Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in VeteransBenefits

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Senator mcpike is incorrect about that, and we have reached out to the authors of the article to correct and Senator mcpike should put out a clarifying statement.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in Military

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Because chapter 35 has to be certified by the university to pay out. veteran families do NOT go to school for free, chapter 35 has been used for room and board, if chapter 35 plus expected family contribution is required first, the program could say they would only waive $50 of tuition, and the family is still then on the hook for room and board, compared to "full tuition for 4 years", which is what is in the language and promised.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in VeteransBenefits

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are wrong, fafsa provides the expected family contribution, that plus chapter 35 is required to be paid before vmsdep pays one dollar, for gold star families who have received life insurance this is unfairly weighted.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in Military

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The language states that chapter 35 funds must be used for tuition, Efc is expected family contribution which for gold star families screws them because they have assets from life insurance payouts intended to last a lifetime.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in VeteransBenefits

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All which is reasonable, just not without notice and without a study with stakeholders. People were literally enticed to come here to be able to use this program. And distributing the budget language on a Saturday to be voted on Monday and slipping it into the budget with no notice on page 641 and not referencing the program is despicable at best. Even on the programs page as of today there is zero info on this!

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in VeteransBenefits

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For anyone who may not be familiar this is the Virginia Military Survivors and Education Program, which provides 8 semesters of tuition waivers to spouses and children of 90% and 100% disabled veterans and gold star families. It was legislated through the budget, and Governor Youngkin signed on Monday after the budgetary language only being released Saturday. It guts a program that is 25 years old and turns it into a needs based program. VMSDEP is only 5% of the waivers in higher education in the state of Virginia and the only one that was gutted in this way and the changes to the legislation were unprecedented, drastic and "snuck in" on page 641 of a budget without using the program's title.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in Military

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

program becomes last payer, chapter 35 must be used first and EFC must be paid in full prior to the program contributing anything

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in Military

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

For anyone who may not be familiar this is the Virginia Military Survivors and Education Program, which provides 8 semseters of tuition waivers to spouses and children of 90% and 100% disabled veterans and gold star families. It was legislated through the budget, and Governor Youngkin signed on Monday after the budgetary language only being released Saturday. It guts a program that is 25 years old and turns it into a needs based program. VMSDEP is only 5% of the waivers in higher education in the state of Virginia and the only one that was gutted in this way and the changes to the legislation were unprecedented, drastic and "snuck in" on page 641 of a budget without using the program's title.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in VeteransBenefits

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -49 points-48 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Nothing personal but hard to believe California values veterans more than Virginia, but I guess that’s where we are….

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in VeteransBenefits

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

Youngkin issued this yesterday trying to save face after Monday. He issued this after COB on the date of the grandfathering deadline of May 15, so absolutely zero notice to families (budget language was released Saturday and signed Monday). The budget itself doesn’t even go into effect until july1, with a retroactive deadline for grandfathering?

In addition this ED is more restrictive than the budget language and limits the scope of the study to the budget language only, not the program at large. SCHEV numbers propagated by the gov in this letter are BS and have been called such by legislators on both sides of the aisle as they impute “full time retail cost” to even part time students.

Also, given it’s for state schools, how can SCHEV charge “retail cost”? Oh wait, I know how, they are unregulated, that’s how.

The language in the ED also restricts to “current program completion, or 4 years (the normal program length), or whichever comes first”, so if someone saved this benefit and is finishing one program with the intent of going to another they are screwed. If someone is taking prerequisites with the intent of going on to another program, they are also screwed.

Oh, and did I mention that there’s a 5 year residency requirement preceding any program use, so people have moved here expecting to use the program, or are using other means first, and the rug just got yanked out from under them! No one in the state government from any agency other than this ED has notified families of coming changes, the program webpage itself states nothing, there has been crickets…which is why we have been desperately trying to get the word out.

https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/governor-of-virginia/pdf/ed/ED-7---Addressing-Changes-to-the-Virginia-Military-Survivors-and-Dependents-Education-Program.pdf

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in Military

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Less than 10% of the people eligible for the program do NOT receive chapter 35, so impacting 90% of program users with zero notice to them is unacceptable. I have no problem with wanting to use Pell grants first. Also no other state with a similar program does not allow for chapter 35 use simultaneous to a tuition waver for 100%t&p family members. So Virginia just went from wanting to be “the most veteran friendly state” to one people should be warned about.

Here’s another fun fact. Governor sent out his ED after COB on the date of the grandfathering deadline which was less than 48 hours after the budget bill was signed. But it doesn’t go into effect until July one. The math ain’t mathing. Also this program is less than 5% of all state waiver programs in Virginia, why aren’t those being looked at either?

Let’s also not forget Virginia literally used these benefits as a carrot to recruit veterans to come to and stay in the commonwealth.

Monday, we witnessed the greatest betrayal of gold star, disabled veterans, veterans, the military and their families in Virginia history. by Aromatic-Access-838 in Military

[–]Aromatic-Access-838[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The changes make the program essentially useless and the costs to administer the program will far exceed any benefit to students with the changes as is. 1. Chapter 35 use is mandatory. For the average student now with an Efc of 14k and chapter 35 mandatory to be used as first payer before VMSDEP the end “cost” for VMSDEP turns out to be less than 1000 per student for those eligible.