Hoeven Presses Air Guard to Provide Tuition Assistance Benefits

Senator John Hoeven today pressed the Air National Guard to provide federal tuition assistance similar to benefits provided by the Army Guard. This is part of the senator’s efforts to ensure that Guard members have access to educational benefits to meet their needs after cost increases forced the North Dakota National Guard to modify its tuition assistance program. 

Currently, National Guard forces that deploy become eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits. While the Army National Guard provides a tuition assistance benefit separate from the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Air National Guard does not provide comparable tuition assistance.

“Guard members often use post-9/11 GI bill benefits to pay for their education, and members of the Army National Guard also have access to Federal Tuition Assistance to pay for school. Unfortunately, to date, the Air National Guard does not provide a similar tuition benefit for its airmen. North Dakota seeks to cover costs not covered by federal benefits, but the disparity between the Army and Air Guard education benefits creates a strain on the state’s tuition assistance program,” Hoeven wrote in a letter to Lieutenant General L. Scott Rice, Director of the Air National Guard.