On the 3 Rivers Battalion FB page it says that as of 5pm today the Army has suspended future tuition assistance. What does this mean and does it affect scholarships?
Here is an article from the Army Times.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2013/03/army-army-to-suspend-tuition-assistance-030813
I do not believe you will see any impact to the scholarships already given. It looks like the Tuition Assistance that has been suspended is what the enlisted and officers use for continuing education while serving. It also looks like the GI Bill is not effected by this.
I guess the BIG question now would be in light of these cuts, will they also cut the number of scholarships from the final board in March, it would seem like the next logical step. Also in question will be whether any Campus AROTC Scholarships will be available. In some way it would seem hard to justify new scholarships in light of the cuts to all other Tuition Assistance, but then again we are talking about the Military, so anything is possible.
From the wording in the article, funds from the National Guard may still be available, whether this will impact the current SMP cadets is unknown based on what is written. I'm sure more information will come out soon.
It sure does not seem to setting well with the current soldiers, recruiting will most likely take a hit since there is now one less tool in their toolbox.
Soldiers will now have to start using their GI Bill once they become eligible for any further education, not entirely a bad thing from a budget perspective if that education is for college credits.
Continuing education is a big plus for promotion, without the tuition assistance many enlisted will have to struggle until they are eligible for the GI Bill. This could have an effect of promotion points for a lot of soldiers.
It also seems that the tuition assistance for Masters degrees is being cut as well, those officer reaching O-3 that thought they would be able to apply for the Masters Program and receive the assistance may be out of luck.
It will be very interesting to see how this effects retention. The military has said that because of such a high retention they would need to RIF some soldiers that don't want to leave, this may have just made their job a little easier.
Over the past few weeks the Army has been fairly quiet when it came to cuts as a result of the Sequester compared to the other services, I guess that has changed. Now we all have to wait for the other shoe to drop.
Seems to me they could just cancel the order for the 300 new tanks the Army doesn't want to help fund the tuition assistance program, but hey, that's just me thinking out loud.
Here is the link to the GoArmyED site with the official announcement.
https://www.goarmyed.com/public/public_display_news.aspx?news_id=1670&type=5
They mention the National Guard in this statement, just have to wait and see how this impacts the SMP Cadets. It does sound like those using State Tuition Assistance through the National Guard may be ok, only time will tell.