An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Changes to military tuition assistance

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Joshua Eikren
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  On Oct. 1 the Military Tuition Assistance made some changes in the way the Education Center and Airmen do business.

The major changes MilTA went through were: increased supervisor involvement in the approval process, higher minimum grades for courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and changes to MilTA submission deadlines.

"Education is what keeps our Airmen and our Air Force at the leading edge of change," said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Cody in a recent article about MilTA in Fiscal Year 2015. "This is a valuable benefit that Airmen have a responsibility to manage, whether it's keeping their GPA up or meeting all the deadlines for applications."

Eligibility requirements for MilTA will remain the same, except for students with active suspenses, such as incompletes or other pending reimbursement actions, who will be ineligible until those suspenses are closed.

Airmen who are approved to receive MilTA may still receive up to $4,500 per fiscal year and a maximum of $250 per semester hour, but will now have a cap of up to 124 semester hours allowed for undergraduate program and 42 semester hours for graduate level courses (some restrictions apply for the undergraduate and graduate caps). This change affects all current and future MilTA users.

"The emphasis is on the Airmen being accountable for his or her education," said Deborah Lewis, 375th Force Support Squadron Lead Education Technician. "All the educational tools that are necessary for the Airmen to manage [their] education are available on the Air Force Virtual Education Center."

Along with eligibility changes, acceptable grade requirements were updated. The Airmen must now make a "C" or better in undergraduate classes and a "B" or better in graduate courses.

The window for MilTA requests will be limited to no earlier than 45 and no later than seven days prior to the start of the academic term.

Additionally, Airmen must obtain approval for their educational goals from their academic institution.

"Every potential MilTA user must understand that there will be more challenges to last minute school enrollment decisions," said Roland Smith, 375th FSS Education Manager. "Students will be required to plan ahead at least 60-days prior to starting school if using MilTA. In actuality this recommended timeline is still much shorter than civilian student, who in the vast majority of cases, start planning school options 1-2 years out."

All new MilTA users and those who haven't taken any classes in the past year are required to have face-to-face counseling with an education advisor prior to receiving MilTA, but all students are encouraged to meet with education advisors and review the updated Air Force instruction to ensure they are familiar with all the changes to the program.

"The Scott AFB Education Office staff goal is provide program awareness far enough in advance so that students have the tools needed to make sound educational decisions through better planning and use of MilTA, and all educational benefits available," said Smith. "In order to accomplish our goal we have increased the number of initial and refresher counseling briefings to ensure military members obtain the education tools needed. We continue with 'quick start' counseling for walk-in, telephone and email and finally, we want to encourage members to make appointments with education counselors far enough out to ensure best chance of seamless integration of their education plans."

The Air Force Credentialing Opportunities Online, or AF COOL, is another program that has been added and will take the place of the MilTA certification program for enlisted and total-force Airmen seeking certifications.

Airmen who are currently enrolled in a certification program funded through MilTA will have one year to complete their program. Enlisted Airmen submitting new applications through AF COOL will be able to apply for certifications based on their duty Air Force specialty code, with a lifetime cap of $4,500. Senior NCOs are also eligible for leadership and management credentialing programs within the lifetime cap. Funding for the program is currently scheduled to begin in January 2015. However, the website is currently fully functional.

The Education Center is continuing to assist Airmen in their future education endeavors and wants to remind everyone that even though a military member is not going to school, the odds are someone they supervise is or will be, said Smith. The military student and their supervisors should definitely review the training and tutorials on AFVEC.

"Awareness of the MilTA changes will enable military students to adequately plan and prepare to optimize their use of MilTA to subsidize their voluntary education objectives," said Smith. "When students integrate the new rules into their education planning it enables their seamless continuation of their education while taking full advantages of Air Force Military Tuition Assistance."