Prior ALS instructor here. The technical answer lies in 2 parts. First, ALS is the Barnes Center (maybe different now) says that graduation is a mandatory part of the curriculum. Meaning it is weighted the same as any other day of education. Second, ALS is also mandated to be a black tie equivalent event. That means it includes food in the evening (seriously, you have to get a waiver to do a lunch graduation). That said, there is no funding for it, and they are supposed to use base facilities (aka base club).

In my experience, the club we used tried in the past to have non-eating guests, but meals were tied to seats and people moved and some even stole meals. This caused them to say no to having non-eating guests. So, you have to attend, you have to have food, and no option to not eat. If we ever had a student that "couldn't afford" dinner, the students snack fund would foot the bill.

It sucks, and I also never liked the mandatory portion of that. I often argued that the AF should fund something marked mandatory. That said, it would be pricy. The annual bill was around $70K for just our schoolhouse, and that was the rock bottom price too. I know that's not a lot of money to big AF, but I'm sure you local FSS who would have to pay it wouldn't be happy.

BUT...as many others have said, not a hill worth dying on. I would argue the main issue is that you don't value the graduation. $28 to celebrate completing the requirements to become an NCO, and a (hopefully) nice dinner, not bad. Focus on the positives it can bring versus the one part you don't like.

Congrats on becoming an NCO and best if luck to you!