-state tuition is $10,370, meaning that if HB 2352 passes, National Guard members at ASU could see their tuition rates drop by more than $16,000.
For National Guard members taking less than nine credits, their tuition cost can drop nearly $5,000.
Terry Hill, legislative officer for the Veterans of Foreign Wars department of Arizona, spoke to the committee in favor of the bill. Hill said he exhausted all of his benefits and was unable to get more from the federal government to pay for more of school.
“So representing the 25,000 members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in this state, we support this bill," Hill said.
Travis Schulte, the legislative policy administrator for the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, said that 7,700 National Guard members would benefit from this bill.
Assistant Vice President of Government Affairs at the Arizona Board of Regents, Kody Kelleher, spoke on behalf of ABOR to oppose the bill. Kelleher said while ABOR appreciates the effort to try to ensure the affordability of higher education for National Guard members, HB 2352 could potentially raise tuition costs at universities.
“Our universities often try do everything they can to try to apply credits in a variety of ways to make sure that the financial benefits provided by the federal government for our veterans are maximized,” Kelleher said. “I am here in opposition to the bill, not so much for the spirit of it but at the end of the day when we provide different tuition discounts through legislation we are essentially passing the costs on to other students.”’
Kelleher pointed out that HB 2091, passed in 2015, provides the same tuition waivers but that the funding is not being provided to offset the cost of those waivers, which is why they are not currently provided.
Reach the reporter at maatenci@asu.edu or follow @mitchellatencio on Twitter.
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