"For the first time, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is considering major changes to the military survivor and dependent tuition waiver to offset millions of dollars in lost revenue for Virginia colleges.

Virginia’s Military Survivor and Dependent Education Program provides a tuition waiver to spouses and children of veterans who are killed, missing in action, taken prisoner or at least 90% permanently disabled as a result of military service or combat. The program also provides up to a $2,200 annual stipend to offset the costs of room, board, books and supplies for qualified survivors and dependents of military service members.

Hampton Roads universities, and others across the state, have been forced to absorb the lost revenue or spread the cost of the waiver to other students, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia said in its state budget recommendations.

“The program has represented lost tuition revenue for the institutions since inception but was largely manageable until the last few years when growth ranged between 43% to 62% year-over-year for four consecutive years and is projected to continue to grow,” said Lee Andes, interim director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

To combat this, the higher education council secured $20 million per year from lawmakers in the two-year budget bill that is meant to offset institutions’ loss of revenue from the military survivor and dependent program. Additional reforms proposed by the state agency could limit eligibility to undergraduate Virginia students to slow the growth and rising costs of the program.

The estimated cost of the program’s tuition waivers has nearly quadrupled, from $12 million in 2019 to $46.3 million in 2022, according to the council. Current projections show the lost tuition revenue will likely grow to over $190 million by 2026," reports the Virginian Pilot.

Photo: (AP Photo/Steve Helber)